Marketing Yourself as an Author Is Exhausting (4 Authors, No Filter)

Four authors sit down to say the quiet part out loud: marketing yourself as an author is exhausting. We talk social media pressure, algorithm burnout, batching content, comparison spirals, and how to promote your book when you don’t even have a product yet. No gatekeeping—just honest writer chaos, big feelings, and a reminder that community is the point.

With special guests, friends of the pod, and authors: Nicole Yvette and Jo Bentley

Transcript

Cait (00:00)
this is like so exciting on Margs and Manuscripts today because in this episode we are sitting down with two friends of the pod, ⁓ Nicole and Jo, who, ⁓ I've met Jo like in person one time and we became instant best friends and I have been stalking her social ever since, ⁓ because she is promoting her, ⁓ book. Like, are you, you're querying right now?

Nicole (00:00)
you

Cait (00:27)
Kind of maybe

VIG, you like that.

Jo Bentley (00:30)
they say vague, which

for anyone unfamiliar with that term potentially listening to this, that means something happened ⁓ in my writing career that is not yet able to be discussed publicly, but something big is coming and ⁓ yeah, that's what I will say.

Cait (00:46)
Okay, and we're here for it. I'm obsessed.

Nicole (00:48)
Ooh!

Cait (00:51)
Nicole, so I love it. It's exactly what we do. Nicole found our podcast and has been keeping up with all of us on social and like we've become Instagram best friends. which is also how me and Jonamyn, so it's perfect. But we're so excited to have you guys here to have a legit no filter conversation about the stress.

Jenna G Judith (00:51)
What a teaser.

Jo Bentley (00:53)
I know, I'm such a tease.

Ha ha ha!

Nicole (00:58)
Eheh

Cait (01:15)
of having to market yourself as an author on top of writing, parenting, working, existing, sometimes sleeping, and all the other responsibilities that you have. It is the thing that we never thought we would have to be, social media managers and marketers of our own brand, but here we are. Look at us. So welcome to the podcast, guys. So fun to have you here.

Nicole (01:41)
Thank you!

Jo Bentley (01:41)
Yay!

Cait (01:41)
I

want to start

off this episode with a little icebreaker. It's a game called Post Our Parish, where we, I want to hear like your most unfiltered or unhinged post ideas, or even just like, like I have this idea and I just need to run it by you, and we will decide whether you should post it or whether it should live forever in your drafts. So I don't know, who's going first? Who's got a good one?

Jenna G Judith (01:49)
Yay!

Jo Bentley (02:15)
what would your characters be canceled for? Could be content.

Jenna G Judith (02:20)
Hahaha!

Nicole (02:20)
I think

that's a good think that's really good.

Cait (02:22)
That's clever. Do you

Jenna G Judith (02:23)
that

one.

Cait (02:23)
feel like in writing the things that they could be canceled for that you could in turn be canceled for them? Is that the-

Jo Bentley (02:30)
No, how about let's say like they they drop into real world What are they so problematic for that they'd be like canceled. You're done get out of here

Cait (02:33)
Got it.

my gosh, that would be fun for you too because

Nicole (02:40)
Yeah.

Cait (02:40)
isn't yours like, doesn't take place today, right?

Jo Bentley (02:44)
Yeah, and they're all criminals, so we're starting off great.

Cait (02:46)
And it actually really works when you close that.

Jenna G Judith (02:48)
Yeah, you should definitely post that. ⁓

Jo Bentley (02:49)
I have to, now I have to make it.

Cait (02:49)
I have to think

Nicole (02:50)
think that's a good one.

Cait (02:50)
about that.

Nicole (02:50)
Yeah.

Jo Bentley (02:52)
You go, Nicole, you're about to talk, sorry.

Nicole (02:54)
So I didn't

plan as well as you did. was just like thinking about, what have I wanted to post, but been stressed about posting and book reviews. I love reading and I have opinions, but as a new author, do I go out and share those opinions about other authors books? Like it's stressful. I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, but also I want to be known for like reading as well.

