If you are an avid TikToker, do me a favor and follow me on TikTok at @authormarkpiggott. I don’t do many live videos (I’m still working on that), but you can find great representations of my books and announcements of upcoming book festivals, conventions, and events. I don’t get into the conspiracy theories on TikTok, but if China wants to know about my books, they’re welcome to order some. (They have to pay full price and shipping, though!)
I have tried to do a few LIVE videos that I called “Track Talk” as these were recorded on the metro train platforms in Washington, D.C. However, these videos were far and few in between, especially during COVID when I didn’t go into work every day so it didn’t make sense to continue the trend. I am thinking about reading some of my books. I have, what I called in my military service on the Armed Forces Network, a “face for radio” as it were. My wife thinks I’m handsome, but that’s another story. What do you think? Should I? Let me know in the comments.
I hope you will check out all my social media links to learn more about my books, WIPs, and new releases. I have links in the side column to all my social media! Please check them out!
Check out Buy My Books to pick out your next binge read!
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 Amazonand otherbooksellers. His fantasy steampunk novel, The Last Magus: A Clockwork Heart, is available through Luluand otherbooksellers.
So, I’ll make this short and sweet. It is Election Season, although I honestly hate that term. I remember when elections were just a DAY but now we have an entire season. If you watch the news, you’d think all we have in our every day lives is politics, but I digress. I want to offer a bit of advice out to the other independent authors out there. DO NOT VOICE YOUR POLITICAL OPINIONS ON YOUR AUTHOR SOCIAL MEDIA.
I realize that, for some of you, your political leanings is a part of your identity as an author, and that is all well ‘and good for you personally. However, I believe that readers come from the left and the right, especially fans of science fiction and fantasy novels. In this polarizing political environment we ae in today, saying something politically tinged, liking or commenting on a post using your author social media can lead to negative comments and criticism that have nothing to do with your books. It’s sad that we must silence ourselves, but we don’t make the money of a Stephen King or J.K. Rowling where we can afford to voice our opinion on such matters.
I try to avoid any conflict on social media. I only use it to promote my books, any events I’m attending, and “bookish” things to share with other authors, including book reviews, ARC readers, etc. My advice to you is to let the politicians fight it out and stick to storytelling. It’s in your best interest.
Check out Buy My Books to pick out your next binge read!
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 Amazonand otherbooksellers. His fantasy steampunk novel, The Last Magus: A Clockwork Heart, is available through Luluand otherbooksellers.
Follow me on all my social media accounts to get up-to-date information on my books and events!
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.
Check out Buy My Books to pick out your next binge read!
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 Amazonand otherbooksellers. His fantasy steampunk novel, The Last Magus: A Clockwork Heart, is available through Luluand otherbooksellers.
One of the major hurdles an indie author must overcome is marketing. As an independent author, you don’t have the “Mad Men” at your beckon call to promote the heck out of your new book release. So, the question remains, how much is too much or is it not enough?
My inbox is filled with offers of marketing opportunities at reasonable prices to thousands of readers. Seems easy enough, but looks can be deceiving. A lot of these sites look the same and offer similar marketing schemes. I can’t say for sure whether or not they’re legitimate, but most of them find their way into my junk mail folder.
Social media is the easiest and cheapest way to garner a simple form of marketing. Ads on Facebook, IG, Twitter (or “X”) and other platforms can help but they still cost for clicks and link follows. And you need followers to monetize your posts. Mind you, there are scammers there too. “Gain 15,000+ followers!” Sorry, but never pay for what people claim is a sure thing. You’re bound to get trapped.
There are some easy ways to market, primarily through social media, but “BookTokkers” are a rising faction on TikTok. They read and review your books, sometimes just by sending them a copy. Others, like some “bookstagrammers” on IG want to be paid for reviews. I have done that initially but not anymore. I don’t mind sending a FREE copy of my book to someone who wants to read and review it, but I won’t pay for reviews. Sometimes, it seems like some of the reviewers are cutting and pasting comments from other reviews, not really reading the book. I don’t mind if a review is good or bad. Feedback helps me grow as an author.
