The Insecure Writer's Support Group and the Secret to Stronger Scenes

The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. Post your thoughts on your own blog. Talk about your doubts and the fears you have conquered. Discuss your struggles and triumphs. Offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling. Visit others in the group and connect with your fellow writer - aim for a dozen new people each time - and return comments. This group is all about connecting!

The awesome co-hosts for the April 1 posting of the IWSG are Melissa Maygrove, Cathrina Constantine, Kate Larkinsdale, and Rebecca Douglass!

April 1 question - If you have a playlist (or could put one together) that either gets you in the groove to write or fits with one of your books, what is it? What type of music or what songs?

Today we have a guest! Please welcome Angela Ackerman.

The Secret to Stronger Scenes:
Choosing the Right Fear Level

Fear isn’t pleasant, but it serves a clear purpose: keeping us safe. When a threat appears, the body shifts fast into survival mode. Adrenaline surges. Focus sharpens. The brain scans for danger and possible outcomes. Then we act: fight, flight, freeze, or fawn.

Our characters also experience fear, and that’s a good thing. Not only will readers relate to a POV character’s immediate physical responses—a racing heartbeat, breath catching, muscles tensing, etc.—it also generates instant tension. Readers (like us) are hardwired for survival. When a character they care about is threatened, they grip the pages tighter and read faster.

Fear is a powerful element and can be used for so many reasons: to reveal a character’s vulnerabilities, strengthen stakes, steer motivation and plot, juice scenes with tension, and more. But fear isn’t one-size-fits-all. It comes in a range of intensity levels that can be used for different purposes.

In The Fear Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to What Holds Characters Back, Becca and I came up with the concept of the FEAR ELEVATOR to illustrate fear’s wide range.

Think of it as an elevator in the world’s worst apartment building, one housing all types of fears. It can stop on any floor, but the lower it goes, the darker and more destructive the fears get.

At the top of the building are Fleeting Fears, those brief spikes that pass quickly: Your character jumping at a boom of thunder or gasping at a near-miss when changes lanes. These work well when a scene needs a crackle of tension, foreshadowing, or redirect that doesn’t slow the pace.  

Mild Fears cause discomfort, say when your character is trying to muster up the nerve to ask someone out. These everyday fears show readers how your character is human and feels vulnerable at times.

Managed Fears are when old fears are triggered—being in a location where they were once mugged or running into their ex—but the character is able to master their emotions and stay in control. Use these to show a character’s growth and resilience!

Persistent Fears get in your character’s way. They steer behavior—your character avoid relationships after being dumped or they play it safe in life rather than risk more failures. Persistent fears show how your character is caught in a loop, facing the same problems, making the same fear-driven choices, and is unable to break free.

Phobias are life-altering. Classified as an anxiety disorder, a character’s fear of crowds, small spaces, open water, or other phobias send them into a state of panic even if no actual threat exists. These are a good option to show how a fear can limit and create monumental, lifelong challenges.  

In the basement with good reason, Deep Fears & Wounds are tied to past trauma. They negatively shape a character’s identity, beliefs, worldview and self-worth. This is the fear at the heart of most stories, the one that must be faced to change, grow, and achieve meaningful goals. It creates the biggest moments of inner conflict and will be the hardest type to confront.

Fear works best when you use it with purpose, so in ever scene, get clear on your goal. Do you need to provide a jolt of tension, a layer of unease, or triggers a cascade of fear-driven choices? Whatever it is, match your goal to the fear type that will best bring this about.

If the scene needs momentum, send the elevator to the upper floors. For character vulnerability and resilience, try the middle. If your goal is to reveal deeper struggles, go lower. And when you need to show a character’s greatest fear, the thing they must overcome to succeed, head to the basement.

Stories thrive on fear, so don’t be afraid to use it! And if you need more help, The Fear Thesaurus explores 80+ deep fears and shows you exactly how each can hold your character back.

Angela Ackerman is a story coach, international speaker, and co-author of the bestselling book, The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression, and its many sequels. Her guides are used by novelists, screenwriters, and editors around the world.

