Unseen Magic

Over the last year and a half, I’ve questioned my publishing decisions more times than I can count. Did I do enough prerelease marketing? Did I do enough post-release marketing? Should I have done the cover designs differently? Are the ad campaigns I put money into worth it? Do my social media posts reach anyone who cares? The hardest part of becoming an author (for me) is also learning to be a content creator on the internet. It’s the only way to really get the word about your books out there in today’s day and age. And I struggle so much with it. I never know if my short form content ideas are engaging or boring. If something I think is silly is actually dumb and uninviting to new audiences. Marketing my books is my least favorite part of being an author. But it’s necessary, so I push through the doubt and keep making reels for Instagram and TikTok, never knowing if any of the effort is paying off. Well, that was until about few weeks ago.

One Tuesday, I got a message from a good friend of mine. They had taken a trip up to Canada and stopped in a bookstore while there. And what did they find in the store? A copy of A Journey Paved in Shadows. I had no idea what to say. I had never been to this bookstore in Canada, and I hadn’t reached out and asked them to carry my book which is often how indie books get into stores. Yet there it was. At most, my reaction was “Huh, neato.” I could only assume some of my social media marketing paid off a little. Then I continued my day with a smile on my face. That was until a few days later, when I got a call from my mom.

I had shared with my mom a few days before that a store in Canada stocked A Journey Paved in Shadows on their shelves, and she had a much more enthusiastic response. So, when she called me one night after leaving her friend’s house, she was excited to share more good news. Apparently, her friend’s nephew—a man I had never met or talked to—had also read A Journey Paved in Shadows. I didn’t even know this person existed until my mom told me this, and I certainly had never even been to the state he lived in, yet he still heard about and read my book. He liked it too. So together, my mom and I reveled in the good news.

All this to say, I got thinking. For months, I feared all my efforts to get word of my books out to the public were wasted. I hadn’t seen any physical proof that people were interested in my book, and it started to wear down on me. But all the while, I kept marketing and hoped it would someday pay off. Little to my knowledge, it already had! People in different states and countries were reading my book! After the conversation with my mom, realization finally struck me that just because I didn’t see immediate results, that didn’t mean my effort had been pointless. A Journey Paved in Shadows was being read, and frankly, that’s all I ever wanted when I published it. I had a story and I wanted to share it with others. I guess what I’m getting at is to keep putting the effort into the things you love even if it’s for yourself. You never know who your work is reaching behind closed doors.