How to Finally Stop Overthinking Your Marketing and Just Post the Damn Video

You don’t need a better strategy. You just need to stop hesitating and start posting.

Okay so to recap, so far we’ve talked about:

• how to get clear on your goals and write a killer hook

• how to build and utilize an email list

• the two simple video styles that helped me hit over 600k followers

• getting in the right headspace for marketing (the #1 key to success)

• how to structure a preorder campaign and get preorders

• how to grow your community through relatable/shareable content

And that’s all well and good but in a recent poll from one of my posts I asked:

The highest answer?

Not knowing what to post or when.

Now, when you become a paid subscriber you get my 30 day content calendar free in your welcome email. That’s one post a day with suggested copy and video style already prepped for you. But that might not work for everyone. Maybe you need a clear, actionable list. Maybe you work well with directions instead of wiggle room. So, LFG baby. Because my number one goal here on Substack is to help you sell more books through social media. And you know what doesn’t sell books? SILENCE. I’m sorry, but how the hell are people going to find your book if you’re too worried about over posting to actually talk about it?!

Now look, I’m an encourager, I’m a head in the clouds, woo woo manifesting positive affirmations girlie who just wants to cheer you on and tell you you’re doing such a good job. But sometimes we need a little push, a little clarity, so that’s what this post is all about.

Remember, going viral ain’t the goal. Repetition is. Stop spending two hours trying to make the perfect aesthetic video. THAT IS NOT REPEATABLE. Spend two minutes filming, writing out copy, and posting the goddamn video and then get back to writing!

Now, let me be perfectly clear. You MUST, I repeat MUST have your hook nailed for what’s to follow. If you don’t, none of this will work. And look, I mean a clear, emotionally resonant hook. Don’t be afraid to use comp titles because you’re worried when someone reads it they might not see the connection. THAT IS NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS. You know what is your business? Selling your book. People are always going to shit on your work. That comes with the territory. And honestly? In the words of Taylor Swift: “If you’re saying my name or my album title, you’re helping.” For the people who don’t see the connection, that’s okay, it’s not for them. But for the people who DO see it? Yay.

So when I say a clear, emotionally resonant hook I don’t mean “a swoony romantasy.” THAT IS NOT A HOOK. Those are just words. You must connect them to something stronger, whether that’s a comp title/show/film or something really unique in your plot that’s high concept enough to distill down to a single sentence. Hunger Games is a great example here. “A group of kids are forced to fight to the death in an arena where the rich watch.” Fourth Wing is another great example: “A group of dragon riders at an elite war college where you either graduate or die.” So, if your plot is high concept enough and can be worked into something really hooky like that, great. If not, use those comp titles. You will use this comp title (with very slight variations) every. single. fucking. day this week. My god, it’s going to be burned into your retinas. And that’s exactly what we want.

Okay, whew, sorry for getting a little amped up there. I’m so passionate about all this and so often we just end up getting in our own way, building up these narratives in our heads, and it’s all just a bunch of smoke and mirrors. We have a hard time being perceived but if we can just relinquish the death grip, we can find the freedom to stop giving so many fucks and realize that none of it is that serious anyway, so we might as well do whatever the hell we want.

Now, I’m going to tell you exactly what to post and when for the next seven days. You WILL FOLLOW THIS LIST! You will not think: oh I don’t want to over post! I don’t want people to get annoyed!

STOP PROTECTING PEOPLE FROM YOUR SUCCESS.

You are not responsible for how other people perceive your ambition.
If they think you’re “too much,” they’re not your audience.
If they’re tired of hearing about your book, they weren’t going to buy it anyway.
But the person who is your reader? The one who’s been waiting for a story like yours?
They can’t find you if you keep dimming your light.

You’re going to post THREE TIMES A DAY on each platform you use regularly. This is exposure therapy. This is getting that voice out of your head that’s telling you you can only post if you’re wearing makeup or your background is neat and tidy or the moon is in the seventh house and Jupiter aligns with Mars.

