At the end of my post from two weeks ago (Dialing Back, 1-3-26), I wrote the following about my independent author’s journey:

Meanwhile, I’m happy to be at a point where I can take on the second front of reassessing my current situation—lowering my presence on social media, dialing back on promoting, & enjoying the moment a bit more.

The first step of that phase will be triaging social media platforms to decide which ones to stay active on. I’ll be the first to admit it gets complicated when you’re not a natural in that world, & yet you maintain a website like this along with eight or nine other platforms.

As we all know, maintaining nine social media platforms (P⁹) + a website (WP) + a weekly blog (B~) produces the dreaded formula: P⁹ + WP + B~ = B2C [Burnt to a Crisp].

That about sums up my current situation, so something has to give. I mean, prior to 2022, if you’d told anybody in my family or circle of friends that within four years time I’d have to decide which social platforms to cut out of the nine I’m currently on, to a person they would’ve busted up laughing. I wouldn’t have blamed them since at the time I was on a grand total of—no lie—zero, zilch, niente.

So what the hell happened? Self-publishing, that’s what.

Why so many platforms? Entering the social media world as a complete newbie meant I had no idea which ones might be a good fit, so I signed up for the nine I currently use plus a few more that didn’t work out for me at the time.

Now that I’ve finished my promo stack, started the next phase of my author journey, & gone back to working on my next novel, I think it’s time to get into some serious pruning by doing one of three things with each of the nine platforms in turn:

1. keep interacting on a regular basis
2. just use as a way to share links to my weekly posts
3. drop altogether.

I think I’ll go through each one & see how much I’ve interacted with other users. For example, I’m still in mild shock over the fact that I’m a regular on TikTok. But I found a wonderful, supportive community & joined a group as well. Will wonders never cease? I even signed up for a course offered by a booktoker/indie author about posting quick, faceless posts (not reels) with excerpts from my most recent work. I can’t believe how many additional views & likes I’m getting on those.

Another marketer mentioned how people are complaining about repeatedly seeing the same book cover, so I started the first of a series of reels without having Core Haven: Hope Amid the Ruins be the centerpiece.

Meanwhile, back at the triaging ranch…

I’m sure there are all kinds of how-to videos & articles on ways to cut back on social media, but to be honest, I’m going about it my own way.

For example, it’s a no-brainer to put YouTube into the third category above since I never really gained much traction with the same reels I used on TikTok. On the other hand, even though I have plenty of followers on Facebook, for some strange reason I’ve never really flowed with the interface, so I’ll move it into the second category. And no surprise that TikTok will fall into the first, not just because I have even more followers than on FB in a little over a month, but because of the aforementioned supportive atmosphere on that slice of the TikTok pie.

The rest of the platforms won’t be so easy to determine due to the various nuances involved.

So I’ll have my work cut out for me over the next few weeks. Wish me luck.

Till next time.

Drew

P.S. I’m happy to report that at the time of my writing this post, Core Haven: Hope Amid the Ruins has maintained its 4.8 out of 5 with 52 global ratings & 50 customer reviews on Amazon. Not too shabby, right?

P.S.S. If by chance you’re interested in reading and thoughtfully reviewing either of my two companion novels, please see the Amazon links below. (And thanks so much in advance!)

---

Lee Hall’s Review of Core Haven: Hope Amid the Ruins

---

---

---

I invite you to check out Lee Hall’s excellent video review, especially the first book he includes on his short list of memorable indie reads—uh-huh, that would be Pearl Fields and the Oregon Meltdown.

---