Nobody Knows Your Book Exists
My name is J.M. Lane. I’m an independent Irish author, and my books have sold more than 50,000 copies. I say that at the beginning because, if I am going to spend the next several articles talking to you about book marketing, you are entitled to know why you should listen to me.
Education came late for me. I did not have a great relationship with school the first time around, but I returned as an adult and went on to collect a number of degrees and postgraduate qualifications across different subjects, including marketing. So I know the theory but more importantly, I have had to use it myself.
I do not have a publishing-house marketing department or a publicist doing the work for me. The marketing department is one man, a laptop and whatever time I can steal from actually writing.
That is what this series is going to be about
Over the next several articles, I want to look at book marketing from the writer’s side of the table: finding readers, social media, BookTok, reviews, media, bookshops, festivals, author websites and the things that can look like marketing but are often just a very efficient way of wasting your time.
I am not interested in filling these pieces with jargon. I want each article to give you something practical you can do. And the best place to start is with an uncomfortable truth.
Putting your book on Kindle Direct Publishing or Lulu.com is not marketing.
It means your book is available. That is not the same thing as people knowing it exists.
Make yourself findable!
Imagine somebody hears your name at a reading, sees one of your videos or has your book mentioned to them by a friend. They take out their phone and search for you.
What do they find?
You do not need an expensive website or technical skills. You need somewhere clear that tells people who you are, what you write and where they can find your books.
There are now simple website builders designed specifically for authors. BookBub’s Author Websites, for example, uses templates and no-code tools and lets authors display books, add retailer links and build mailing lists. The point is not to create the most beautiful website on the internet. The point is to give readers somewhere reliable to find you.
Your social profiles should do the same job. Use the same author name where possible. Have a clear photograph or logo, a short bio and an obvious route to your books.
Do not make interested people work to find you. Make it as easy as possible for them to find you and buy your book.
Do not wait until the launch day of your book
A surprising number of writers spend months or years writing a book and only begin talking about it when it is published.
Then every post suddenly becomes:
MY BOOK IS OUT. BUY IT HERE.
The reader has no relationship with the book yet. You have to talk about it before publication. Share the title in a video or countdown to revealing the title of your book. Talk about the setting of your story, the research you put into it, a character you loved writing, how the cover was created, a problem you had while writing it or the reason you wanted to write it in the first place.
You are not just asking people to buy something every time they see you.
You are letting them become familiar with you and your book. Give people different avenues into the same book. Your book should give you dozens of things to talk about, in other words, CONTENT.
If your novel is based in a real place, talk about the place. If it uses folklore, talk about the folklore. If you discovered something strange during research, tell people about it. Talk about characters, influences, deleted scenes, mistakes, covers, titles and the things that made you laugh while writing.
“Buy my book” is a request not an advertisement but an interesting story about why you wrote it might actually be something somebody wants to hear and then share.
You have to also look beyond your own followers
Your audience is not limited to the people already following you. Think about what exists inside your book. History? Crime? Sport? Folklore? A particular town? A profession? A social issue?
Somewhere, people are already interested in those things. The question is how your book might naturally enter those conversations.
Ask out Loud
A large part of marketing is simply asking. Ask about opportunities. Ask whether somebody would be interested in your story. Ask if there is a place for you at an event. Ask if somebody would consider your book.
If you don’t ask the answer is always no, but if you simply ask the question, yes you will get refusals but every now and then, somebody says yes. Neither is fatal or guaranteed success.
Repeat yourself without repeating yourself
You may see every post you make but your readers definitely do not. Do not be frightened to talk about the same book repeatedly. Just do not say the same thing repeatedly. Today it might be the setting. Next week it might be a character. Another day it might be something you learned while researching it.
The 20 Places Exercise to Make Your Book Visible
I have created a simple worksheet to go with this first article. Write down twenty places where somebody who might genuinely enjoy your book could discover you or your work.
Do not worry yet about whether they will say yes, whether your following is big enough or whether you feel qualified to approach them.
- Just find twenty possibilities.
- Then choose five.
- Do something with those five this week.
Send the email. Make the post. Introduce yourself. Put the website together. Make yourself easier to find. Not every attempt will lead somewhere, and it does not have to. The goal is simply to create more chances for the right person to encounter your work.
Because the first question in book marketing should not be:
“How do I sell this book?”
It should be:
“Where can somebody who might love this book discover it?”
Publishing makes your book available but marketing makes it visible.
(c) J.M. Lane
The Make Your Book Visible Worksheet from J.M. Lane is available for you to download here.
About the book Why the Curlew Cries by J.M. Lane:
Former Garda Jack McLane has come to the Ox Mountains looking for a quieter life, or at least the remains of one. He has left the job behind, but not the things the job left in him. Grief. Guilt. The memory of an old friend who spent years thinking about the women who vanished from the west of Ireland and were never found.
When Jack is given access to that friend’s private notes, he expects obsession, loose ends, maybe the sad remains of a case that defeated better men than him. Instead, he finds a pattern. The trail leads him through lonely roads, abandoned farms, half-forgotten families and a landscape where people know more than they are willing to say.
In the shadow of the Ox Mountains, the past has not passed at all. It has only settled into the walls, the fields and the silence between neighbours. And somewhere in that silence, a killer has been waiting.
Where the Curlew Sings is a dark Irish crime thriller about grief, loyalty and the secrets rural Ireland keeps when no one is asking the right questions. For readers of atmospheric crime fiction, cold case mysteries and slow-burning rural noir.
Where the Curlew Sings is published on 11th October, 2026. Pre-order your copy of the book online here.
About the book Setanta and The Lady by the Water by J.M. Lane:
A mythic coming-of-age novella rooted in Irish folklore and shadowed grief.
If you loved Patrick Ness’s A Monster Calls this one’s for you
Setanta knows only this: his mother vanished, his father is a ghost of a man, and something ancient is following them. From haunted towns to forgotten hills, they chase the Lady by the Water, a banshee whose song marks the doomed. But when a cursed hound spares Setanta’s life, everything he thought he knew begins to unravel.
Trained in silence. Forged by loss. Marked by a name older than Ireland.
As his scar deepens and the veil between worlds thins, Setanta discovers a truth stranger than any bedtime tale: he’s not just a boy. He’s a weapon. And the monsters remember his name.
Perfect for fans of Patrick Ness, Susan Cooper, or folkloric dark fantasy, this lyrical Irish novella blends myth, memory, and the weight of blood into a powerful modern legend.
Order your copy of Setanta and The Lady by the Water by J.M. Lane online here.
And read more from J.M. Lane on Writing.ie here.