And again, I want to be perfectly clear that if you’re going to do this, DO IT. Follow the directions. Don’t get nervous and think, oh, I’ll just hide the call to action in smaller text or in the comments. Oh I’ll just film…not my face, I’ll film something else instead like…my books. No, no, no. Every day, do the homework. I’m going to set it up for you so it should take you no more than ten minutes a day to post across platforms. And this is with repurposing each post for whatever social media platform you’re using: IG, TT, Threads, Bluesky, X, Substack notes, whatever!

Ready? TRUST THE PROCESS AND LET’S GO.

DO NOT LET THIS TAKE MORE THAN 30 MINUTES. 30 minutes is generous but if this is your first time I know there will be struggles. So, let’s break this down a little because, remember, I’m bossy and you like it.

You’re going to need 14 clips that are 7-9 seconds in length. That’s literally two minutes of video. See what I mean when I say 30 minutes to do this is generous?

Now, we’re showing up raw.
We’re showing up real.
We’re not aesthetic and we don’t care!
(I mean, if you happen to be aesthetic with like a perfectly clean house and matching everything then that’s great and I love that for you but 99% of the time I’m filming in the passenger seat, while walking toward an elevator, or at my laptop and that’s perfectly fine!).

Clip 8: laugh!!!! Like, really laugh! Again, this might feel weird. Oh my god, literally who cares! REMEMBER:

This is what I mean about really envisioning those things about writing and publishing that make you giddy. Think about your readers, about events, about preorders, about that person who messaged you that your book is their new favorite. SHOW THAT EXCITEMENT!
Clip 9: Scream. mwahahahaha. Oh, you hate me don’t you? Okay, you don’t have to scream, but kind of…shout? Again, sound will be off so nobody will actually hear you. But this is to convey the excitement. When YOU are excited, others will share that excitement with you!!!! Put your hands on face, shake your head back and forth, whatever! Literally, take a look at my IG feed because there’s a kajillion examples of this.
Clip 10: Look shocked. Mouth slightly open. Shake your head slowly back and forth like you…just…can’t…believe…this is your life?
Clip 11: Just…smile? Like, whatever feels natural to you. A playful smile? A smirk? I don’t know! You do you, but make it authentic to YOU. Pretend like you’re looking at your best friend across the room after you just made an inappropriate joke only they would get.
Clip 12: Smile some more…laugh, just look at the camera and show some emotion. Some excitement.
Clip 13: More of that
Clip 14: Literally more of that (this is what I mean when I say it shouldn’t take you any more than 30 minutes to film a week’s worth of content - that you can then reuse later by the way!)

A very delightful example of showing up and giving zero fucks because it’s about sharing the journey and nobody really cares about the perfectly curated posts because they honestly just usually feel devoid of emotion or excitement.

I’m going to give you a list of 14 pieces of copy that you can mix and match to any of the above b-roll videos. You’ll notice that none of these are overly long because we know people’s attention spans are short and if they see a giant block of text on screen they’re going to scroll right past it.

1. POV you woke up and remembered you wrote a [insert hook] book and [event ex: it comes out in 27 days, it has 50 GR reviews, etc.) comment [keyword or emoji] for the link

2. Drinking my morning coffee when I realized I’m living my author dream with my [insert hook] book - comment [keyword] to read the first chapter (or whatever incentive you want to offer

3. POV thinking about how obsessed I was with [insert comp titles] so I wrote a book with those vibes - comment [keyword] to preorder (or buy, or sign up for news, etc.)

4. POV you wrote a [insert hook] book and [insert celebratory moment like sold x amount of preorders, ranking on amazon, a great review, ANYTHING POSITIVE!] comment [keyword] if you want to read it!

5. Screaming because I wrote a [insert hook] book and I can’t believe this is real life - comment [keyword] to read!

6. Just a girl (or boy haha) who wanted to read a book that was like [insert hook] so I WROTE ONE and if you comment [keyword] you can get [preorder incentive, first chapter, exclusive excerpt, link to preorder, whatever!)

7. POV in x amount of days your [insert hook] book comes out and you already have [amount of reviews, preorders, adds on GR, something like that] (if the book your promoting is already out, change POV to “POV your book has been out for x amount of days)

8. Once upon a time I dreamed of a book about [insert hook] and then…I WROTE IT! Comment [keyword] for the link!

9. After [insert setback like x amount of rejections, being fired from your job, self-doubt, friends/family doubting you etc.] I finally wrote my [insert hook] book - comment [keyword] if you want to read it!

