Slow and Fast

The first three months of my debut year were fraught with anxiety for various reasons. I won’t be able to properly review my experience until after July, but for now, I’m maintaining a level of unquiet indifference: trying not to write myself off as a debut failure whilst also doing everything I possibly can to ensure my highest level of success. It’s been exhausting, but mostly rewarding.  

If you visit certain areas of the internet, like pubtips on Reddit, you’ll see a common sentiment, usually expressed to lessen the anxiety of panicking authors: self-promotion doesn’t really push the needle; you as the author can’t do anything more than what your publisher is already doing. With all due respect, these are painfully privileged takes. In an industry that is overwhelmingly white, UK publishing has obvious limitations when it comes to knowing which selling points appeal to Black readers specifically, and struggle to market books written by Black authors to wider audiences. Publishers are less likely to know about groups like Dark Matter, the Black British Book Festival, and other such organisations that help boost sales for Black authors.  

Black writers face tougher challenges maintaining their career if their debut garners soft sales. These mantras veteran authors give to newer ones, of ‘not worrying’ if a debut book doesn’t take off because ‘most people don’t become bestsellers until their seventh, eighth, ninth book!’ are unhelpful to the Black authors who get dropped by their publishers after the first book – of a series!    

Publishing moves very slowly or very quickly, there’s no in-between. It moves slowly in that I signed my contract in the autumn of 2022, but the book cover wasn’t finished until January 2025. It moves very quickly in that I signed my contract in the autumn of 2022, and by the summer of 2023 the word ‘romantasy’ officially entered public lexicon and brought publishing to its knees. The bells and whistles that surrounded my signing The Reaper in 2022 have truly been returned to their box, and other acquisitions have arisen that hit the current tropes and trends much more cleanly. It’s likely easier for my publisher to market these other books, which means I must work to do my own.

I spiralled at the start of the year. I was checking in on the Del Rey Instagram account daily and getting more distressed that none of the bloggers posted to the stories were talking about The Reaper. They were barely taking photos of the ARCs. Whenever the account uploaded content, the replies were crammed with readers saying how excited they were for Silver Elite, Silvercloak, Fable (and now, Tusk Love). It’s like my book simply didn’t exist. I started comparing the number of reviews for The Reaper on NetGalley and Goodreads with these other books, wondering why mine were permanently stuck at 23 and 14 respectively. I didn’t understand why, as an author of a big five imprint four months out from publication, I couldn’t even reach 200 adds on Goodreads – the biggest reviewer space on the internet. I considered the lack of foreign rights interest, the subscription box companies that rejected it, the fact that other books from my imprint are getting first edition sprayed edges and are sitting in the ‘Buzz’ section on Edelweiss. It felt like no one knew and no one cared about The Reaper. 

Another reason for my panic was my positioning as a Black author who runs an organisation trying to get other Black writers published. I thought about the humiliation if my book tanked, and how it would look to the mentees who view me as a publishing professional, someone who “made it” to the inside and can now offer meaningful advice. I thought about how I’m the only Black debut that appears on Del Rey UK’s social media channels, and the potential repercussions for other Black fantasy debuts if my sales turn out to be abysmal. January – March 2025 was not a great time for me.   

Eventually, I stopped spiralling, because it was literally causing me to break down in tears at random times of the day, which is dramatic and ridiculous. I accepted that Instagram is one part of the internet, and that seasoned book reviewers tend to flock towards certain imprints based on their usual output. I was the obvious outlier, so the bloggers that had been curated in that online community might not scramble to pick up The Reaper if they saw it in a bookshop. It meant I had to branch out and find my own audience. I took a break from Instagram.

The Reaper’s campaign is relatively quiet now in April, but I have been told by many people that things pick up rapidly during the final 2 or so months to publication. We’ve got three months to go, and I’m still looking forward to the big countdown. I’m also aware that despite my worries of whether the book will take off, I have received treatment that many other authors don’t - such as getting a publicist, having a proper marketing and publicity meeting, and having ARCs to send out. So whilst this post might seem a bit ranty, I am grateful for what I’ve been given so far.

Unlike my publisher, The Reaper is the only book I’m publishing this year, which means I have the time and energy to focus solely on its success. No long hours juggling multiple book workloads here!

Here’s a few things I did over the past 4 months or so:  

  • Ran 2 giveaways with other debut authors (both of whom have more followers than me and are US-based, which increased visibility).  

  • Started posting on Threads a lot more, as it has a very supportive, very active Black reader community that has been absolutely fantastic to me and got my Goodreads adds to over 400 in just two days. It also led to a podcast booking with a Black British writer and blogger. 

  • Pitched the book to an indie bookshop to do a pre-order campaign, and commissioned artwork and bookplates as gifts for the pre-orders.  

  • Pitched the book to a major special editions company. Details are currently being finalised so I won’t announce their name yet, but it looks like I’ll have my dream of a Reaper sprayed edge! And they’ve made a huge order!    

  • Pitched the book to an indie book box subscription service. As above, details are being finalised so I won’t announce their name. 

  • Posted my elevator pitch on TikTok which got me some great views, boosted NetGalley requests, got me a few pre-orders (I have a friend from France who told me that her friend pre-ordered the book after seeing one of my videos!), and led to another podcast interview request. 

  • Pitched myself to two other major book podcasts; episodes will be released in July. 

  • Got booked to do a reddit AMA on their r/fantasy board (which has 3 million subscribers so great for publicity and introduces The Reaper to seasoned fans of classic urban fantasy). 

  • Pending: I’m waiting to hear back from Forbidden Planet about another pitch, and I’m looking for more indie bookshops in King’s Cross that would like to join the pre-order campaign. I’m also setting up a street team.  

At the end of March, I sent a quick summary of the above to my marketing/publicity/editorial team. I turned my self-pity into something more productive, and I’d like to think it’s encouraged the team about my willingness to collaborate with their future plans. Hopefully, they were impressed! I felt truly accomplished putting everything down on paper like that, but god was it exhausting! During that time, I even wrote two novels. As in, two whole novels separate from the Gethsemane series, because I’d convinced myself I was up for cancellation. One of those novels (a very spicy, M/M, dark academia fantasy with religious trauma themes) was written in March. 73,000 words written in less than a month. My anxiety has led to some crazy behaviour.  

A few weeks ago, I emailed a friend about my worries, telling her I felt like I was trailing behind. She told me:  

You made it this far. Frankly, it’s further than most folk ever manage to and I truly think that’s in large part because of your talent, yes, but also because of your tenacious, entrepreneurial spirit. Hold onto that in this industry! When you felt like the odds were stacked against you, you didn’t give up. Instead, you set up BGW! 

It certainly gave me the boost I needed. If you’d like to know how I wrote these successful pitches, and if you’d like advice on how to approach organisations and how to choose the right ones, then subscribe to the Grim Book newsletter! I’m putting something together for next month’s drop.

My word of encouragement (or perhaps call to action): send that email! Be annoying! Knock the doors down! The worst you can get is a no, and the best you can get is a shiny, lovely, sprayed edge special edition from an internationally respected book company.   

~JPB~