I know that marketing is a subject I’ve talked about frequently, but it really does a number on indie authors. We are constantly taken advantage of by scammers trying to make an easy buck on desperate writers trying to make a name for themselves. I fell for more than one scammer in my 20+ years as an independent author. I am speaking from experience here. Don’t waste your money.
I’ve grown a simple following, a little over 5,000 on some platforms. I know some of those are probably “bots” but its nice to see people joining in the conversation. Mind you, it’s nothing to brag about but I’m still plugging away at it with daily posts and doing book signings, festivals and conventions. I could hire a marketing specialist to really plug away my books but that’s money I don’t have. I’m sure you don’t either.
Check out my Events link to keep track of all my book signing events or, if you can’t make it, head over to Buy My Books link to find the best deals online. You can follow me on all my social media for updates too! Thanks for your continued support!
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 worlds as he weaves flights of fancy in his tales.
Do I have sucker written across my face? It seems that way when my email inbox and DMs on many of my social media accounts are full of offers for more followers, better sales, and dazzling artwork. On top of that, I get regular phone calls for book marketing, pitches for Netflix and other streaming services (from the Philippines no less) and discounts on book publishing services.
Since I became a published author, I have found that we (as a community) are subjected to numerous scam artists. They see independent authors as easy pickings for these vultures. From marketing to artwork, beta readers, book publishers and editors, people are trying to make a quick buck on false promises of sales, followers, etc. I spend more time blocking people, reporting spam and junk mail, and cleaning out unnecessary emails to start my day. It’s a nightmare to contend with.
It’s a regular thing on Instagram. Instead of feedback or other comments on my posts, I get “PROMOTE IT ON” messages, pushing me to another marketing scam. Now, I’m getting follows from people with AUTHOR in their name but they promote marketing instead of talking about books. These scammers are changing their methods to make it easier to get at us.
Even artists are being used for scams. I have hired plenty of artists in my time, using their brilliant artwork to help promote my books on social media. I hired an artist to do work for my new book, Corsair and the Sky Pirates. I won’t mention their name because I am currently fighting them for a refund via PayPal Resolution. I asked them to do a drawing based on the images she provided as examples of her art. However, the final result was something akin to a middle school art project. Then, following a reverse Google search on the artwork she provided as “examples” to me, I discovered they belonged to someone else. That’s called fraud. It’s disingenuous and disgusting.
The emails are the worse. My inbox gets clogged with thousands of offers from what seems to be an endless stream of book promotion websites. It’s crazy as to how many different venues are being created on a daily basis to hoodwink independent authors desperate to generate sales. Some are trustworthy and worth it (BookBrush, AllAuthor, and IndieBookVault to name some I am involved with) but not most. It is a constant barrage of offers that’s insane.
I especially hate the phone calls. Someone from overseas with an unusual dialect wants to talk about promoting your book to Netflix producers and yet they don’t know a thing about you or your book. Plus, it’s always a “paid promotion” service, money up front, like Vanity Publishing. Never a good thing to grasp onto, and yet some desperate authors will fall for it.
So listen. If you find yourself being scammed, let the community know. We all need to support each other in stopping these fraudsters from using us to increase the size of their wallet. We have enough struggles with deadlines, writer’s block, editing and writing our stories. We don’t need any further aggravation.
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 worlds.
The Forever Avalon fantasy book series—including Forever Avalon, The Dark Tides, and The Outlander War—are available online at Amazonand otherbooksellers. His fantasy steampunk novel, The Last Magus: A Clockwork Heart, is available through Luluand otherbooksellers.
Cross over The River of Soulsin a fantasy novella and the steampunk historical fiction,Corsair and the Sky Pirates fromCurious Corvid Publishing. The Last Magus: Dragonfire and Steel and The Prometheus Engine: Book Four of the Forever Avalon Series, are coming soon. Stay tuned for more new fantastic stories from the imagination of Mark Piggott.
If you haven’t already noticed in my social media links, I now have a TikTok account. I will be the first one to admit that I’m not very good at it and I doubt the Chinese have any interest in the metadata of a independent author of fantasy and steampunk novels. It was the next logical step in further promotion and marketing as an author. I am nowhere near the expertise and zaniness of some of the people on TikTok. I primarily use it to promote my books, events, special announcements, and even some personal holiday fun. Beyond that, it’s difficult to wrap my head around this social media giant.