Jenna G Judith (03:21)
Yeah, and having good taste.

Nicole (03:23)
Hopefully, hopefully people wouldn't

be like, she has the worst opinions. Yeah? Yes. Mm-hmm.

Jo Bentley (03:28)
Nicole that was one of mine I said rating books that aren't your own I think this is could be a hot take but

as an author is it ethical to rate other authors work that's kind of your peers your fellow writers in the industry that is bad or like mean or not praiseworthy

Nicole (03:47)
Yeah.

Cait (03:49)
I totally did that.

Jenna G Judith (03:50)
like I kind of think every every book that is published you automatically get like gold stars for publishing it like and doing all of the work I know I've done a few like book reviews and stuff and looking at it a the reviews aren't that like helpful to the author and b

Nicole (04:00)
Mm-hmm.

Jenna G Judith (04:18)
I don't know, I'm just gonna tell you if it's a vibe. I'm just gonna tell you like, hey, if you're in the mood for this, definitely read this. But not like, what was that?

Cait (04:21)
Yeah, absolutely. So you're only touching the ones.

Nicole (04:25)
Yeah. Yeah, that's.

Cait (04:26)
Like you're only posting the good ones. Or like

you're only saying like, if this is like a five star, that's when I'm gonna post it.

Jenna G Judith (04:31)
yeah like some of like the garbage trash that i read just for entertainment sake not gonna do no like that's like my real housewives books that like i just real housewives-esque that like i don't need to share my opinions on nor ⁓ reveal to the world that i actually took the time to read them

Cait (04:49)
I think the other part of that is

Nicole (04:51)
Yeah.

Cait (04:52)
book, bookstagram, book talk. Those people are so hardcore. They have very strong opinions. And so I totally get the hesitancy in being like, do I post this and hear the backlash from readers who are doing this for their full-time thing? they just have very, I.

Nicole (05:12)
Mm-hmm.

Cait (05:15)
Definitely see the hesitancy. I say if you really love something, you should post it, though.

Nicole (05:19)
Yeah, yeah, I might start doing that. We'll see. We'll see what happens. Yeah. Yeah, I do agree that like only positive though, like I don't think I ever would want to put something negative out into the world that's already so negative.

Jo Bentley (05:20)
absolutely.

Cait (05:21)
Yeah, I know. I haven't done it either. I'll just post it be like, I'm reading this.

Jenna G Judith (05:30)
So.

Jo Bentley (05:33)
Mm-hmm.

Jenna G Judith (05:33)
Yeah.

Cait (05:35)
It's so naked out.

Jo Bentley (05:39)
I know.

Jenna G Judith (05:41)
So what

are you reading?

Nicole (05:43)
Right

now, I'm actually going to a book club tonight and I'm like stress reading. have not 100, I have one hour left in the finalists. It's about figure skating. It's like a sports romance type thing and it's pretty good. It's destroyed me emotionally though, so.

Jenna G Judith (05:55)
Ooh. Ooh.

Ooh, I love a good, you know, like I need to pick my soul up.

Nicole (06:04)
It has,

it has me upset. My husband came home last night and he was like, why are you in a bad mood? And I was like, the book I'm reading, that's why I'm in a bad mood.

Cait (06:11)
That's really funny. That's true. I was out to dinner last night and I've

been reading or I'm sorry, I've been listening to the women and every time I'm driving, I'm listening to it. And there was like, we were sitting down at dinner and one of my friends came knocking on the window, like by our table, like banging on it. And I literally was like, my God, that's the Viet Cong. Like, too deep. Too deep in my book.

Nicole (06:24)
oooo

Mmm.

Cait (06:40)
living over. Yeah. So do you have another one you want to share?

Nicole (06:41)
Yeah.

Jenna G Judith (06:43)
you

Jo Bentley (06:43)
Snap

out of it.

