We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Alina May a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alina, appreciate you joining us today. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?
I think it’s a cannon event for avid readers to put a book down and be like: I can do that. I can write something like this! And that’s what happened for me. I’ve written stories my whole life, but one day I was like: I’m going to write and publish a whole novel for fun. I’ll do it just for myself. I’ll probably lose money on it, but it’ll be worth it to give me an identity outside of being a mom and being a 9-5 employee. So that’s what I did! I wrote any chance I got for three months. It was fun to exist in my own little world that no one else knew about. And when the book was done, I looked for editors. I realized that editing can be a super lengthy process (weeks to months) so once my manuscript was with the editor, I had time. That’s when I fully leaned into social media and learned everything I could from people who had gone before me. I found a cover designer and formatter, and also started my own social media page. I knew social media and marketing were going to be my biggest challenges since I had no experience in those things. But I threw myself into it and no matter how many times I failed, continued trying. Consistency and effort paid off, and social media became a very successful tool for me. I had content go viral and was able to find a bunch of early readers for my first book. Giving out ARC copies (free copies in exchange for an honest review) allowed me to get even more online attention before the release of my book. Release was very successful and…here I am now!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I’m a dark romance author, which means my shit is traumatizing, lol. Dark romance is a niche in the romance genre that deals with heavy topics, morally grey characters, and often kink that is controversial / harmful. Because of those qualities, it is very hard to find any big companies that publish true dark romance. It’s very much a corner of the market run by self-published authors which is an exciting place to be as a business owner because there is a LOT of space to grow. Especially within my corner of the genre, which tends to be unapologetically dark.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
Oh god, I messed up a lot lol. My primary audience is on TikTok and Instagram, but I mostly focused on TikTok. To begin, I made the same kind of video over and over again, posting three times a day. I did this consistently for two months and I didn’t see the kind of growth I wanted. My videos were mostly static pictures with text on them, which I later learned is NOT what viewers on Tiktok are looking for. So, I had to learn to pivot. I changed up the style of videos, using sounds I heard a lot and using styles that I saw do well. Moral of the story is: if something isn’t working, don’t keep trying that something. Change it up.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
Networking with other readers! Getting large accounts who are willing to read your book and give an honest review is crucial! The networking must also be kind and honest. Don’t belittle readers who don’t like your content or ask them to lie about your product. I’ve seen a lot of authors do both and it never ends well.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.alinamaybooks.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alina_may_author?igsh=MXE5djN1Z21taDI5bw%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
- Other: Tiktok! https://www.tiktok.com/@alina_may_author?_t=8rMuUySB6Ew&_r=1
Image Credits
Myself