© 2026 Urcelia Teixeira. All rights reserved. This episode and its accompanying materials may not be reproduced, republished, transcribed, or adapted without written permission.
Social media and I have a complicated relationship.
I use it. I understand why authors use it. I know books can sell because somebody saw a Facebook post, an Instagram reel, or a TikTok video.
But if I'm honest, I have grown increasingly uncomfortable with the idea that being an authority somehow means I should give strangers constant access to my life.
There's an expectation to post every day, show your face,
take people behind the scenes, tell them what you're doing, and share enough of your personal life that people feel connected to you.
And lately I've been asking myself, when did building an author platform start requiring this much personal access?
So if you're listening today thinking, thank goodness somebody said it,
it's not just me,
keep listening friend. I'm going to share ways to market your books beyond social media so you can keep growing your author platform without feeling pressured to live your life online.
So stay tuned for my book marketing tips on finding more readers for your books. This is the Anointed Scribe Podcast.
If you're a self published Christian author who's ready for real growth in your relationship with God and in your author business,
this is your home for growing your faith and building a profitable author business. God's Way. I'm Urcelia Teixeira, best selling and indie Christian author and I'd love to walk this journey with you.
Come on in friend. It's good to have you here.
Hey, it's your author friend Urcelia and welcome back to the show.
If you're tuning in for the first time today, this is where we focus on growing our faith and and building a profitable author business with God at the center.
And today we are talking about book marketing beyond social media because I think many of us have confused social media platforms with author platforms.
Some authors use the words author platform almost interchangeably with social media following basing it on the amount of followers they have and often how they are posting.
It's become the platform they spend the most of their time and effort on. And if you're constantly posting several times a day and not seeing results,
you can start feeling as though you're failing at marketing altogether.
I have for sure felt it personally and seen very little if any sales conversion from daily posting.
I can spend an entire week writing books, connecting with readers, social media, strengthening my author platform, and actually running my author business,
only to realize at the end of the week that I haven't posted on social media for five days,
which makes me feel as if though I haven't marketed anything.
When I stop and think about that that makes no sense.
Social media can be useful, but it is only one marketing channel.
It is not your entire author platform.
And I think it's important for us to separate those two things. Because actually,
your author platform includes all the places and connections that help readers find you, recognize you, connect with you, and hear from you. Again,
your social media accounts can form part of it.
So can your email list, your website, and your books.
Then think about your Amazon author page, retailer pages, podcast appearances, and search results.
Not to mention book clubs, newsletter swaps, and any book promotions you might be running.
And let's not forget the reader sitting across from her sister over coffee saying, hey, you have to read the series. I found all those things can connect your books with people who might love them.
And once I started thinking about my platform that way, I literally felt some pressure left.
Because I don't have to build my entire author career on a platform whose algorithm I can't control.
And neither do you.
Now, my love Hate feelings about social media aren't the main point of today's episode.
The book marketing question underneath them is much more useful.
Have we built author platforms that depend too heavily on social media?
That's the question I want us to look at today,
because there's a personal side to this that I've become much more aware of too.
I don't enjoy the growing expectation that we should share our private lives online simply because we're building a business. I value my privacy.
I don't think readers need access to every room in my home and every member of my family or every part of my day in order to know me as an author and honestly, knowing some of my loyal readers personally now, I don't think most of them are asking for that level of access either.
I've yet to meet a reader who needs to know what I ate for breakfast before she'll buy my next book.
You can be warm with your readers without turning your private life into content.
You can tell stories, share what you are learning, talk about your books and characters,
answer reader emails, and enjoy conversations with people who love your work.
You get to decide where those boundaries sit.
And this is where I've been thinking about Jesus and His ministry.
Luke chapter five tells us that reports about Jesus were spreading and large crowds were gathering to hear him and to be healed.
More and more people wanted access to him,
and then verse 16 says, but he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.
Now, I don't want to turn that verse into a social media lesson. That's not what Luke was writing about.
But there is a principle there that has been challenging me, and it's this Jesus did not allow the size of the crowd to determine his availability.
Even with people seeking him clamoring over each other just to touch his robe,
he withdrew to pray and remain in communion with the Father.
And that speaks to me. Because our culture places such a high value on visibility,
we measure followers, reach, impressions and engagement.
But as Christian authors, we stop and ask what kind of visibility actually serves the work of God has given us to do.
That question has started changing the way I think about book marketing,
because if I don't want to live online all day, then I need other ways for readers to find me, right?
And that brings me to something I'm paying more attention to these days, and that's looking at marketing assets that keep working long after I log off.
Take your email list, for example.
When somebody joins your email list, you don't have to hope an algorithm happens to show that person your next post.
You have a direct way to communicate with a reader who has already said, yes, I'd like to hear from you. That's incredibly valuable,
not because you now have somebody to sell to every time you send an email,
but because you've been given an opportunity to build a relationship with that reader over time.
That is a different mindset.
Then there's your website.
A good author website doesn't need to become another content machine that demands three blog posts a week.
It needs to help the reader find the right book.
When somebody arrives on your website,
they have questions and they want your pages to answer them.
