We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful L A Michaels. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with L A below.

Alright, L A thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Do you think folks should manage their own social media or hire a professional? What do you do?

As an author, I have always managed my own social media. When I first started to publish my novels there was this push amongst different writing groups and writing influencers that you have to have a strong social media presence. The issue is they don’t tell you to have to go about doing it and at that point, I wasn’t looking at things from the perspective of a larger social media presence to sell books. It sort of started to click when you look at what is making the New York Times Best Seller list though… It’s all celebrity and influencer memoirs. That isn’t all that is on that last but more times than not that is what is getting the push from the major publishers.

At the time I decided the best way to go about announcing my first book would be with some art pieces that would stand out. I used the movie “Valley of the Dolls” to create the pose that the main characters of the first novel would make. I did two different pictures actually. One with the adult characters and one with the teenage characters. This way I could reach both audiences as my first novel “Between Heaven and Hell” is multi-generational. For the next few years, I used these pictures along with others to create daily content for my Instagram page in particular.

I never considered hiring a team. That said as the owner of “The LML Group” my publicity and media management company… I am more than qualified to either run your socials or at the very least create a detailed plan of action for you. Which can include drawings. It might be as simple as creating a video ad or two. That or a great logo. It’s really the small things. The other thing that so many people don’t understand is tagging and hashtagging. You are missing out on interactions when you neglect these things.

L A, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

First and foremost I am an author. I’ve written a women’s lit series entitled “Between Heaven and Hell” which currently includes three main series novels, a short novella entitled “Our Private World Apart,” and then two spin-off novels that are a young adult LGBTQ series entitled “The Rainbow’s End” and an upcoming sequel “Knight Music.” I also have a lifelong passion project that is in the urban fantasy genre entitled “Technically Magic” which will have a sequel next year. My other book is “I Love You, I Hate You, I Miss You.” A new adult slice of life novel.

As of right now I have been independently published also known as an indie author also known to the general public as “self-published.” This has been solely my choice so far. I’ve made a profit off of several of my novels so far. I have nothing against the concept of traditional publishing. At the time of my first novel “Between Heaven and Hell” I was in a place where I wanted a novel out and didn’t want to wait several years for it to come out. Which would have been the case for traditional publications. My next book was a sequel. By the time I got to my first book outside of that series, it was 2020 and the world was so up in the air at that point that I took a leap to just continue being an indie author. I was working retail at the time and only just gave that up. At that point in 2020, I was working six days a week and over fifty hours if not sixty. That’s where things were at due to the pandemic. I had no time to send out query letters. At this point, I have finally taken a leap of faith and given up retail and work 99% for myself. I actually have the time and patience to send out query letters and actually have two projects I’ve sat on just to be submitted. So, possibly within the next year or so I will have a traditionally published novel or so. That said I love independent publishing. I’m good at it.

I mentioned giving up retail. I am now in the world of publicity and media management. In April I think I finally had my final straw of dealing with being at the bottom end of a corporate company (especially considering the one I was at tried to pretend it was a small business when it most certainly was not). I had already been quietly looking for other jobs but finally decided it was time to use some of the contacts that I had made over the last few years as an author and whatnot. I was able to get my resume redone and was pushed in the right direction with media management and publicity. My first client who I am still working with is a business-oriented podcast run by former investment banker turned comedian Matt Balaker in his self-titled podcast “The Matt Balaker Podcast.” Since I was listening to all of these small business owners share their stories about what finally pushed them out the door themselves I knew it was time. While I’m reluctantly grateful for the life lessons that I learned in retail I knew it was time to venture out on my own…