It’s so much easier in Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook to just post a photo and write-up. With TikTok, I have to create a video, add music, stickers, effects, and text. It’s such a process to post a simple thirty second video. I think why I am struggling with TikTok. It’s too much work for one simple person. I mean, I use Hootsuite to publish to my other social media sites (highly recommend it to burgeoning indie authors). It’s FREE for up to three social media accounts and you can schedule up to ten times. There is a paid version but the free works well enough for me to stay ahead of the game.
TikTok, on the other hand, takes time and patience. There are a lot of great people that are fun to watch and they make it look so easy. Maybe its the old man in me. I am nearly 60 but I’ve stayed up on technology since I first typed on a TRS-80 (look it up if you don’t know what one is). I just can’t get into the videos of repeating voice overs of comics or famous movie and television scenes. Even the weird filters aren’t me. I just want to talk about my books, show videos from the events I attend, and that’s it.
There are a lot of great connections on TikTok. I met Teri Schnaubelt(@terischnaubelton TikTok) a voice over artist who read a section of my book The River of Souls. It was great having a professional do something like that for FREE to hear my words come to life. Pop over to her TikTok page to hear more great books being read by a true professional and great lady. The other authors on there are supportive as well, promoting your books to readers and even giving ideas. Someone posted a video of using mini-candy bars as giveaways by wrapping them in book covers to look like little books. I did that and they came out great. You can really find a lot of good ideas on TikTok.
So, if you are on TikTok, come find me, follow and I will follow back, and hopefully I can get the hang of this new social media and make some fun and interesting content. I’m always open to suggestions.
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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 worlds.
The Forever Avalon fantasy book series—including Forever Avalon, The Dark Tides, and The Outlander War—is available online at Amazon and other booksellers. His fantasy steampunk novel, The Last Magus: A Clockwork Heart, is available through Lulu and other booksellers.
Map of Middle Earth from The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
“Writing has nothing to do with meaning. It has to do with land surveying and cartography, including the mapping of countries yet to come.”
― Gilles Deleuze
World Building is a skill every writer needs, especially in the fantasy and sci-fi genre. Luckily, as a former D&D DungeonMaster, I have some background in this area before I became an author. Creating the world to take my friends on their many adventures was a part of my life, whether it was Dungeons and Dragons, Space Opera, Rift or any other RPG, I had to create the world in which we were roleplaying.
I used to try and create my own maps using PowerPoint or Adobe InDesign to help me imagine these brave new worlds, but they were poor substitutes and not marketable. Thank God for the independent author and artist community online. They have the resources needed to help bring my imaginary world into a reality.
World building is defined as “the process of constructing an imaginary world, sometimes associated with a whole fictional universe. Developing an imaginary setting with coherent qualities such as a history, geography, and ecology is a key task for many science fiction or fantasy writers.” You don’t know how true that is! As writers, we have to imagine everything from landscapes to cityscapes and everything in between. That means political structure, currency, races, religion, etc. It all has to be accounted for, but the biggest factor is the landscape.
In writing, you need to talk about the cities, forests, roads, and everything else when describing your story. If my protagonist is heading east along the Vanir Road, following the Blackbriar Forest on his way to the Gilded Halls of the Dwarves, I have to know where those places are in relation to his current location. In a sense, you could be writing about going one way and then mention somewhere you protagonist has been, and you say east instead of west so then your world becomes confusing.
Think of it this way… Would you have understood the journey Frodo went on in Lord of the Rings without the map of Middle Earth? Maybe, but the map helped me (as the reader) understand the journey they went on through that map. I like to think about that when I look at world maps from the 1600’s, seeing how they thought of the Earth 400 years ago and how different it is today. Even maps from the 1960’s and 70’s are different from what they are today.
Map of Avalon from the Forever Avalon series, designed by Amy Kruzan.
