self publishing

Social Media, Medium, Substack and Writing! An update on spinning all those plates!

~ ChanAtkins ~ 2 Comments
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Hi everyone!

I’ve been active on Medium now since 2023 and active on Substack for over a year. My trusty and much loved blog here on WordPress has been going since I started my writing and publishing journey back in 2012 or therearebouts! Since I published my debut novel The Mess Of Me in 2013 I have gone on to publish a total of 23 books, if you count The Dark Finds You which is out next month.

It was all a learning curve in the beginning and it’s true to say I actively hated a lot of it. I just wanted to be writing. Fast forward through the years and I started to get used to it and eventually, even enjoy it. And then of course the landscape shifted – again and again and again – and like all independent authors on a low budget, I’ve had to shift and adapt with it each time.

What I do now is try new things, give them some time and then assess what is working and what is not. After all, no one wants to spend their entire lives on social media and these books have got to be written somehow! With all that in mind I thought I’d do a little recap on what has been working for me, as well as what I am thinking of trying in the future!

The first thing to mention is that my sales are up. Reviews are still very hard to come by, but I get sales from Amazon and from Draft 2 Digital (who distribute both ebooks and paperbacks to everywhere else) every month and in the last year or so, those sales have improved. Now, I am nowhere near being able to pay the rent! Nowhere close! But I do get a nice surprise most months, a little ‘oh!’ moment when my royalties show up. Funnily enough, most of my royalties are coming from Draft 2 Digital distributors, not Amazon!

Let’s start with social media.

Facebook and Instagram: I am still not as active as I probably should be, but whatever I am doing there for free does seem to be fetching me sales. I have 424 followers on Instagram which is linked to my Facebook author page where I have around 1,500 followers. I post daily life pictures and videos such as dog walks in my favourite places, gardening and baking pictures and writing updates. I post review graphics of all my books as much as I can, and quote graphics too, all with buy links and blurbs attached with the relevant hashtags. What I’ve done differently this year is use music! I caught on late and who knows what difference it makes, but it is fun picking songs to go with your pictures and reels. I try to repost and share my Substack and Medium posts to Instagram and Facebook too but not as much as I should.

What I want to try in 2026: I want to try posting more videos of me talking. Scary, I know, but a lot of the time it would actually be quicker to record myself saying or doing something and post that to several places. I particularly want to try this with my Chasing Driftwood Writing Group social media platforms and blog. I work with young writers running clubs on Zoom and in schools, but I often worry about the young writers I can’t reach. There is only one me and I can’t run any more clubs than I already do. I already post a weekly round-up of what the kids have been up to on my Chasing Driftwood Writing Group blog and Facebook page, but I was thinking of changing that to a video where I could go into a bit more detail. It might be useful for writers who can’t access clubs and workshops, and I could cross post it to lots of places. I’m unsure at the moment, but it could potentially be more effective as well as a time-saver!

Medium: It’s been up and down over on Medium but I do try and publish pieces there at least once a week. Essays, poems and short stories mostly. I am still running my tiny little publication The Wild Writers Club but constantly wondering if it is worth it! I have been boosted a few times lately and while two of them didn’t earn as much as I would have liked, one did hit the sweet spot and earned me over £200 just in time for Christmas! I was thrilled. Funnily enough, although I was only responding to a writing prompt about revolution, it was the most political piece I have ever shared there, so maybe I should do that more often? Anyway, it continues to be worth it, so I will stick around for the forseeable future. One new thing I have been doing is sharing links to my Medium pieces to my Substack weekly round-up post. I share the Medium member link and the free friends link to cover everyone.

What I want to try in 2026: I need to remember to share my Medium pieces in more places, such as Instagram and Facebook as well as Substack. Chances are the same people are not following me in all these places, so it makes sense to cross post as much as possible. I also intend to keep up my once a week posting if I can and maybe even up it, but we will see. Maybe I will be brave and share more of my political and social opinions!

Substack: I am not earning anything on Substack, that is the most important thing to point out. I have zero paid subs and I don’t think I am likely to ever get any. I have thought about offering high value content to paid subscribers but it just feels a bit cheap. I’m not sure I have anything to offer that’s worth £5 a month. I just want people to read my books and that’s what I focus on there. Sales have been better this year, so perhaps it is working? I have 139 subscribers there. I post weekly round-ups on a Friday where I share the main news of the week, whether it is writing, work or just life related and I also share what I am reading, watching and listening to. I just enjoy it! It’s fun sharing books and music and TV I love! There is always writing related news too and as I already said, I also post links to my Medium pieces. I also post an end of the month author newsletter, which really just replaces the old useless MailChimp one I used to have. This is always 100% writing related. And up until recently I was serialising Black Hare Valley Book 1 on Substack as well as here.

