My daughter is an editor. She works in the educational book sector but she did proofread the first edition of a million seller.
She told me that for an author to even be looked at, they need a strong social media following to do their own marketing.
Her friend had a huge Tik-Toc following and decided to write a novel. She apparently gave regular updates to her followers.
Her first edition was self-published print-on-demand.
(Had my daughter known how successful the book would be she would have charged a whole lot more to proofread it)
She sold hundreds of thousands of copies printed on demand. Simon and Schuster now has her under contract. Book two in the trilogy is out and there’s a tv movie in the works.
Not bad for a 21 year old kid.
Your mileage may vary but from what my daughter tells me, social media is the key.
I've got a blog that I've actively maintained since 2004. It's racked up more than two million readers.
I don't do TikTok. I've posted a few videos of me offering commentary, on YouTube.
Some of my film work has been seen at Cannes and American Film Institute.
I've been published on a number of outlets including Western Journal, The Federalist, and American Thinker. But I don't know how much pull that would give me with an agent/publishing house.
I've been writing for most of my life. Unfortunately a significant portion of that life has been spent fending off manic depression. That disease has cost me a LOT, personally and professionally. It's something that gets considerable focus in my book.
If I knew how to increase my social media visibility, well... I would definitely be doing that. It seems so elusive though.