Channel your inner social media influencer. It’s an unconventional tip, and a daunting one depending on your personality type. You don’t have to start promoting some snake oil fitness tea, but you do have to celebrate yourself. It might feel unnatural and even embarrassing to promote your work online, but in today’s world as an author, being online is almost unavoidable.

My debut romance novel, Shoot Your Shot, just released this week, and I could write a book, never mind a couple of paragraphs, on all I've learned from the experience. And yet, if I could only give one piece of advice to fellow authors, it’s that this entire process reinforced my belief that having a strategic social media plan is needed for any book launch.

Before you panic, let me break down the basics:

1. - Get familiar with Canva. It’s a user-friendly and affordable way to edit and create unique social media content. Chances are that all the bookish photos from Instagram you saved as inspiration were made using Canva.

• - Research the online community. Quietly observe your target readers and fellow authors online. What’s everyone talking about? What are they listening to? What’s the aesthetic? Can you create a similar post for your book or characters?
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• - Have a monthly plan. Your content doesn't need to be daily, but it should be consistent. Create posts in advance and roll them out when necessary. Planning weeks in advance and organizing my ideas on a content calendar saved my butt when I was promoting my book this month.

My greatest author's tip for new writers is this: finish your draft. No matter how you feel about the story, what kind of breakthrough you think you've had midway through the story, what epiphanies and clarities your plot has uncovered—finish that draft all the way to the end. You'll be SO much clearer with the story, and a thing done is better than a perfect yet undone thing. 

Elyse John

Elyse John is a writer and a poet. She studied literature, writing, and French at university, completing a PhD. Her poetry nominations include the Pushcart Prize and several major Australian prizes. Her novel Orphia and Eurydicius is a gender-swapped retelling of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice.

Follow her on Instagram.

SHOOT YOUR SHOT by Lexi LaFleur Brown

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Jaylen “JJ” Jones’s hockey career is over. After not securing an NHL contract with the Seattle Rainiers, Jaylen decides to bid the city farewell with a final night of fun, blowing off steam with an anonymous one night stand. But when a last-minute roster spot opens up on the Rainiers, he connects his luck to the girl he spent the night with. Superstitious Jaylen is desperate to keep her around—his career depends on it.

Aspiring tattoo artist Lucy Ross isn’t so sure about the proposition to remain Jaylen’s lucky charm—she’s been called a lot of things in her life, but good luck has never been one of them. But stuck in a career slump, Lucy has everything to gain. Hoping for an apprenticeship hasn’t offered much stability, and Jaylen is willing to pay any price to get Lucy to agree…so maybe sending him a routine text message before each game won’t be too hard.

THE SHOTS YOU TAKE by Rachel Reid

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After moving back to his hometown ten years ago, Riley Tuck thought he had left his major league hockey career—and his broken heart—far behind. But when an unexpected tragedy strikes, it brings ex-teammate and former best friend with benefits Adam Sheppard back into his life.

Coming to the small town of Avery River, Nova Scotia, might have been a mistake. Adam’s not sure he’ll ever win back Riley’s trust after the way they left things—and the attention he’s getting as a huge hockey star isn’t exactly helping. Yet the chemistry that crackles between them is undeniable, even now.

SHIVI’S BIG LEAP by Kritika H. Rao

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GODDESS OF THE RIVER by Vaishnavi Patel (paperback)

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A mother and a son. A goddess and a prince. A curse and an oath. A river whose course will change the fate of the world.

Ganga, joyful goddess of the river, serves as caretaker to the mischievous godlings who roam her banks. But when their antics incur the wrath of a powerful sage, Ganga is cursed to become mortal, bound to her human form until she fulfills the obligations of the curse.

Though she knows nothing of mortal life, Ganga weds King Shantanu and becomes a queen, determined to regain her freedom no matter the cost. But in a cruel turn of fate, just as she is freed of her binding, she is forced to leave her infant son behind.