What I want to try in 2026: I was thinking about adding writing tips and prompts to my weekly round-up but if I go ahead with my weekly video thing for Chasing Driftwood Writing Group, I wouldn’t need to do this. I would link to it. One thing I am definitely doing is adding character POV things to my author newsletter. There is endless content for this! I am going to be handing over a part of the newsletters to one of my characters each month. For example, Danny from The Boy With The Thorn In His Side will share his favourite sad songs, or Bill Robinson from The Holds End Trilogy will share his best ‘fuck you’ songs to sing at a gig. Chess and Reuben from The Day The Earth Turned series will share survival skills, and so on! There will be all sorts from playlists, reading recommendations to life hacks, recipes and philosophical thoughts! I am looking forward to this!

Well, I think that’s everything. As always there are probably a million more things I could be doing to sell books and improve visibility as an independent author, but at the moment I think it’s wise to stick to the things I know and keep building on them. Tweaking things and trying something new every now and then within these platforms also seems to be worth it!

How about you? If you are an author what is working and not working for you at the moment and d you plan to try anything different in 2026? If you are a reader, where are you finding your books at the moment?

See you next time!

The Cassidy Newbold, Clairvoyant Tour and Giveaway!

~ ChanAtkins ~ 2 Comments

Today I’m delighted to be part of the book tour and giveaway for The Cassie Newbold, Clairvoyant series by Karen J. Mossman (https://karenjmossman.com/) Karen is a prolific author and is hugely supportive of other indies like me, so it’s fantastic to be able to repay a favour or two and be part of this tour. I have read a few of the books in the series and will link to a review further down.

There is a giveaway attached to this tour and all you have to do to enter is leave a comment on any of the stops on the tour. For example, you can leave a comment here to be entered, or go directly to Karen’s post here to be entered: https://karenjmossman.com/2025/04/23/silver-dagger-book-tour-the-cassidy-newbold-clairvoyant-tour-and-giveawaysilver-dagger-tours/

Here is a bit more about the first book in the series, The Killer on The Heath, followed by my review.

Cassie uses her clairvoyant powers to help her detective
brother solve crime… but will she find the answers in time?

The blurb:

A woman is dead, and another is missing. The only person who
can save her is Cassie.

With no clues and time running out, her brother, Detective
Newbold, desperately needs her help. He is counting on Cassie’s clairvoyant and
empathic abilities to locate Chantelle.

When Chantelle’s brother, Pedro, seeks out a psychic for
help, he meets and falls for Cassie. Though he wants answers, neither Cassie
nor Detective Newbold can give any, which complicates their relationship. To
make matters worse, his overbearing mother adds further damage with her
meddling.

Meanwhile, the killer has been caught, but he refuses to
talk. Now, it’s up to Cassie to read the signs and rescue her lover’s sister.

Will she find the answers in time?

Get it for £1 here:

https://books2read.com/b/Killer-on-the-heath1: The Cassidy Newbold, Clairvoyant Tour and Giveaway!

My review: I really enjoyed this story about Cassie, a clairvoyant who gets roped into solving a crime by her twin brother, Seb, a detective. Two women have gone missing locally and one body has been found. It was interesting to have both sides of the investigation: what Cassie senses or ‘sees’ vs what Seb discovers as a detective. I enjoyed the relationship between them -it had an interesting dynamic. The story focuses on Seb’s efforts to find missing Chantelle, and Cassie being distracted by an attraction to the missing woman’s brother. I was gripped until the end and my only complaint is how short the book is because I wanted more! But as it is part of a collection, I am looking forward to reading more about Cassie and Seb!

The Killer On The Heath is a fantastic introduction to the spooky world of clairvoyant, Cassie, and there are 5 books in the collection in total.

Don’t forget to leave a comment to enter the giveaway!

The Serialisation of Black Hare Valley Starts Next Week!

~ ChanAtkins ~ 2 Comments

Will you be coming along for the ride? (You need to be subscribed here or on Substack, not just following.)

a rough mock-up idea for the cover – photo is mine!

A few weeks ago while in the middle of fighting writers block, the re-emergence of imposter syndrome and a general frustration with writing and publishing, I had the crazy idea of serialising my current WIP, Black Hare Valley and offering it to subscribers to read for free. That was a rollercoaster of thoughts and emotions, I can tell you.

My biggest fears in sharing the WIP were people copying or pirating the work, and people just not reading it at all. I am still scared of both those things but I have decided to kick fear aside and do it anyway. After all, that’s what writers do, over and over. Despite it being one of the lowest paid jobs there is, despite AI rising up to steal it from us, quite literally, despite loved ones often not being supportive, we still do it anyway. We write anyway.

I made the decision to share it in hope of the following outcomes:

  • increasing my follows and subscriptions on Substack where I’ll also be sharing it
  • increasing my follows and subscriptions here on my blog
  • enticing paid subscribers on Substack – worth a go!
  • increasing my open/read ratio on Substack
  • enticing people to read my other books if they enjoy the serialisation
  • enticing people to purchase Black Hare Valley when it is finally published
  • enticing people to purchase the rest of the series when it’s published as I won’t be serialising all of it
  • gaining honest feedback from early readers of Black Hare Valley
  • hopefully getting some positive comments that will encourage me to keep going!
  • having conversations with readers about the series
  • having fun!
  • feeling brave for trying something new

I’m posting the list here as I want to refer back to it when the experiment is over. It will be interesting to see if I achieve any of the goals mentioned ahead, and if nothing else, doing this will provide me with some blogging content as I examine what worked and what didn’t.