Jenna G Judith (06:47)
We

can go back to what Cait actually prescribed us to do. I'm just getting us off topic all the time.

Jo Bentley (06:53)
No, let me actually,

because I am reading a friend's book right now, so let me give her a shout out. So I'm reading Sinner's Isle by Angela Montoya. It's a YA fantasy, I guess, but it's very good and very cute. personally calling out readers who have given you a one-star review on Goodreads.

Nicole (07:12)
I love it.

Cait (07:13)
I'm here for the drama.

Jo Bentley (07:14)
Don't do that.

Jenna G Judith (07:14)
Maybe not by

name, but just be like.

Nicole (07:17)
I

don't know. I feel like that gives the same energy as the girls who will post a picture of a man who commented on her post and was like, you're so ugly, and then like, look. I don't know.

Jo Bentley (07:27)
Thank

Nicole (07:28)
would

live for it. I would love to see that.

Cait (07:28)
Yeah, but here's the thing, like,

people would not look away from that. People would watch the shit out of so nice if you did a drama.

Jo Bentley (07:35)
Yeah, but then you'd be messy.

I say, I threw that idea out there knowing I full well would never do something like that. ⁓ I think it would be hilarious if somebody did though.

Nicole (07:37)
⁓

Cait (07:40)
It's too fast.

Somebody with

more gumption than us. We'll watch it. We will watch it. We're just not posting it.

Nicole (07:54)
⁓ 100%. I'll like it, favorite it, yeah.

Jo Bentley (07:57)
This will be a good one to end on. What kind of podcast would your characters host?

Jenna G Judith (07:59)
doubt.

Cait (08:06)
That's a cute one.

Nicole (08:07)
oooo

That is good.

Cait (08:08)
And that's something like anything that's related to your characters in your book, that's like what we're supposed to be posting, right? It's supposed to be like, I just want your page and see like all about your book and your vibe and like, I don't know, whatever they tell us that we need to be doing.

Jenna G Judith (08:08)
that! Please do that one.

Cait (08:22)
I see both of you post really funny content with yourself, right? Like both of you like nail that, like nail the ad libbing and like the, like the voiceover stuff is like hilarious. But what was your...

Nicole (08:29)
Well, thank you.

Jenna G Judith (08:40)
Yes!

Cait (08:40)
The first time I ever posted

anything of myself even talking into a camera or anything, I kept it for like a week in my drafts I sent it to like 50 people and I was like, do you hate me? Would you hate me if I post this? Like, how do you get started on doing like the actual funny, fun content that you guys do? Was it terrifying or were you like, this is fun?

Nicole (09:05)
100%. It was easier for me to do like the sounds instead of actually talking. It was so much easier. I don't know. I have some where I'm talking and it makes me cringe.

Jo Bentley (09:18)
Yeah,

same. And also I feel like the audio clips give me ideas. Like I'll hear an audio clip and I'm like, how can I tie that into the writing experience in some way? And then that's usually where I go from there. But same as Nicole, I don't like the sound of my own voice ⁓ when it comes to social media content. So doing ad-libs is way better.

Nicole (09:22)
Mm-hmm.

Cait (09:36)
That's fascinating. I don't

Nicole (09:37)
Mm-hmm.

Cait (09:38)
know, because I'm at the opposite. was like, if people see me pretending to do something, feel like all I can hear is my sister's voice in my head. I'm like, my god, what are you posting? Stop.

Jenna G Judith (09:38)
you

Nicole (09:50)
that is a big fear. I have not told any of my like friends or family about any of my social media. It's going to happen eventually. They're going to find it. But when that does happen, I'm terrified.

Jenna G Judith (10:04)
yeah, back to your point, Cait getting lambasted by my sister, it's definitely like, it's up there. But then again, she bought me a neon sign for Christmas that said, more books. So I'm like, okay, so you must not think I'm a total nerd. Okay.