My company is entitled “The LML Group.” Which is named for my late mother Lisa Marie Lobaito/ Loren. The logo for my company even reflects her with a pair of red lips. She was the type of woman who refused to go to the mailbox without her makeup on red lipstick was her signature. I’ve always been big on social media. I really don’t watch traditional TV anymore outside of a few shows. I enjoy watching Youtube. There are so many channels that exist on there that just provide hours upon hours of entertainment and I do mean legitimate entertainment. The fact that there are people who still look at Youtube as the place for “cat videos” baffles me. You have so much to pick from. Right now I’m obsessed with this channel where a woman runs a small farm and basically provides all of her food for her husband and extended family. It’s fascinating in a good way. That’s on top of the comic book channels, the review channels, and even the gossip channels. There is something for everyone. The days of having to do elicit things in order to make money for doing nothing are behind us. That of course doesn’t stop people from doing those things as well and that is awesome if it works for them.
There are so many channels that have no idea what they should be doing. They don’t have a strategy. That is where I come in. It goes beyond Youtube and Instagram though. It’s small businesses as well that might need help. I have the ability to help guide them in the right direction even if only in a consultant role.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Shortly after publishing my first novel, I left my first retail job for the first time. It had become clear that the management team at the time was not particularly fond of me for vanity-based reasons. This lead me to go to a liquor store that was one of the more prominent customers at that time for employment. At that point, I had already been working six days a week between the two jobs. I would finally get a second day off until the liquor store started to lose employees (there was no drama involved in these people leaving). So, I was once again working six days a week. It was a liquor store. I was a key holder and I was good at what I did. I was good at what I did at the grocery store I had been working at prior. That wasn’t the point. I knew I wanted more and at that point, I thought that going back to school was the best way to go about doing that. This was August 2019. In my first semester back I did very well making the dean’s list working full-time and actively writing two different books. Then the store burnt down… At this point, I was twenty-four years old and had not been unemployed in the sense of being laid off long-term. This was November 2019. I was offered the chance to go back to the grocery store I had been working at and thought well this makes sense. I need money. It didn’t change the fact that I had not been treated very well before leaving there. I wasn’t about to be unemployed. Things were ok at this point. I didn’t trust my boss. Which was something my co-workers didn’t understand even though none of them liked him themselves. Then March 2020 hits and as I have said I was working seventy hours some weeks. It was nice money but you had nowhere to go and we very much felt like we had to stick around for long hours. In July of that year, they decided to cut back on the number of hours being allowed and I had ten hours going in. I was supposed to be offered a full-time job when someone gave up their role. I had enough common sense that this was not going to be offered to me even though I had been told otherwise. Instead of fighting with a co-worker who I was close with, I decided to go and work for a different company. Last minute they offered to keep me on one or two days a week. Whether they thought I was only working part-time over at this new job I have no idea… I worked fifty-five hours a week for nine months. There were definitely weeks that I was working sixty-plus again. I only had one day off and at this point, I was also still going to school. So, full-time retail job, working on a cash register one day a week for 10-11 hours, two days of school (online at this point), and writing… There definitely wasn’t anyone who could tell me I was being lazy.
At some point, I had enough of the mindset from the upper management of the company I was working full-time for. This lead me to decide it was time to make a choice and at that point, I realized it was time to get out of retail. It was all coming together… Until I was offered the chance to come back to the other job full-time. Which I did because they were offering money and the manager had retired. It was great until it became clear they had no desire to allow me to go further than full-time even though at that point I was more qualified than several other people. It didn’t help that a former friend that I had taken over for in terms of the department I was not technically in charge of was having a mental breakdown at the changes I was making. Let me make it clear. The changes I was making involved doing the job… This upset the person beyond belief. This would go on for a year while I got things in order and finally realized. Ok… I’ve had enough and decided it was time for me to finally work for myself. There is so much more to this story. There are definitely parts that certain people will scream I’m just looking for reasons because of minority status. This is why I don’t bring those parts up in detail. However, I am now a publicist due to that leap of faith.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

My audience was built by using the right hashtags and following the right people. There are people who say you should have more followers than people you follow. I’d argue that is not a bad strategy you are losing the element of networking. At least from my perspective, you are. Unintentionally I ended up going after a certain group of people and I don’t like “went after” but that is the best way for me to describe it. I’ve gotten to know a large part of that community though and they have helped me in more ways than one.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lamichaelsauthor/?hl=en
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthony-lobaito/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lamichaels1995

Image Credits
Art by Luviiilove and Milkaela Art. Cover work by polyarts36 Designs by L A Michaels