So, how will it work?

If you are subscribed to my blog or my Substack, you will get a new chapter every Thursday morning. Please note, you have to be SUBSCRIBED not just FOLLOWING. For those following my blog, you will still get the Friday posts as normal but to get the chapters you need to be subscribed either here or on my Substack:

https://substack.com/@chantelleatkins: The Serialisation of Black Hare Valley Starts Next Week!

The first chapter will go live on Thursday 1st May. May Day is a very significant event in Black Hare Valley so I figured it would make sense to kick it all off on may Day! I may, however, divide the chapters into two parts as they are quite long, so it might be Chapter 1, Part 1 one week, followed by Chapter 1, part 2 the next week. I will also include the rough sketches for each chapter to help bring the town alive for you, and the first instalment will also have a map of the town attached.

I am actually really excited about this. It feels brave at least! It feels like I am doing something, being proactive and trying something new.

Black Hare Valley is probably best described as British Folklore Horror, so if that sounds like your kind of thing, I really hope you’ll come along for the ride!

I’m Having A Huge Crisis of Confidence

~ ChanAtkins ~ 6 Comments

But I am determined to get through this…

Image by Jakub Kopczyński from Pixabay

A few weeks ago I wrote here and on Substack about suffering writers block for the first time in my life. I was able to recognise the signs and the symptoms I’ve spent the last decade helping my students through. As a creative writing tutor, dealing with other people’s writers block has been extremely common. I had all the classic signs and was procrastinating like hell. I was even starting to dread my evening’s writing – something that is not like me at all.

I was scrolling through my phone, opening up new tabs on my laptop and scrolling through various feeds. I was ‘checking’ things like emails and my bank account, when I really didn’t need to. In short, I was putting off writing. And when I did open up that blank page, whether it’s here on my blog, a new story on Medium or a new post on Substack, I was faltering. Hesitating. I was finding it hard.

There were a few reasons for this and I did manage to get through it. I even managed to push through and finish my current work-in-progress, which was the Black Hare Valley diary style companion book.

But the feeling of being disconnected to writing has not gone away and in all honesty, it is making me feel sick. So I decided to come here and be honest about it. This blog was the very first thing I shared my writing on. Way before I published any books, and a whole decade before I discovered things like Medium and Substack, I was just here. Writing about writing, writing about life. Just writing.

If I am going to be really honest about this situation, then I have to face some uncomfortable truths, and facing those would be easier if I thought I had a solution, a way forward. The thing is, I don’t. Except for to keep trying…

The truth is I am having a huge crisis of confidence when it comes to writing. I am doubting myself like never before. I am getting ideas that I fail to follow through on. I am starting stories, poems and essays and not finishing them. I am reading and editing current WIPs and hating every word. I am feeling like an imposter, all these years later. If I am really, really honest, I am feeling like a loser. A failure.

I don’t want to harp on about why. I have covered this in other posts. I think the main issue is that all these years and books later, I am still no further along, at least not in sales and reviews. I know, I know, I shouldn’t fixate on them. I love writing and would do it anyway. I know that success can be measured in other ways, such as my writing improving, or just the amount of work I have produced.

But I don’t know. It doesn’t feel enough. I am a few years away from turning fifty and I cannot help feeling left behind somehow… Unimportant.

I don’t expect anyone to feel sorry for me or to offer advice, by the way. I am just returning to this blog in the manner in which it started. Me, offloading my thoughts and feelings. Me, trying to figure things out. It helped back then so I am hoping it will help now.

Two weeks ago I blogged about building an author platform and whether you should scrap it and start again if it’s not working. I guess this post is related to that question. Last week I blogged about whether I should serialise my WIP on here, Substack or Medium. I kind of want to but I am scared.

The reasons to do it come from the author platform query. If it’s not working, try something new. Is it time, for example, that I did try a new approach? Maybe offering my writing for free will bring in new readers, who will then go on to purchase my other books. Maybe it is worth a try,

But my biggest fear is still no one reading it…

I can’t imagine how horrible that would feel after everything.

Things continue to be a shitshow over on Medium. If my earnings go any lower, I will need to rethink my membership. Just months ago I was making hundreds every month and it gave me such a confidence boost! I felt like a real writer! I even saw an uptick in my book sales.

Now I feel like I am questioning everything I do. I guess I need a confidence boost from somewhere and serialising my WIP and offering it for free could be the way to do it…

Or it could backfire horribly…

Still, I suppose that is the worst that can happen and if it did? I would have something to blog about for a while!

Let me know what you think in the comments. Could giving work away like this bring in new readers and give me the boost of interest I need right now? Or could it make things worse?