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.
