Don’t Know What to Post About Your Book? Start With the Book.
One of the most common frustrations I hear from authors about marketing is surprisingly simple:
I don't know what to post.
They've been told they need to build a platform. They need to be active on social media. They need a newsletter. They need content.
So they sit down, open Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, or whatever platform they've decided they're supposed to be using and stare at an empty box.
What am I supposed to say?
I think part of the problem is that authors are starting in the wrong place.
Instead of asking what you should post, start with the book you already spent months or years creating.
There is an entire world behind it.
Your Book Didn't Begin on Publication Day
By the time readers encounter a finished book, an extraordinary amount has already happened.
There was an idea.
Something made you pay attention to it.
Maybe you couldn't stop thinking about a character. Maybe you experienced something you needed to understand. Maybe you knew something professionally that you wanted other people to know. Maybe you saw a problem and believed you had something useful to contribute.
Then came the writing.
The research.
The pages that worked and the pages that didn't.
The things you discovered along the way.
The decisions you made.
The things you changed.
The things you cut.
The moments when you wondered whether the book would ever be finished.
Readers see the finished book.
Marketing gives you an opportunity to invite them into everything surrounding it.
Tell Readers Where the Book Came From
Think back to the beginning.
Where were you when the idea arrived?
Why did this particular idea stay with you?
Why did you decide it deserved an entire book rather than an article, a conversation, a journal entry, or something you simply kept to yourself?
Those are interesting questions.
And your answers don't have to sound promotional because they're not promotional.
They're true.
If I connect with a book, I become curious about the person who created it. I want to know where the idea came from. I want to know what influenced the writer. I want to understand what existed before the finished work landed in my hands.
That's human curiosity.
Give readers somewhere to take it.
Fiction Writers Have an Entire World to Share
If you write fiction, think about everything readers never see.
How did your characters first appear to you?
Did any of them change dramatically during the writing?
Did a minor character become more important than you expected?
Was there a character you eventually had to remove?
Did the ending change?
Were there scenes you loved that simply didn't belong in the finished manuscript?
What inspired the setting?
What did you research to make the world believable?
Think of those as the deleted scenes, behind-the-scenes material, and origin stories surrounding your book.
If readers become attached to the world you've created, some of them will absolutely want more of it.
You don't have to invent marketing content.
You've already created it.
Nonfiction Authors Have More to Share Than Advice
The same principle applies to nonfiction.
Why did you write about this subject?
Perhaps it grew out of your profession. Perhaps something happened in your own life. Perhaps you've spent years watching people struggle with a problem and wanted to offer a different way of thinking about it.
Don't reduce all of that experience to a stream of tips.
Tell us what you've seen.
Tell us what changed your thinking.
Tell us what people misunderstand about your subject.
Tell us about the question someone asked you that you couldn't stop thinking about.
Tell us what you believed ten years ago that you no longer believe today.
Tell us what you hope someone does differently after reading your book.
Your expertise is part of the story.
So is your curiosity.
Memoirists Can Talk About the Meaning Behind the Story
Memoir requires its own kind of care.
You don't owe the internet every detail of your life simply because you've written about part of it.
The book itself establishes boundaries.
But there are still meaningful conversations that can grow from the work.
Why did you decide to tell this story?
Why now?
What did writing it help you understand?
What do you hope readers take from your experience?
Was there something about remembering, researching, or reconstructing the past that surprised you?
Marketing a memoir doesn't have to mean continually exposing yourself.
It can mean continuing the conversation the book was written to begin.
Poets Can Share the World Around the Words
Poetry may seem particularly difficult to market because the work itself can be so personal and distilled.
But poetry also has a rich world surrounding it.
What inspired a poem?
What place were you writing about?
What image stayed with you?
What writers influenced you?
What did you notice that made you reach for a notebook?
What themes keep returning across your work?
Sometimes a reader wants to know what existed around those few carefully chosen words.
Let them in.
Children's Authors Can Extend the Experience
Children's books create still another set of possibilities.
What inspired the character?
Is there something children can look for in the illustrations?
What conversations can parents have with their children after reading?
Is there a real place, person, animal, experience, or question behind the story?
Can children draw something, imagine an alternate ending, or tell you what they think happens next?
A book doesn't always have to end when the cover closes.
Marketing can extend the experience of reading it.
Stop Trying to Feed the Algorithm
This is where I think authors can give themselves permission to stop making marketing so complicated.
You don't have to begin every week wondering what an algorithm wants from you.
Begin with what you have.
Your book.
Your experience creating it.
Your subject.
Your characters.
Your research.
Your questions.
Your mistakes.
Your discoveries.
Your point of view.
Your readers.
Not every one of those things needs to become a post. Not every moment needs to become content. And certainly not every author needs to share everything.
Choose what feels meaningful.
That's very different from producing content simply because someone told you that you need to post three, five, or seven times a week.
Think Connection, Not Content
Even the word content can make this process feel mechanical.
You're a writer.
You've already spent an enormous amount of time thinking, observing, researching, imagining, questioning, and creating.
So don't ask yourself:
What content do I need to create today?
Ask:
What can I share today that might bring a reader a little closer to the book?
Sometimes that's a story.
Sometimes it's an idea.
Sometimes it's a photograph from your research.
Sometimes it's a character readers haven't met yet.
Sometimes it's a question.
Sometimes it's something another reader said that opened an entirely new conversation for you.
And sometimes you don't need to post anything at all.
The goal isn't to keep feeding a platform.
The goal is to keep creating opportunities for genuine connection between you, your work, and the people who might care about it.
You already have more to talk about than you think.
Start with the book.
Continue the Conversation
Thank you for reading this blog post.
If you're writing, publishing, or thinking about what comes next for your book, there are several ways to continue exploring:
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