5 Ideas to Promote Your Book On Social Media in 2026

You’ve finished your manuscript, the editing process is complete, and your launch day is on the horizon. It’s time to start marketing your book in earnest! But it’s 2026 — the tactics that worked in the past won’t necessarily work today. How, then, should the enterprising author promote their book in the digital age?

In this article, I’ll answer that question by sharing five strategies to build some buzz around your book using social media. Each approach will be less conventional than the last, so stick around until the end for some really out-of-the-box ideas. Though for this first tip, we’ll remain firmly inside the box…

1. Partner with “micro-influencers”

I often see authors wanting to team up with BookTok hotshots who have hundreds of thousands of followers. This seems like a great idea on paper. More eyeballs means more sales, right?

Not necessarily. Well-known creators often read in a vast range of genres, and their audience reflects that — general lit lovers without any specific interest in a single genre. So disregard “macro-influencers,” and look to partner with “micro-influencers” instead. These are creators with small but highly engaged audiences, and they also tend to specialize in certain subgenres.

If you’ve written a heart-rending cyberpunk romance story, for example, set your sights on small-time accounts that cover similar books (i.e., sci-fi romance crossovers). Someone’s 5,000 loyal followers are more likely to be interested in your book than someone else’s 100k casual followers — and because their DMs aren't flooded with brand deals, micro-influencers are more receptive to collaboration requests.

Of course, partnerships are a two-way street. If you want someone to post about your book, make it worth their while with an ARC, affiliate link, and/or by promoting their account to your own followers. Once their post is live, interact in the comments and share the post on your own channels. Just don’t forget to set your profile to “public,” otherwise you’ll be posting into the void.

2. Repurpose deleted scenes as exclusive content

As writers, we’ve all had to kill our darlings at some point or another. Cutting a carefully composed piece of prose from your manuscript might feel tragic — but just because it doesn’t feature in your final draft, doesn’t mean it’s the end of the line!

Instead of letting those darlings go to waste, you can repurpose them as behind-the-scenes exclusives for your followers to enjoy. In fact, if you have an author mailing list, this is perfect content to include in your next edition.

Of course, what’s even more enticing than a discarded description is an abandoned plot point or piece of character development — for example, an interesting scene that got cut for word count reasons, or a “fun” bit of dialogue that isn’t 100% essential to the plot. Your readers will particularly enjoy these passages; they’ll have some context for what’s happening, but the content itself will be new.

Teasing these never-before-seen scenes on social media will generate serious excitement among your most dedicated readers. You can capitalize on that buzz with a promise to release the excerpt in your next social media post, or even your newsletter.

3. Let your characters take over your social accounts

If there’s anything to learn from the rise of AI character chatbots, it’s this: readers love interacting with their fictional faves.

Now, creating an entire chatbot might be a little outside the scope of your marketing campaign. But you can still tap into that enthusiasm by “letting” one of your characters take control of your social media. Of course, this takeover will actually just be you interacting with readers from the POV of one of your characters. (Which is way better than AI anyway — no LLM knows your character’s psyche better than you do!)

Create some initial excitement by “soft launching” a few days before the main event. Start by changing your profile picture to something cryptically in character, but not too on the nose. For example, say you were Lewis Carroll and you wanted to run a Cheshire Cat Q&A; first, you might update your avatar to a playful grin of white teeth. From there, you could post an impish story teasing a specific time and date. 

Eager fans would return to the page at the designated hour, at which point the Q&A would begin. You’d then use this opportunity to tease upcoming plot points in Alice in Wonderland — or just let the Cat’s personality shine through your witty, voice-y responses.

4. Explore your book's setting IRL

Our descent into the unconventional continues. For this book marketing idea, you’ll need to abandon the comfort of your writing cave and venture out into (gasp) the real world.

Here’s the pitch: visit an IRL location from your book and create some content to share on socials. Of course, if you live in Los Angeles and your book is set in Ulaanbaatar, hopping a 19-hour flight for a few video clips might be slightly outside your budget — and that’s not even to mention the SFF authors whose settings don’t even exist. Still, don’t let these things deter you! If your location is unreachable for whatever reason, you’ll just need to get a little creative.