Nicole (10:12)
Thank

Cait (10:18)
Like my sister will like my post and I'm like, ⁓

okay. Maybe I'm not that cringe, but do any of you guys ⁓ have a background at all in like marketing or social media that helped you in this or?

Jo Bentley (10:33)
And you have a background in marketing and media production, but that's not what helps me act like a fool every day in front of my phone. That's just a lack of, ⁓ I don't know, self-awareness. that's what you need. But yeah, yeah, I'm in marketing or I was in marketing for a long, time. So that probably helps.

Nicole (10:40)
Yeah.

Yeah

Cait (10:55)
Yeah, because you knew, like it seems like you

knew that it was going to take this. Like you were like, if I need to sell books or if I need to get myself out there, this is what I have to do.

Jo Bentley (11:06)
Yeah, actually I was kind of, I started off with the mindset of I'm gonna be one of those elusive authors that doesn't have a social media presence. And then I have two very close writer friends and they started posting consistently and I got very inspired by them because I was like, wow, they, you know what, they're just going for it. They're posting what makes them happy and what kind of aligns with their writing ⁓ world building and stuff. And I was watching their followers climb and I'm like, ⁓

Okay, well, I mean, I do know that that helps sway agents and publishers when they do see authors and writers with higher follower counts. So it's like, well, I'm just going to go for it. What the hell?

Jenna G Judith (11:45)
are you, did you have like any marketing knowledge going into this or was it just like...

Nicole (11:49)
Absolutely not. still like

I don't even know what I'm doing to be quite honest. I'm just posting videos if they get like they get like

Jenna G Judith (12:00)
I love that.

Jo Bentley (12:00)
Okay, so I think this

is a good point though. So someone with over a decade of marketing experience and then someone who doesn't have any and we're posting the same and seeing the same success, moral of the story, you don't need a background in anything. Just be you. Yeah, just be you. Go online and be an idiot or not. Whatever makes you most comfortable and you know your audience will find you.

Nicole (12:09)
Mm-hmm.

Jenna G Judith (12:09)
Yeah.

No!

Nicole (12:16)
Yeah.

the goofier I am in my videos, the more people like it. And I'm like, okay, if this is what we want.

Jenna G Judith (12:28)
yeah, I have like a marketing background and like a design background. And I'm like, I would rather spend an hour putting together a perfect carousel post than actually recording me doing something stupid. So, but that doesn't get the likes. And I know that.

Cait (12:37)
Bye.

That's it now.

Jo Bentley (12:43)
Well, let's be honest, social media is an outlet for all of us to avoid writing. That's what that is.

Cait (12:46)
And that's what we're doing half the We are promoting ourselves half

Jenna G Judith (12:48)
It's very

Nicole (12:48)
Mm-hmm.

Jenna G Judith (12:50)
true.

Cait (12:50)
the time and then avoiding writing half the time. Exactly. Jen was the poster that will go on in research, like every different type of post and how it performs and whether she should be candid and talking into the screen or just posting a carousel of writer.

Jo Bentley (12:55)
It's a double whammy, you kill two birds with one stone.

Cait (13:13)
motivation and like how and she will like get the data points for each thing and I'm just like I don't know I think I'm just gonna go on and talk about Jo Jonas today like I don't

Jenna G Judith (13:26)
Yeah, and you freaking kill it every time and I'm like,

it's not a competition. It's not a competition, but sometimes like, damn it, Cait, like you just are too good at this shit. whatever.

Cait (13:37)
No, we're so smart with it. And I'm like, that's how we're

all different in this, in whatever backgrounds we come from. But I do want to touch on, because for me, the most intimidating thing, too, outside of just putting your face out there and your life out there for judgment, is we're supposed to do this every freaking day. Is that the goal?

Jenna G Judith (13:48)
Yeah.

Nicole (14:03)
Yeah.

Cait (14:03)
Incoming!

