Self-Published Only Club discussion

Reddit for independent authors

Hi everyone, I am an independent author. I do it all. Writing, editing, marketing, screaming into my pillow asking “why god, why won’t anyone buy my book,” and I also do the dishes.

There are many social media platforms out there for marketing. I’m on Facebook, but have found that Reddit is a useful place for writers. I encountered a problem. There are plenty of subreddit groups about books. Many of them are “book suggestion” Reddits. These typically look like this: “I’m looking for a book about an AI that decides to lock a guy named Dave out of a space ship.” About ten thousand people reply, “Oh, yo definitely want to read 2001: A Space Odyssey!”

This is all fine and dandy, but if someone asked: “I’d like to read a science fiction book about people who leave Earth, start their own colony on a tropical alien planet, invent a bunch of fantastic technology which ignites a war that can only be ended if this dude named Jeron Hayden can just get his head straight about an esoteric alien philosophy called eom.” And I reply: “Hey, I wrote a book that matches this exactly, it’s called The eom Expression: Beautiful Chaos. Hope you enjoy it,” I’ll get banned for self promotion.

See the problem? Famous people will get promoted even though they are dead. Independent authors don’t have any other voice out there than their own. So, I created my own subreddit called u/Recommend_A_Book. Here is the link: https://www.reddit.com/r/Recommend_A_...

I invite authors I find on Reddit to post their stuff. I also find readers and invite them as well. Post your work. Reach out to readers looking for something interesting. I’m not fond of rules. There are no rules other than the standard Reddit rules. Post your book 800 times a day, I don’t care, though I might not get around to upvoting 800 posts.

Happy marketing!

PS. Please say hi when you join. Thanks.

Hi! Just joined and posted a promo. Great idea. Hope it takes off, and not just for self-serving reasons. :)

Thanks, David, I too hope it takes off.

I joined Reddit some years ago and haven't done much on there. I'd like to advertise my books on your group but I can't see how - doh! From your profile, I can see you're busy, so if anyone else can tell me how they did it, please let me know!

If I spent an hour or so, I might work it out, or I might not... sigh.

Anna wrote: "Thanks, David, I too hope it takes off.

I joined Reddit some years ago and haven't done much on there. I'd like to advertise my books on your group but I can't see how - doh! From your profile, I ..."

All you have to do is make a post in the group. You go to your reddit homepage, click the button that says Create Post, select the place you want that post to go, and then type away.

There are many other places on Reddit you can do similar things, but most of the other groups have more strict guidelines. Rules for formatting posts, or regulations for self-promotion. Some groups only allow self-promotion on some threads. As a whole, the site really despises spammers, so constantly posting anywhere will get you booted. But if you engage with other self-pubs, books suggestion groups, and just generally are nice about it, you can get some really great feedback. Feel free to find me there, if you have any questions! username SharksRS. Or you can msg me through goodreads. Hope this has been helpful!