Mapping is essential which is why, as a writer, I am happy to employ mapmakers in helping me create my worlds. The first one I used was Amy Kruzan, known in Instagram as fantasygraphicsbya. She took my description of Avalon and mapped the enchanted island, as told in the Forever Avalon fantasy book series, into a working map. Now, she helping me with a new layout of Avalon following the aftermath of The Outlander War (I won’t spoil it, so please read it to understand why). Imagining it was one thing but seeing it is something completely new. The layout reflects the ideas I had more than 20 years ago when I started writing the first book in the series.
I found many map artists on Twitter and Instagram. They are quite prolific in creating these myriad of worlds for dreamers like me. The ability to take the words and descriptions to design the forests, mountains, lakes, seas, rivers and cities is designed down to the ridges on the cliffs to the pine trees swaying in the wind. It makes it difficult to formulate things like trade routes, ship ports, rivers and canals, roads, etc. These are all essential for a vibrant or lackluster economy, which makes your fantasy world believable. I mean, how can you take care of an entire island without farmland, shipyards, and all the necessities to feed the populace, export commerce, and transport goods from one place to the other.
“You can’t map a sense of humor. Anyway, what is a fantasy map but a space beyond which There Be Dragons? On the Discworld we know that There Be Dragons Everywhere. They might not all have scales and forked tongues, but they Be Here all right, grinning and jostling and trying to sell you souvenirs.”
So, besides the regular social media crowd, there are artist websites like Art Station, Deviant Art and others allow artists to showcase their work so it makes for a great place to research styles, designs and artists. Although many maps, especially fantasy maps, look similar in many respects, but its the fine details that make the map into something special and unique for your story. You can find the artist you’re looking for to take your story into the world you’re creating.
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Mark Piggott is the author of the Forever Avalon fantasy book series. Forever Avalon is available for purchase as a paperback/ebook at Amazon. The Dark Tides: Book 2 of the Forever Avalon Series is available for purchase as a paperback/ebook from iUniverse Publishing and at Amazon, and other booksellers. The Outlander War, Book Three of the Forever Avalon series is available for purchase as a paperback/ebook from Austin Macauley Publishing, and at Amazon and other booksellers.
So, I took off the past week, ignored my social media accounts and didn’t like, post, tweet, or blog about anything. I thought a simple protest against the social media giants for being “censors” when they’re not supposed to be would gain traction. I thought people would care about “Big Brother” keeping tabs on what we could read, talk about, or share with others. I thought wrong. The world kept on turning, the sun rose and set, and life continued as we know it.
And still, to this day, Twitter and Facebook (and Google to an extent) are deciding what constitutes “free speech” online. They put their own bias into what is available on their platforms. Now, please don’t think of this as a political rant, because it’s not. It’s about free speech, the First Amendment, and the rights we have as American citizens. I refuse to be locked down by these or any other social media platform for expressing my own point of view. If not, we are destined to bow at the altar of social media.
George Orwell said it best when he wrote his prophetic novel 1984 in the year 1949:
“In a world of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act!”
The people will not revolt. They will not look up from their screens long enough to notice what’s happening.”
George Orwell, 1984
Do you see what I mean? It’s one of the things I love about being an author. Science fiction has always had a prophetic way of seeing into the future, from Jules Verne to George Orwell. It’s strange how science fiction authors have such a deep insight into the world that they know where we’re heading. This is one such moment in history. Whether you believe it or not, we are living in a world that George Orwell imagined.
So now, what do I do? Do I end my social media footprint altogether and not bow before Twitter, Facebook and the like? This would probably be helpful to my psyche but limit my exposure as an author. Or, do I just continue on and hope that these tech giants are brought down to our level through the courts and other legislation? I mean, that’s what happened to Microsoft in the 1990s when they got to big. Then there’s Section 230, a provision of the Communication Decency Act (CDA) of 1996.
“No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider” (47 U.S.C. § 230).
from Electronic Frontier Foundation (eff.org)
Per eff.org, “online intermediaries that host or republish speech are protected against a range of laws that might otherwise be used to hold them legally responsible for what others say and do.” This gives social media platforms broad latitudes to determine what can or cannot be said on their websites. That, in turn, pisses off people from the Left and the Right which could mean an end to those protections.
There are more questions than answers. I will continue to express my views, no matter how controversial they may be according to the social media “hall monitors” watching over me. I was silent for a week, but no more.
