This is true: readers won’t just magically find your book. You have to actively talk about it, and not just on a website (which they won’t know to find until you’re driving them there).

So what’s the secret?

Connection

It’s time for the difficult conversation about social media…LOL!

Every one of your readers is an individual. Anyone who takes their valuable time to read your book is worthy of your respect. Most of them welcome the idea of connecting with authors they love. Social media can be a way to forge connections with strangers who can turn into readers. If you look at it that way, it feels less daunting (at least it does for me!)

You need at least one active social media account

You do not have to do everything and be everywhere. What you want to do is show up on the platforms where other writers in your sub genre hang out.

But how do you find that out?

Start with an educated guess based on the ages your readers are likely to be. The general romance reader tends to be between the ages of 25 and 64—which leaves it wide open. Historical romance possibly skews on the high side, where rom-com and romantasy might be on the younger side. Romantasy might well dip down into YA territory.

Here’s a very rough idea of the ages of users on different platforms:

• Facebook: Broad age range, probably better for readers on the mature side.
• Instagram: A younger demographic, mostly 18–24
• TikTok: Used to skew very young, but its users have aged up recently

That’s all fine, but then what?

Romance Readers on Facebook

What you want to do is use the search function to find groups that focus on your sub genre—either readers or writers. Readers because you’ll see what they’re saying about books like yours, and writers because sometimes you’ll meet people you can do newsletter swaps with, or even beta readers or blurbers.

Join the groups that seem appropriate. And pay attention to group rules! Many of them say no self-promotion, unless that’s actually their purpose. You can still get good information from them. It’s always a learning process.

And if Facebook is where your readers are, create a page for yourself as an author, and invite all your Facebook friends to follow you there. And then, post regularly.

IMPORTANT: Being active on social media is not about “me, me, me.” Practice good literary citizenship and mention other writers’ books you like, or movies or whatever, or share pictures of your dog even… No one likes to be sold to all the time.

Romance Readers on Instagram

There’s a very active community on Instagram called #bookstagram. And it is all about the hashtags there. But don’t be tempted to pile up hashtags in your posts; choose judiciously.

These are some of the hashtags used for the different romance subgenres:

#contemporaryromance​

#historicalromance​

#paranormalromance​

#eroticromance​

#romanticcomedy​

#romanticsuspense​

#youngadultromance​

#regencyromance​

#fantasyromance

And for general romance:

#romancebooks #bookstagram #booklover #romance #books #romancereader #bookish #bookstagrammer #bookworm #romancereads #romancenovels #readersofinstagram #bookrecommendations #romancebookstagram #bookaddict #kindleunlimited #reading #booktok #booksbooksbooks #bookreview #contemporaryromance #booknerd #book #booksofinstagram #authorsofinstagram #romancereadersofinstagram #bookcommunity #bibliophile #romancenovel #darkromance

But don’t do what I did above and just paste a whole bunch of hashtags into your post! That’s called hashtag stuffing.

What Is Hashtag Stuffing?

Hashtag stuffing refers to using an excessive number of hashtags—often the maximum (30 per post on Instagram)—especially when they’re:

• Irrelevant to the content
• Overused or generic (#love, #happy, #instagood)
• Repeated across posts with no variation

People do this to try to maximize reach, but it can actually backfire.

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😬 Why It Can Be a Problem:

• Looks spammy to followers
• Hurts engagement if it doesn’t target the right audience
• Instagram’s algorithm may suppress posts that appear spammy or manipulative
• May attract bots, not real readers or buyers

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✅ Better Strategy: Intentional Hashtag Use

• Use 10–15 well-targeted hashtags
• Mix popular, niche, and branded hashtags
• Make sure they’re relevant to the post and audience
• Rotate hashtags to avoid patterns that look spammy

And sometimes fewer can be better, but try to use at least 3.

➯ Follow authors, readers, and reviewers who use those hashtags. And comment on their posts!

Also, when people comment on your posts, answer them/thank them. And anyone who follows you follow back.

Goodreads

I’ll confess I have a love/hate relationship with Goodreads. It started as a simple site where people recorded what they read and reviewed the books. It grew astronomically and was bought by Amazon a few years ago.

By all means have an author profile on Goodreads (which you can start when your book is up for preorder). If you’re doing the recommended advance reviews through Booksprout and BookSirens, those readers can post their reviews of your book while it’s in preorder. On Amazon, reviews can’t be posted until the book is actually available.

The other thing you can do with Goodreads is offer a giveaway. If your book is enrolled in KDP Select, you can give away e-books, which means you won’t spend any more than the cost of the giveaway. You can choose to give away paperbacks too, but you have to fulfill them. You get the names, addresses, and email addresses of the winners. This will cost you the price of the book plus postage, plus your time in managing the giveaway.

BookBub

Even before you have a book you should sign up for BookBub. BookBub is an e-newsletter that offers featured ebook deals every day. It has a HUGE list. You pick your interest areas and they send you the daily deals in each one.

The shangri-la of book marketing is getting your book featured in a BookBub daily deal newsletter. But even if you don’t (it’s very competitive and very expensive), readers can follow you on BookBub. And if you put your book up by creating a BookBub Partners account, any followers you have will receive a new release notice on its publication day.

Another potentially useful feature is BookBub ads. I’ll talk about these more in the advertising section.