Honestly, does anyone want to be on social media anymore?
If I didn’t have to be, I probably wouldn’t be. (I would probably have an account so I could lurk, but my real life is way too boring for anyone to be interested in what I take pictures of.) And I think most authors don’t want to be on social media either, or at least don’t want to be spending their time promoting themselves there.
So, what if you could just… get rid of it entirely? Do you NEED to be on social media as a romance author, especially an indie one?
Well…no.
Wait, wait, wait—I don’t want to get your hopes too high.
I mean, if you don’t want to do it, you don’t have to. There are lots of other avenues open to you. Unfortunately, they will probably cost you a lot more money than free social media (but then, how free is it when it’s costing you time and energy that you could spend on other things?). Here are some of those other avenues:
Amazon ads, which if you can figure them out can be fruitful—but the learning curve is steep, from what I’ve heard. And you can pour a ton of money into them before you can figure out how to most effectively use them
Book promo sites, like BookBub and many, many others (David Gaughran is my go-to guy for everything book promotion, and he has a big list of them and how to use them here)
Hiring a company to distribute your book to book influencers to create posts for virtual book tours (e.g. cover reveals, release date blitzes, reviews, etc.)
Giveaways of print or ebook copies
Accessing NetGalley or other paid sites to reach ARC readers to review your book
Book influencer friends or fellow authors shouting out your book (this one is free, but you have to cultivate these relationships—which might be hard to do without social media, especially for the introverts)
Word of mouth (also free, but this one is mostly just luck of the draw and can take a long time—one of my clients’ books was mentioned on a busy romance subreddit, and she saw a huge spike in sales just from that)
In-person events: romance conventions (which may include travel, hotel, and con costs); talks at local libraries, bookstores, book clubs, etc.; an in-person book tour (if you’ve really got money to travel)
Your own newsletter, Substack, Patreon, etc. (links to all of those should be in the back matter of every book you write)—and yes, a newsletter is a non-negotiable for every author, whether you use social media or not
This guy seems to think that authors don’t need social media in 2025, but he doesn’t really give a lot of alternatives. Apparently all you need to do is just be successful as an author and then you don’t need to use social media at all!
But realistically, what do you as an indie author really have to do to sell your book?
As much as I’d love to say that all you need to do is write a great book, that’s just not the case for even the greatest author out there. Trust me, I’ve seen so many books from my own clients that I think are stellar and are beautifully written and deserve all the hype and sales—and they don’t have them.
So: you absolutely do have to promote. If you’re indie—and even if you’re trad, and especially a trad BIPOC author—you will probably be doing that legwork all on your own, unless you can afford to throw money at the problem. And you will have to throw some money at it in order to look professional. (Your cover counts as promo, and please do not skimp on that—we can all tell when a cover has been made by someone who doesn’t have experience designing romance covers specifically.)
You need a promotional strategy that includes some paid methods (like a virtual book tour, for example) and some free ones. So I really don’t think it’s a good idea to abandon social media entirely, unless you are indeed SO big that you don’t need it. There’s so much noise on social media, but if you can carve out your own little niche, it’s a great way to talk to your readers and to find more. Also, I am someone who lovesa deal—and social media is free, and I love free.
That said, social media is hard work. I’ve said this a million times here, you have to promote way more than you’re doing right now, whether that is on social media or elsewhere. With the way algorithms work, people aren’t seeing your posts enough, so you have to just go hard with quantity and put out a ton of posts to get visibility.
And yes, promo as an indie author SUCKS. It’s probably not something you’ve been trained to do so it’s hard and exhausting, and it takes time and energy away from doing the thing you’re here to do, which is write the books. I get it—all I want to do is edit and book coach, and making silly Reels is not something I super love. But I do it because it supports the things I actually want to do by getting me in front of potential clients who will hopefully follow and then hire me.
Listen, I am rooting for you to get so big that you don’t have to have social media. In the meantime, though, use it to your best advantage as a tool in your promo arsenal!
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