Who are you? What do you write? What? Which book should they start with? What else have you written? How can they hear from you again? Where can they buy your books?
Your website should make those answers easy for them to find.
That matters far more to me than whether it is all the latest bells and whistles.
Which brings me to online search.
I think we sometimes forget that readers still search for books and authors online.
They use Google, Amazon, Goodreads, and retailer search bars.
More people are also asking AI tools like ChatGPT questions they would once have typed into Google.
So the words we use count.
Our book descriptions are vitally important to optimize these searches.
So are our book titles and our metadata.
All the information on our websites and retailer pages count. Every single word counts.
If somebody is searching for a book like yours, can the Internet understand enough about your work to connect that reader with you?
That's a different kind of visibility from posting something this morning and hoping the right person happens to stop scrolling long enough to see it.
One relies on catching attention,
the other helps somebody discover you when they're already looking.
And lately I have found myself much more interested in the discovery process.
I'd rather improve the chances that the right readers can find my books when they're looking for books like mine than spend my whole day trying to catch strangers while they scroll Now, I'm not telling you to delete Facebook or Instagram today.
I'm not deleting mine.
Social media still has a place in book marketing. It can introduce readers to you.
You can use it to announce a new release, share something about your books, connect with existing readers, or send traffic with an ad to your sales page or an email signup.
And if you enjoy social media and your readers gather, they absolutely continue using it.
But I want you to stop assuming that daily posting is the price of admission to a successful author career. It isn't.
I don't want you to feel that pressure anymore.
What matters is whether your marketing gives readers sensible ways to discover you and stay connected.
So think about your author platform for a moment.
If Facebook disappeared tomorrow, what would remain?
Would you still have an email list you could use to reach your readers?
Could somebody find your website and understand what you write and then buy a book?
Does that back matter in your books lead readers toward another book or onto your email list?
What about your retailer pages?
Do they make it easy to discover the rest of your catalogue?
Those questions tell you far more about the strength of your author platform than your follower count on Facebook does.
And I want to add a warning here because I don't want you to feel overwhelmed or turn this into another giant push project. Please don't if you finish this episode thinking you now need a new website,
a new newsletter funnel, a course on SEO, and 70 new systems before your next book is out, you've missed the point trend, which is simply that you don't need to be everywhere.
You only need to choose the next piece that gives you more control over your connection with your readers.
For one author,
that might mean starting the email list they've been avoiding.
Another author might need to clean up the website they haven't touched in three years.
Maybe your next job is fixing your back matter so readers can move from one title to the next.
Or perhaps those five social posts you planned for this week can wait while you improve a book description the readers will keep seeing for months.
The right choice entirely depends on the business you have in front of you,
but I would encourage you to put more of your time into things you can keep using,
think about the difference between activity and an asset.
For example,
a social post can help you today,
while an email subscriber can stay connected to you until next year and the year beyond.
A reel may attract attention for a short time.
Those 10 seconds while a clear series page can keep helping readers work through your books,
a Facebook ad and an Amazon ad can send traffic to your book while you are paying for it.
Where Good search visibility can keep helping readers discover your work. After you've finished working on your book's page,
different tools do different jobs jobs. So instead of asking which tool everyone's using,
rather ask which tool is going to help me build the author business I actually want to live with?
Because you have to live inside the author business you are building. It is your entire brand.
If your marketing plan depends on doing something you resent every day,
include that in your decision. Let it factor in.
If it requires more access to your private life than you feel comfortable giving, you need to pay attention to that.
And if a platform keeps pulling your attention away from writing,
family time with God and the work he's asking you to prioritize,
that cost belongs in your calculation too.
Book marketing has to fit inside your author life.
And I think as Christian authors, we have good reason to to question the assumption that more visibility must always be the goal.
Luke 5 reminds me that public demand doesn't have to determine my availability.
I want God to have first access to me.
Then I want to make wise decisions about where I show up, what I share, and which parts of my life must remain private.
I don't want an algorithm deciding how much of myself I owe to the world. And I want to build a marketing system strong enough that I don't panic every time I take a day off social media.
So here's something I'd like you to think about this week.
Look at your current author platform and ask yourself one question.
If I posted nothing on social media for the next 30 days,
how could a new reader still find Find me.
Take an honest look at what you already have.
Look at your books, your website email list, backmatter your whole retail presence.
Google your author name and see what appears.
Then choose one part of your platform that needs strengthening. Just one.
If your email list barely exists, perhaps that's where you start. In fact, I'd encourage you to always start with your email list first.
If readers finish your books with nowhere to go next,
look at your back matter.
If your website doesn't make it clear what you write or where somebody should begin work there.
Choose the weakest connection between your books and the readers you are trying to serve and strengthen that first.
And if looking at your author business like this makes you realize you are not sure what belongs where or what you should build next,
that's exactly why I created a five step roadmap for you that walks you through the essential areas of a growing author business so you can build out your author platform one step at a time.
You can download the Christian Author Growth Roadmap™ for free at anointedscribe.com/roadmap. The link is also in the show Notes for you.
Thank you for spending this time with me today.
May your pen stay faithful, your roots grow deep, and every word you write bear fruit for his glory.
