I’ve posted 14 Instagram trial reels over about three weeks, and… the results have been mixed. Let’s put it that way.

In this episode, I’m sharing my actual numbers: views, likes, saves, who’s seeing my videos, and whether any of it seems to be translating into book sales. I talk about posting in English and French from Belgium, cross-posting to TikTok and Facebook and Pinterest.

There’s also a little detour into how sharing excerpts helped me revise my books, a reminder from Leslye Penelope about showing up and forgiving ourselves when real life happens, and me remembering that I cannot do all the things for all the pen names. Apparently.

Plus, my Kickstarter pre-launch page for Cancer Is Not My Brand (And yet…) is live! I’m also restarting the Raccoon Author newsletter and sharing an upcoming workshop from Becca Syme.

Still experimenting. Still learning. I’ll keep you updated.

LINKS MENTIONED

• Cancer Is Not My Brand (And yet…) on Kickstarter — click “Notify me on launch”: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1903722368/cancer-is-not-my-brand-and-yet
• Sign up for the Raccoon Author newsletter: https://raccoonauthornewsletter.subscribepage.io/
• Join the Raccoon Author tier on Elodie’s Writing Nook Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/elodieswritingnook/membership
• Becca Syme’s workshop, “I’m Not Making 10K in Profits. What Am I Doing Wrong?”: https://www.crowdcast.io/c/2ugvwsiva3sm
• Leslye Penelope’s “Consistency, Authenticity & Going Viral”: https://myimaginaryfriends.substack.com/p/consistency-authenticity-and-going
• The Inevitable Undoing of Zahara Douglass by Leslye Penelope: https://lpenelope.com/book/the-inevitable-undoing-of-zahara-douglass/
• Skye MacKinnon’s AuthorScale interview about Kindle screenshots and trial reels: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3EIiGsEcIg&t=12s&pp=ygULYXV0aG9yc2NhbGU%3D
• Rachel Jonas’s AuthorScale interview about her 90-day posting challenge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSOozi4FNjg&t=2715s&pp=ygULYXV0aG9yc2NhbGU%3D
• My Substack:https://elodienowodazkij.substack.com/

• My website: https://www.elodienowodazkij.com

Thank you so much for listening. Subscribe, leave a rating, or share this episode with an author friend—it helps a whole lot.

Happy writing, and happy, happy reading!

Short episode as all the plans are in my head and they need to get on paper. But also... I am finally organizing my office and the print raccoon author I got commissioned has the words "But what if it works?" Which made me smile so I thought I'd share it with you all.

As always my Patreon (there's a Raccoon Author tier) https://www.patreon.com/c/elodieswritingnook and my website: https://elodienowodazkij.com/the-raccoon-author/

I started listening to Abbie Emmons’ Make Your Story Matter, and one question she mentioned authors should ask themselves is "Why does your story matter?" And that immediately got stuck in my head in a loop.

In this Dear Raccoon Author Diary episode, I’m talking about writing and why and working through things, lots of things—what I want readers to feel, what I sometimes work through myself within the pages, and how all of that fits alongside the very practical business side of being an indie author.

How I want to both look at my numbers without losing my "why". I talk about Genevieve and Theodore and revising "A New Year's Eve Like No Other", about grief and

Margie Lawson's deep EDITS technique, duets versus standalones both in terms of craft and revenue, read-through and audiobook and translations costs and oh, Amazon deciding to mess-up with permafree books, including mine.

Basically, it's a very Raccoon Author mix of craft, feelings (lots of them) and numbers.

And underneath it all, I keep coming back to that question: Why does this matter to me, and hopefully, to the readers?

• Abbie Emmons — Make Your Story Matter

https://benbellabooks.com/shop/make-your-story-matter/

• 🦝 Join me on Patreon — Raccoon Author tier:

https://www.patreon.com/c/elodieswritingnook

• Preorder Cancer Is Not My Brand

https://books2read.com/cancerisnotmybrand/

• Margie Lawson:

https://www.margielawson.com/

And I’d love to hear from you: Why does your story matter? Elodie AT Elodienow.com

Happy writing. And happy, happy reading. ❤️