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Mark Piggott is the author of the Forever Avalon fantasy book series. Forever Avalon is available for purchase as a paperback/ebook at Amazon. The Dark Tides: Book 2 of the Forever Avalon Series is available for purchase as a paperback/ebook from iUniverse Publishing and at Amazon, and other booksellers. The Outlander War, Book Three of the Forever Avalon series is available for purchase as a paperback/ebook from Austin Macauley Publishing, and at Amazon and other booksellers.
As an author, I am a firm believer in the First Amendment and Freedom of speech. Censorship of speech or news, political or otherwise, is not acceptable. I will not be posting on my blog or any of my social media accounts until this Orwellian censorship stops.
The First Amendment is clear:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
The actions taken by Facebook and Twitter shows that they believe they are the arbiters of speech. This is wrong. It doesn’t matter what your political views or allegiances, the news is reported and people decide whether to believe it or not.
These past four years has been on false or misleading news and information. Such is the burden of a free society, but if we are free, then our thought and views should be open. It is not up to these social media giants to make those decisions for us.
I hope other authors will join me in standing up for Freedom of Speech.
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Mark Piggott is the author of the Forever Avalon fantasy book series. Forever Avalon is available for purchase as a paperback/ebook at Amazon. The Dark Tides: Book 2 of the Forever Avalon Series is available for purchase as a paperback/ebook from iUniverse Publishing and at Amazon, and other booksellers. The Outlander War, Book Three of the Forever Avalon series is available for purchase as a paperback/ebook from Austin Macauley Publishing, and at Amazon and other booksellers.
The absolute frustration of being a writer can cause major headaches, break up families, decrease in your sex life, and cause everything from drug to alcohol problems. All joking aside, THESE ARE the actually feelings of a writer under pressure to finish their work in progress (#WIP) and its been well recorded since the dawn of time. Have you seen some of those early cave paintings?
“The best musicians don’t always get record deals. The best writers don’t always get published. The best painters have showrooms full of work that never sells. To an extent, this is how it has always been.”— Jeff Goins, Writer
To that end, I have been forging ahead, one sentence at a time, and it’s actually been working for me. My goal is at least one page per night, at a minimum. Sometimes I only get a couple of paragraphs in, but at least I’m writing. It’s important to get the train moving along the track, even at a slow pace. Just keep things moving… Think Dory (“Just keep swimming! Just keep swimming!”) Sorry, bad analogy, but it works.
The good news is I’M NOT ALONE! I have read hundreds of social media posts from other writers expressing the same frustration. It’s a disease amongst this creative community that doesn’t seem to stay long. It jumps from writer to writer and it’s as bad as the flu (at times) and facemasks won’t help you fend it off.
The best solution is WORK! “WORK, WORK, WORK!” (to quote the incomparable Mel Brooks) and don’t stop. If it’s not coming to you, my best solution is going back a few pages and reread what you’ve already written. I find myself back into the story, making a few changes here and there, and it gets my thoughts in line to continue writing. Soon, I add on one more page, then two, then three, etc.
I have been dealing with a serious case of writer’s block this past summer (which I talked about here) and I’ve finally gotten myself over the hump to where I am writing every day now. It’s been a mighty hurdle, believe me. The first day I got over my block, I actually wrote ten pages in one sitting. It was magnificent, like a breath of fresh air on a crisp fall day.
That’s why it’s called a #WIP. It’s a work “in progress” meaning that it’s not finished. You’ve got to cross that creative gap (so named by Ira Glass here) and take a leap of faith. You have to believe in yourself and the story you’re trying to tell. Remember, you’re the author and you’re the only one who can tell your story. If you believe in that, what’s there to stop you?
I’ve already completed two #WIP that I am currently trying to get published… THE PROMETHEUS ENGINE: Book Four of the FOREVER AVALON Series and THE LAST MAGUS: The Clockwork Heart. (HINT: Any interested parties, please contact me here! Yes, I may be a little desperate… All writers are!) Now, I’m working on the next two installments of the series. I’m trying to stay in the moment and keep the story moving along. It’s not easy, but it’s like I said, “one sentence at a time…” That’s the key for any writer.
Mark Piggott | Fantasy & Steampunk Author 