Nicole (14:05)
I've heard like three times a day and that is so stressful, at least on TikTok, which is where I like have the most followers. Yes. So I'm making these videos all the time and yeah, it's wild. I don't know. The algorithm's crazy.

Cait (14:18)
You post a lot, Jo. I know

you post a lot.

Jenna G Judith (14:20)
I have a job.

Nicole (14:22)
I know.

Jo Bentley (14:22)
Yeah, I post when I feel like it. I feel like if we get swept up in the mindset of I have to post this many times a day to stay relevant or stay with the algorithm till when? Till you die? Like what is the point? You have to have your own boundaries with it and ⁓ just stick to your own schedule that makes you comfortable and the people that appreciate you or find you through your writing will stick around. I mean...

Nicole (14:35)
I'm hoping not.

Yeah.

Thank

Jo Bentley (14:50)
Are any of us trying to become like crazy, crazy influencers? No, we're just trying to spread the good word of our writing. So, just... This isn't the life I wanted.

Cait (14:53)
You

Nicole (14:56)
I know, like, I don't even want this. I just want to write books. Yeah.

Jenna G Judith (14:56)
We're just trying to sell books!

Like,

I really don't have any wares to peddle. Like all I'm trying to do is to sell books eventually when I get there.

Nicole (15:09)
Mm-hmm.

Jo Bentley (15:12)
Yeah, Nicole, you're the only one of the four of us published, right? you're not published yet.

Nicole (15:16)
I'm not published yet,

but I just posted for my ARC readers today. So I, and I already have 11 people signed up, which is exciting. ⁓ But yeah, I'm hoping in April to publish. So yeah. Thank you.

Cait (15:31)
That's amazing. I did see that post and I was like, I'm just gonna

have to ask her if we're like, can be automatic, our creators? Okay. Can you just send it to our email for us to download to our Kindle? Okay. All right, amazing. I was like, I'm gonna, I won't message her now, I'll ask her about it. The other thing is, does anybody batch that shit?

Nicole (15:41)
Oh, yes, 100%. Yes. Yes, yes, yes. Oh, I will. I will. Yeah, yeah, 100%. Yeah.

Jenna G Judith (15:43)
Yes?

Yeah.

Cait (15:58)
Do you record all day one day? Or how do you even do it? Because mine is very much like, I'm dressed today. ⁓ Today is the day for content.

Jo Bentley (16:03)
Yes.

Nicole (16:04)
Like the videos.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I do. I'll make two or three or however many sounds that I find that I like in a morning or something.

Jo Bentley (16:19)
same. Yeah, I'll do I'll pick one day a week. It usually takes me a couple hours. I'll set aside like two to three hours. And then like Nicole, I don't know as I scroll organically on my phone, I'll find sounds I like so I'll save them. So then I'll go through my saved sounds and be like, which ones speak to me today. And then yeah, just make them all. I'll just change my shirt. I'm really fooling the masses with that one. Yeah. Or I like put my hair in a ponytail everyone.

Nicole (16:37)
Yeah.

Ooh, clever. Yeah.

Cait (16:45)
I know, same lighting, same area, but I

definitely have a different curtain from the other ones.

Nicole (16:52)
the same clothes, same everything. It's bad.

Jo Bentley (16:51)
days later.

No, I love that.

Cait (16:56)
we tell ourselves there's a lot of pressure for our pages to look like a brand that we've created or that it needs to have like a certain aesthetic. And then I get in the spiral of watching other people and being like, well, that's what I'm supposed to be doing or that's what it's supposed to be. ⁓

Nicole (17:05)
you

Cait (17:18)
It not affects me a lot. I don't know about you guys, but I constantly feel like I'm comparing myself or my page or whatever I'm posting to what other people are doing all the time.

Jo Bentley (17:28)
Nicole brought, you brought personality to your page and, and laughs and that's what mattered. I mean, yeah, some people are aesthetic posters, some are not and that's okay. You can be one or the other or something in the middle.

