One of the hardest parts of being an independent creator is getting anyone to actually look at the stuff you've made. Like, writing a comic? Writing a novel? These are things I know how to do. But making things is not the same as promoting things.
And I never quite know how to go about doing it.
Like in less than two months, I have a new book coming out. Like the previous one, I've been trying to arrange ARCs for readers (though last time I used a service and this time I'm doing it myself). I've run some Facebook and Tumblr ads, and I have no idea if book trailers work. But, like, I made a book trailer anyways:
And besides just spamming my own social media accounts, I don't really know what else to do. Like I've got in-person events scheduled, but beyond that I'm out of ideas.
We run into this same problem with comics. Like we came out with a print collection for the current comic I'm working on with Ethan Flanagan called Peregrine Lake. While I would love to sell more print copies, mostly i just want people to read it. Promoting a webcomic in 2026 is a lot harder than promoting a webcomic was in 2009. A lot of the infrastructure for that kind of promo evaporated a while ago.
So we're trying shit, and hoping something works.
I don't really know if there really is a solution beyond "keep plugging away and maybe it will work," but it just kind of sucks. There are ad systems that just a few years ago worked pretty well, but now barely produce any returns. With people moving to closed platforms, it's hard to tell when something is catching on or not.
So I keep trying.
Who the hell knows if any of it is working. - Traegorn
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