Even though George Jreije’s debut middle grade novel, Shad Hadid and the Alchemists of Alexandria, isn’t slated to be published by HarperCollins until October 4, 2022, he began collaborating with fellow authors in 2021 to jump-start name recognition of their collective titles.
Jreije joined the Class of 2K22, a private Slack group consisting of 22 debut authors; the group passes control from one president to the next each year. In 2020, it was headed by J. Elle, who went on to become the New York Times bestselling author of Wings of Ebony. The president then invites fellow debut authors “to exchange ideas for promotion with the goal of reaching booksellers, teachers, and librarians,” says Jreije.
The group plans to pool financial resources to buy collective advertisements for their books on literary sites such as Book Riot, where the cost would be prohibitive otherwise for an individual author but “becomes affordable when we split the costs,” says Jreije. The group also reads and reviews each other’s books and applies to panels together for conventions and speaking opportunities.
Similarly, Maggie Giles, author of the debut novel The Things We Lost (April 19, Rising Action Publishing Co.), is part of the 2022 debut middle grade, young adult, and adult fiction Instagram account @22debuts, in which members began posting about their titles as early as July 2021. “We wanted to get the ball rolling on having debut authors introduce themselves,” says Giles. “We totally understand that for some, the timing wasn’t as ideal. However, given that our debuts will span the entire year of 2022, we felt it would be great to get some of the earlier 2022 authors engaged.”
Giles says the support she’s gotten in the months leading up to her debut release, in addition to learning about tangible opportunities such as contests and awards from her fellow authors, has been invaluable. “I think it is so crucial to have a group of people who understand what you are working through and can commiserate with you on some of the more struggling aspects.”
The further in advance you can start planning for your release, the more opportunities you’ll have. Giles’s timing jibes with what book publicist Dana Kaye, founder of Kaye Publicity, Inc., recommends. Kaye suggests debut authors start planning their promotional strategy six to seven months ahead of their release date, allowing them to target long-lead publications and introduce their work gradually to a wider audience. Kaye notes that being a debut author has built-in advantages and disadvantages. On the positive side, “everyone wants to showcase the hot new debut,” but the downside is that, as a relative unknown in the literary world, “you likely don’t have name recognition or existing connections.” Kaye advises that “the sooner authors can establish themselves in the publishing community, the easier it will be when it comes time to publicize their books.”
After posting about her book deal, author and bookstagrammer Amy Lea deliberately waited to share details about her debut romance novel, Set on You (May 10, Berkley), until pre-order links were available nine months prior to the pub date. Lea, who joined Instagram in 2019 as an avid reader posting about her favorite books, says she “didn’t want to start too early,” without being able to direct readers to take action. Additionally, she says, “self-promotion is a little scary for me. I’m used to hyping up other books, not my own.” Lea has racked up over 10,000 followers on Instagram and says her success has come from never being too sales focused. “In my experience, the secret to engagement on Instagram is not your number of followers but real, authentic connections made between a smaller number of followers,” she explains.
When it was time to showcase her book’s cover, Lea tapped her network of bookstagram friends to share the cover and related hashtags. The support she got from her online book community “was beyond what I could have ever imagined. People even shared deeply personal stories with me regarding how much they already connected with the characters in my book, despite not having read it yet. It was truly amazing.”
Forming community and adjusting expectations are useful when releasing a debut novel in a time of ongoing uncertainty. Cleyvis Natera, author of the novel Neruda on the Park (May 17, Ballantine Books), has found community in The Debutante Ball, a website started in 2007 to support a group of seven debut authors across a variety of genres. Natera, who sold her novel at age 43 at auction within three weeks of submission, expressed similar gratitude to Giles for the camaraderie being part of such a group can provide. “As someone who self-isolated from my writing community after I failed to publish my MFA thesis, I’ve learned that community is such a critical aspect of my ability to make it through the ups and downs of a career as a writer. Joining The Debutante Ball has already helped me in preparing for my release because every single writer that is part of our cohort is on the same journey but on a different timeline.”
Natera spent 15 years writing Neruda on the Park, which has given her a perspective beyond this individual title. Regarding her approach to marketing her book, Natera says, “I’ve embraced the knowledge that I’m laying the foundation not just for a successful debut novel but for a fruitful and long writing career.”
Bottom line: Natera is philosophical about the fact that much remains unknown about how the pandemic will affect the specifics of her book launch. “Although my deepest wish is to connect with people in person, I also know the likelihood of that happening during an ongoing global health crisis is out of my control,” she says, noting that “the publishing industry is under such fluctuation right now. The part that is most critical for writers to understand is that so much flexibility is needed because we don’t know what kind of environment any of our books will be published into. The good news is that we’ve seen books flourish even during the most difficult times.”
Rachel Kramer Bussel is a freelance writer specializing in books and culture. She also writes and edits erotica and teaches erotic writing workshops. Follow her on Twitter: @raquelita
