Things I am learning as an indie writer

I was soooooo excited and nervous as the anticipated publication date approached. And also, there were so many little steps that were almost final? but not quite final? And some months ago, because plane fare is expensive and I wanted to get summer and fall travel planned and I was already going to Calgary in October for Bouchercon 2026 , I got optimistic and booked a trip to Edmonton and Yellowknife in August.

But all along, way back, my Friesen Press (FP) professionals were very clear about not committing to things like readings and launches until I had the book in my hand. And I have LOVED my experience with FP, don’t get me wrong. I am so happy I chose this route of working with them instead of doing the fully self-publishing thing. Just look at that cover! Those bookmarks! The editorial process was so great with them. But I chose to be more optimistic than they were about when I would have the books in my hand. And, well, August events will be pushed back, which is fine - the flights were refundable (I’m not THAT optimistic), and I hadn’t actually booked events.

The reason for the delay is that I’ve got a WHOLE BUNCH of books coming to me, because I’m planning on doing direct sales here in Ottawa, and in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia in September, and when I go out west in October. Turns out when you’re doing print-on-demand for 300 books? It’s gonna take some weeks, not days. As in, 5-7 weeks. So! Looking at a launch party in Ottawa in the first week of September. Stay tuned.

I am a word person. I like words, and writing, and I am most comfortable with the kind of social media that is mostly word-centric, although I can post a picture with words in the caption. Twitter used to be fun for word people, but I abandoned that platform a while ago and I’m not going back. (But find me on Bluesky @lorettacolton.bsky.social )

I CONSUME the video/photo/reel/story social media content. Ohhhhh yeah. My brain is just as addicted to that as anyone else’s. So I’m like, okay, I’m an author now, I’m gonna do this marketing thing, and maybe social media won’t turn me into a bestseller (I have next-to-zero expectations of being a bestseller. Only dreams.) but I figure I’ll learn how to do this kind of instagram reel posting. (Not Tik-Tok.) With audio and slideshows and videos and captions and effects. How hard can it be, am I right??

IT IS HARD, MY FRIENDS. HARD.

The marketing folks at FP gave me some ideas for topics/ content, and a schedule. I’m adapting the topics and have done a couple easy things (the book swag above! Telling people the book is ready to buy!).

I decided to do a post about the Mackenzie River. I found some pictures online (after going through my personal photo collection and not finding good photos, at least not for this post). Here it is! A little two minute slideshow with voice-over. (I’ve been told, more than once, I have a good voice for radio/podcasting…but for now I’ll stick to my own voiceovers).

That took me a solid 12 hours.

Then I posted it with a “Coming Soon!” slide (which I also mentioned in the audio), and literally five minutes later got the notice from FP that the book was now available for sale. Well Yay! but also oops! So I took the post down.

It was another 3-4 hours to do another audio, (don’t ask how many times, or why. I was IMPROVISING which meant mistakes) and I (of course) also tinkered with the order of the slides and re-did the one so it read “Now Available!”.

So. I have a whole new respect for the influencer/ content creator folks. I am encouraged by the friend who knows an actual video producer who says that’s actually not a crazy amount of time for a beginner to spend on a short video. I will get better at it.

I will also keep thinking about how deep into this social media world I want to go. Probably not THAT deep. I want to keep at it for the next several months, I think, putting regular things out about the book and events and such. But no, I don’t think I want to become a “content creator” online except in my writer …persona, I guess.

Now this is an interesting one. I kind of love it. I asked several people I know to read and review an advance review copy of the book, to get that goodreads and storygraph algorithm primed. THANK YOU AND I LOVE YOU SO SO MUCH to my people who did that. And I am reading those reviews, and I know that at some point, as people who do not already know and like/love me start picking up the book and reviewing it, I will probably have to stop reading the reviews.

And I promise I will NEVER interact with readers on review sites. I know that’s a very bad, no good, terrible thing to do. I won’t do it.

But I am truly loving seeing people I know read the book and hearing their takes on it. It is gratifying that they so far really get what I intended to do with the story and the characters and the setting. And also? there’s been a few “huh, really?” moments. I’m not gonna reveal those, but it’s been good. I wanted this book out in the world. That means I no longer control how people read it or what they take it from it. I love that. (for now…we’ll see what happens when the 1 and 2 star reviews start coming…)

I think I’m going to do a whole reel/ video thing about this. But I did have one US advance reader I didn’t know (friend of a friend) write a review, and she had questions for me, and I realized there may be some assumptions/ cultural understandings built into the book that will not be obvious for US or other non-Canadian readers (aside from the odd mention of loonies/toonies). Like, how very far away Fort Gabriel is from Edmonton. And why two of the characters are so very broken (the brief reference to residential schools is enough for most Canadians…but maybe not elsewhere).

So I’m actually kind of psyched about the idea of creating some content to fill that cultural gap.

Yeah, that’s it. Still having fun :)