10. POV you found a book that feels like [insert hook] - comment [keyword] for the title!

11. A round of applause because I wrote a [insert hook] book and here’s a little excerpt [insert down arrow emoji] (put a brief excerpt in the caption]

12. I’m a [insert one of your comp titles] girlie (or boy!) and wanted a book that had the same vibes…so I wrote one! Comment [keyword] to get [incentive of some kind like preorder swag, first chapter free, KU link, giveaway entry, etc.]

13. Rich because I get to live in a world where I wrote a [insert hook] book - comment [keyword] for [link to buy, to read on KU, to preorder, to sign up for news, etc]

14. POV you want to win a copy of my [insert hook] book so you comment [keyword] to enter! (once they comment you can direct them to sign up for your email list so this works even if you’re book isn’t out yet)

So, if you did the math, you’ll see we’re doing 2 selfie style videos per day and one aesthetic video per day. Use the same aesthetic video every single day if you want. Or switch it up to be creative. But do. not. spend more than ten minutes making this aesthetic slideshow video. I stg if you do, you’re wasting time. Again, see the linked post above to see how to make these types of videos and where to source the images!

You’ll be using ANY OF THE ABOVE COPY (with slight variations if you want to get fancy) on the aesthetic videos. Again, ensure you’re adding a low exposure filter to make the text pop.

I personally schedule straight in Instagram instead of using outside app - this is just personal preference. If you have an app, great, use that. But I’ll walk you through scheduling in app:

Upload one of your 7-9 second clips, choose your trending song (if you don’t do this I’ll be mad), throw a low exposure filter over it (trust me), copy and paste some of your copy from your notes, click next.

Scroll down and you’ll see “…more options” - tap that.

Then you’ll see “schedule this reel” - tap that and add the date and time you want to schedule (we’ll get to the posting schedule in a moment) - when you’re done, tap back, and the button at the bottom of your screen will say “schedule” instead of “post” like it normally does.

For Tiktok, you can apparently use TikTok studio to schedule (never done it so can’t help you there but I presume it works the same way. Same for YouTube shorts, you can use YT studio to schedule.)

Every day should look the same.

• Schedule selfie reel one at 5:30am

• Schedule aesthetic reel two at 11:30am

• Schedule selfie reel three at 4:30pm

Import one of your videos, copy and paste your text from notes, schedule, done. Move on to the next.

Don’t worry, you won’t be posting three times a day for eternity. Just this week. Because remember this is exposure therapy. It’s not about getting your feet wet. It’s about diving into the deep end. It’s about posting so often that you become completely desensitized to any fear or paranoia about being perceived. It’s about learning not to care that if you say “comment x for y” and nobody comments, it’s NOT THE END OF THE WORLD!

If you’re on X, Bluesky, or Threads, copy and paste the same copy from your notes to those apps. This takes like ten seconds so you don’t necessarily have to schedule but if opening the app tempts you to scroll, it might be a good idea.

Now, you’ve front loaded a SHIT TON of content. Twenty one pieces of content (more if you’re using X, Bluesky, or Threads). And you know what the great thing is? You can keep reusing it. I mean yes, keep filming some new content. But when you’re tired, don’t want to film, aren’t feeling creative, whatever? You have a whole catalog of content to pull from!

The very best part though is that all the guess work is taken out of it. You know exactly what to post and when. You just have to follow the directions. And because you’re batching content and scheduling, this frees you up to focus on writing and other tasks!

Take some of that copy and turn it into shareable, relatable meme a la the below post (tap on it and swipe to see the second slide so you can see what I mean). Do it in Canva. Use the anaktoria font like I do if you want. Use whatever color background matches your vibe.

Okay, that’s pretty much it. Join the subscriber chat below if you haven’t already and I’ll be posting a thread in there where you can ask questions, speak your reservations, and post any fun results! Although, again, this is less about vanity metrics and more about learning easy, consistent content that’s repeatable!

And as a quick note, I just want to say a huge THANK YOU for being here! I love talking about this stuff and having this community is so amazing!