Does Social Media Actually Work for Authors? I've Been Trying to Find Out…

 Here is a question I have been asking myself for quite some time now, usually while staring at a post that received three likes (one of which was my own, which I'm told doesn't count):

Does any of this actually work?

By "this," I mean the whole social media endeavour. The posting. The hashtagging. The carefully composed photographs of books next to beverages. The earnest attempts to say something interesting about writing when the honest truth is that today I rewrote the same paragraph six times and ended up with a version worse than the first.

I don't have a definitive answer yet. But I've been paying attention, and I have thoughts.

Why I Started Taking It Seriously

For a long time, I treated social media the way most authors treat the second act of a difficult novel — I knew it needed attention, I kept meaning to deal with it properly, and I found approximately one hundred other things to do instead.

Then I started noticing something. Readers were there. Not everywhere, and not in enormous numbers around my little corner of the internet, but they existed — real people who loved the same sort of books I write, who got excited about fictional murders in idyllic villages, who had strong opinions about amateur sleuths and even stronger opinions about the correct baked goods to accompany a mystery. And it occurred to me that perhaps I should stop lurking at the edges and actually try to join the conversation.

So I did. With varying degrees of success, which I will now describe with more honesty than is probably dignified.

What Hasn't Worked (Let's Get This Out of the Way)

Posting links to my books with captions like "Available now!" — largely ignored. Apparently the internet does not want to be sold to. I know this, intellectually. I have read the advice. I do it anyway sometimes in a moment of optimism, and the internet responds with the sound of silence.

Trying to be on every platform simultaneously — this way lies madness. I spread myself too thin, produced mediocre content everywhere, and felt vaguely guilty about all of it at once. This was not a winning strategy.

Posting inconsistently and then wondering why nothing was growing — well. Yes. Cause and effect, as it turns out, applies to social media as much as anywhere else.

What Has Seemed to Work (A Bit)

Here is where it gets more interesting.

The posts that have generated actual responses — actual conversations, not just the algorithmic tumbleweeds — have almost always been the ones where I stopped trying to be impressive and just said something genuine. A question I was genuinely curious about. An observation about writing that I found funny or frustrating. A recommendation for a book I'd genuinely loved.

One post asking readers which fictional detective they'd most want investigating a crime in their own street got more engagement than anything promotional I've ever done. People have opinions about this. Passionately held, enthusiastically expressed opinions. Who knew? (Everyone who understands social media, probably. I was a bit late to this particular realisation.)

I've also found that the bookish corners of social media are, against all reasonable expectation, quite lovely. The cosy mystery community in particular — on Instagram, in Facebook groups, scattered across TikTok — seems to attract the sort of people who are kind, enthusiastic, and genuinely delighted to talk about books. Spending time there doesn't feel like a chore in the way that some marketing activities do. It feels a bit like finding a very good book club that happens to be available at all hours.

Whether this translates into actual readers finding my books? Honestly, it's difficult to measure. But I've had a handful of messages from people who found me through social media and went on to read something I'd written, and that — small as it is — feels meaningful.

The Things I'm Still Figuring Out

Consistency. I know it matters. I know that showing up regularly is how you build anything. And yet there are weeks when the manuscript is demanding, or life intervenes, or I simply cannot think of a single interesting thing to say, and the accounts go quiet. I haven't cracked this one yet.

The algorithm. A mysterious and capricious force that appears to reward some things and ignore others according to rules that shift regularly and are never fully explained. I have accepted that I will not understand it. I try to focus on the people instead.

Video. Everyone says video is where things are heading — TikTok especially, where books go viral with a frequency that seems almost magical. I have not fully committed to this yet. The idea of talking to a camera about my books fills me with a very specific kind of dread. I'm working up to it. Possibly.

What I've Decided to Believe (For Now)

Social media probably won't transform your career overnight. It hasn't transformed mine. If you're looking for a guaranteed path from zero followers to bestseller, I'm afraid I can't help you — and I'd be suspicious of anyone who claims they can.

But I do think there's something valuable happening in the slower, quieter version of this. The gradual accumulation of connections. The conversations that make writing feel less solitary. The sense of belonging to a community of people who care about the same things you care about.

Is that worth the time it takes? I think so, on balance. Though I reserve the right to revisit this opinion after the next post that gets three likes.

Over to You

This is genuinely where I'd love to hear from other authors — and readers too, for that matter. What do you actually want to see from writers on social media? What made you follow someone, or pick up a book you'd seen online? And for the writers among you: what's been working, what's been a spectacular waste of time, and have you cracked the video thing yet?

Because I am, as established, still very much figuring this out. And I suspect the best answers are probably in the comments.