Social media is the buzzword that will make or break an independent author. I know that sounds like a stretch but follow me here. I don’t have a marketing department. I don’t have a social media intern. I can’t afford them or a PR manager. I do all of it myself. I create the content, post or schedule it, and respond to replies or comments. It adds daily hours to my already busy work schedule of juggling my regular job with my writing.

Social media is not a guarantee of sales or new readers, but for an independent author, its the most manageable. It’s free (mostly) and it is accessible worldwide. You can connect with other authors, publishers, literary agents, and most importantly, readers. You’re creating a brand for yourself in both your books and the way you advertise everything from the books themselves to events you will be attending.

There are a few tricks to this juggling act to help minimize the time spent on social media. First is creating content. I use Book Brush as my content creator. It makes it easy to either auto-generate an image or video or use my own creativity. They have different plans, depending on your price range, but it is easy to use and quite supportive of independent authors.

As for scheduling, I have used a few different FREE services before but they changed from a free service to a PAID service and was way too expensive. I currently use Constant Contact to schedule my social media posts. It allows me to vary my content, depending on the social media site, and stores my artwork in case I want to reuse it. It’s the cheapest of the social media scheduling services I have found.

DON’T try to spread yourself out over every social media site imaginable. You don’t want to overtax your brand and spread yourself thin. Stick to ones you might already have a personal account on and spread out from there, but keep your author account as BUSINESS, and your personal social media separate. You don’t want to let anyone outside your family and friends into that world.

Lastly, a word of advice. DON’T TALK POLITICS, RELIGION OR SPORTS ON YOUR AUTHOR SOCIAL MEDIA. These areas are too divisive in today’s frenzied climate. Readers come from all walks of life, the right and the left, or from many different faiths. You will alienate readers by putting yourself out there like that. I know, you might think that Donald Trump is Hitler or PETA stands for People Eating Tasty Animals or Football is no different from Soccer, but it will get you in trouble. Stop, just stop, and worry about the politics of Mordor above anything else.

This is the hardest part of being an independent author. Self-marketing is putting yourself out there, and you have to put aside the fear. Unless you have access to a top-notch marketing firm, you need to do it yourself, but avoid the email and social scams trying to lure you into promises of sales and followers. Nothing is guaranteed.

Mark Piggott is an award-winning independent author of several fantasy/steampunk novels and short stories. A 23-year U.S. Navy veteran, his stories will take you from the shores of eternal Avalon to a dystopian steampunk future and other fantastic worlds as he weaves through a myriad of flights of fancy in his tales.

The Forever Avalon fantasy book series—including Forever Avalon, The Dark Tides, and The Outlander War—are available online at Amazon and other booksellers. His fantasy steampunk novel, The Last Magus: A Clockwork Heart, is available through Lulu and other booksellers.

Cross over The River of Souls in a fantasy novella, take flight in the steampunk historical fiction, Corsair and the Sky Pirates, and the saga continues in The Last Magus: Dragonfire and Steel from Curious Corvid Publishing. His first YA fantasy, Gwen Iver and Pendragon’s Puzzle, and The Prometheus Engine: Book Four of the Forever Avalon Series are coming soon from Curious Corvid. Stay tuned for new fantastic stories from the imagination of Mark Piggott.