For example, you could visit somewhere in your immediate area that has a similar vibe to a setting in your story. Did your protagonist have their first kiss on a bridge? Find the most romantic bridge you can, and explain the significance of where you are (while showing off the view). Such a bridge between fiction and reality will make your story feel all the more authentic.

Bonus: if you visit a real-life location, add a geotag to your post. The almighty algorithm will then push your content to nearby users, helping you attract local readers. Remember, a single view that results in a sale is worth more than 100 views that don’t — so small touches like this can be surprisingly powerful.

5. Launch an ARG based around your story

Okay, this one is really out there. In a previous post for IWSG, I discussed how a secret message on your cover can create excitement. Now let’s dial that idea up to eleven. It’ll require a lot of planning, but if you can pull it off, your promotional efforts will be remembered for years to come: create an alternate reality game (ARG) based around your story.

An ARG is an interactive storytelling experience that blurs the line between fiction and reality. The idea is to lead participants on an elaborate scavenger hunt across multiple mediums — social media, yes, but also websites, phone numbers, maybe even physical locations — with a prize waiting at the end! This reward could be anything from a book bundle to an exclusive meet-and-greet with the architect behind the ARG: you.

Consider which aspects of your story lend themselves well to real-world interaction. If your thriller features a mysterious organization, for example, you could create a fake company website with clues embedded in it. That said, I’d advise against anything too complicated — you do want this mystery to get solved, after all. (And you don’t want constructing the ARG to consume too much of your life!)

Start by posting the first hint on social media, and keep up engagement throughout the chase. Whenever a stage of the mystery is solved, you can update with a fresh clue to nudge internet investigators towards the next phase.

There you have it: five social media marketing strategies, from orthodox to outlandish. Whether you decide to keep things simple with a creator collab, or go all in on an avant-garde ARG, I hope I’ve given you some inspiration for your own online promotional campaign.

 

Savannah Cordova is a writer with Reedsy, a platform that connects authors with the best publishing resources and industry professionals to help them publish their books. In her spare time, Savannah enjoys reading contemporary fiction, writing short stories, and analyzing literature into the ground.

5 Tips For a Stellar Cover Design in 2026

Picture this: you’re browsing your local bookstore, letting your eyes drift over the many titles. Suddenly, it appears

 — a book with a cover so enticing, you simply have to take it home.

Something like this has probably happened to you at some point… but have you ever wondered why? What elements

 go into a cover design that’s truly irresistible? And as an author, how can you harness those elements to make your

 own cover a success?

Well, wonder no more: in this post, I’ll provide five handy tips to help you design a stellar cover of your own! I’ll 

also examine a few captivating contemporary covers that have applied these principles to gain success in 2025. 

Let’s get into it!

1. Experiment with genre expectations

A book’s cover should, first and foremost, signal its genre. Horror is full of disturbing imagery and foreboding 

color schemes, while cozy fantasy covers tend to be whimsical and inviting. And thrillers? Those cover designers

 love their photographic realism.

There’s nothing wrong with leaning into these tropes — quite the opposite! You should work with cover design 

trends so that passerby can identify your book’s genre at a glance. Stray too far from these conventions and you 

risk alienating your audience.

So try to build on the strengths of popular trends, and innovate just enough that your book stands out from the

 crowd, but not so much that potential readers won’t recognize the genre. 

Take romance, for example. 2024 saw the release of Funny Story by Emily Henry, One Star Romance by Laura

 Hankin, and The Rule Book by Sarah Adams — see the similarities?

Each of these covers follows the same vector-based art style popularized by Sally Thorne’s The Hating Game 

back in 2016. They all also feature their main romantic pair front and center, so their genre is obvious to any 

errant viewer. With that in mind, let’s examine Lyla Sage’s Swift and Saddled to “illustrate” how you can iterate

 within your genre:

Romantic couple as the focal point? Check. Thick lines with a distinct color palette? Check. Compelling illustrations

 that are almost “cartoon-like”? Also check. Swift and Saddled might follow the typical design trends you’d expect

 from a romance, but the old-school, comic book-inspired art style gives it a unique visual flair that sets it apart.

2. Center your title with eye-catching typography

The retro aesthetic isn’t the only thing that jumps out about the Swift and Saddled cover — notice the old 

Western-style font used in the title? Some of the most lauded covers of the past few years feature bold, 

eye-catching typography that sticks with viewers. (Indeed, it can also be useful to use “signature” typography 

in your book’s promotional materials.)

The saloon-style lettering of Swift and Saddled only scratches the surface of what bold, typography-centered 

covers can achieve. Open Throat by Henry Hoke is another excellent example of this: the lettering is hand-drawn 

to resemble razor-sharp teeth, then distorted to fit inside the open mouth of a roaring wildcat. This creates a 

striking focal point which, when paired with the shocking neon pink background, is practically guaranteed to 

grab readers.

Meanwhile, Salman Rushdie’s Knife keeps things minimalist with an elegant serif font on a matte cream background. 

The star of the show here is the blade-like line in place of the “I”, as if a knife is literally slicing the title in half. 

The result is some dangerously clever interplay between the text and imagery — alluding to the serious subject 

matter that readers can expect within. 

Speaking of which…

3. Use imagery to indicate thematic depth

Knife is not the only recent book to use symbolism in its visual design. Some of the most memorable cover designs

 from recent years have added intrigue by incorporating visual elements reflecting the story’s themes and central 

conflict. This idea is on full display on the cover of Sally Rooney’s Intermezzo:

Here, the viewer gets a top-down view of a chess board adorned with five distinct game pieces. The larger board, 

along with the players on either side of it, is hidden from view — implying that the reader is not fully privy to 

whatever game is (presumably) taking place in this story. Each piece also casts its own shadow, indicating that 

this isn’t just a simple game between two players, but a tangled web involving multiple parties — each with their 

own agenda.

Your cover design doesn’t need to go into quite as much depth as Intermezzo’s, but including a few alluring, 

narrative-foreshadowing details will take your cover from good to great.

4. Design with mobile in mind

Of course, great cover design isn’t just about creating eye-catching artwork — it’s also about making sure the 

cover “works” at different sizes. Bookstores aren’t the only place that potential readers are finding your novel 

(if even there) — more often than not, they’re discovering it through social media, online retailers, or 

recommendation apps. 

A cover that looks perfect in a full-page print display might lose its impact once scaled down and compressed 

for viewing on a tiny screen. So keep digital displays in mind throughout the design process! This doesn’t 

just mean phones and tablets, either — from Kobo to Kindle, digital reading is all the rage these days, and many 

popular devices only display in black and white. 

Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead is mostly monochrome to begin with, so this cover looks outstanding 

no matter the filter. You needn’t take the Demon Copperhead approach and largely discard color, but it is a 

possibility to keep in mind throughout the design process.

If you want your cover to translate well to grayscale, avoid using too many similar mid-tones, subtle color gradients, 

or small, detailed illustrations with minimal contrast. 

5. Test, test, test!

They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder — so to ensure broad appeal, you should get many beholders’ 

eyes on your cover before you finalize it. Remember, the cover is an essential part of your book’s marketing process, 

so it pays to be thorough!

To ensure your design captures the core appeal of your story, try asking a team of beta readers for their thoughts. 

What tone and genre do they think it evokes? Does it feel like anything is missing? Don’t be disheartened if 

their feedback doesn’t align with your expectations — it’s all part of the process.

Lastly, if you’re not confident in your visual design skills and this article has you feeling overwhelmed, consider 

hiring a professional designer for your cover instead. It may cost you a pretty penny upfront, but it’s an investment 

in your future book’s success: the stronger your cover, the more likely it is to drive sales.

Whether you choose to DIY your cover or bring a professional aboard, remember that this is your book — don’t 

feel pressured to conform to what’s popular in 2025. Who knows? Maybe your idea will shake up the formula,

 inspiring a fresh new wave in cover design. The only way to find out is to get designing.

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Savannah Cordova is a writer with Reedsy, a platform that connects authors with the best publishing resources 

and industry professionals to help them publish their books. In her spare time, Savannah enjoys reading 

contemporary fiction and writing short stories.