Nicole (17:34)
You gotta work with what you got, yeah.

Yeah.

Jenna G Judith (17:44)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Cait (17:47)
I don't know if what I would do if it wasn't for for Jenna as far as like like knowing how to do anything on Canva and stuff for the like podcast page like she's the one that like has the brand background stuff and I've always been like my god thank god

Nicole (17:48)
You

Jo Bentley (18:03)
And as we've just learned, writers are readers too. So if you are building an audience of writers, you hope that they would support you as a fellow writer and reader.

Cait (18:13)
Let me pose this question

Nicole (18:13)
Thank you.

Cait (18:14)
to you guys. So I just met with my developmental editor who works in marketing as well. And I was like, hey, how would you market this book? Because a lot of the full requests, feedback I got was just like,

Jenna G Judith (18:14)
Absolutely.

Cait (18:31)
Love it. I just don't really know how to market it, so bye. ⁓ So I was like, all right, well, I'll market it. That's fine. But her thing was just like, it's a travel book, or it's a book about, it's a rom-com about travel. You should market it to travel, like people, like travel influencers, or follow people in that world, right? And so that blew my mind, because I was like, no, I just follow bookstagrammers and writers. What do you mean?

people travel in Florence is, but it just was like, ⁓ like getting outside of my own little box. But like, if you guys could market outside of your box or like, where would you go? Like who, what would be your people that you would, the community that you would want to interact with that you think would be interested in your.

Nicole (18:59)
Yeah.

Jo Bentley (19:19)
That's a good question.

Nicole (19:20)
Yeah.

Jenna G Judith (19:20)
Shit.

I feel like you should, like I should have an answer like on like the like top of mind because

Cait (19:25)
I mean, I wouldn't have known if she didn't say that I would be still just

trying to get books to grammar to read my book, you know?

Nicole (19:31)
So mine is a pirate romantasy. I'm not going to find pirates to read my book, but I know, I know that might be cool. That might be cool. But I am, it's YA. So like the younger generation. I think if my readers is like, I don't know, 16 year old me, 16 year old Nicole.

Jenna G Judith (19:37)
God damn it, what about some mermaids?

Cait (19:42)
Okay, yeah.

Jenna G Judith (19:51)
I love that. It's like you almost, it's either that demo or like the people that have the nostalgic factor for that too.

Jo Bentley (19:53)
That's so sweet.

Cait (19:58)
So it sounds like you really need to be

Nicole (19:59)
Yes.

Cait (19:59)
on TikTok.

Nicole (20:00)
Yeah.

Cait (20:00)
Just you really need to go with TikTok. Young people.

Nicole (20:03)
See, yeah, I need

the young people. I need the youths of America. Yeah. Yeah. The Schmidt, me too. Street youths. Yeah, I need the street youths.

Jenna G Judith (20:08)
You'd I just like think of Schmidt every time you'd

Cait (20:10)
Yeah. Yeah, and it's not always obvious because if you're writing like a World War II historical romance,

Jo Bentley (20:12)
Schmidt.

Cait (20:17)
like there's a bunch of history nerd underground people who love history who would read that or like who would be into that aren't like your obvious readers. But Jo, I know you have like a you have kind of like more of a gangster like 1925. ⁓

you

Jo Bentley (20:36)
Yeah, so anyone that's in a gang, hit me

up. I got a book for you. ⁓ No, I mean, I almost think of who those audiences should be as almost like a stone falling in the water and then the ripple effect, right? So who's like your really close, close circle that, ride or dies, they're not necessarily readers, but they will support you. So those family members and friends that for sure are gonna buy your stuff just because they love you. And then what's one step out of that, then you think about

Cait (20:48)
Now.

Jo Bentley (21:06)
I don't know, for me, maybe it is a history buff, but even though it's set in a historical timeframe, it is not historically accurate. So maybe those people that enjoy the 1920s aesthetic, or people that love to frequent speakeasies, ⁓ gangsters, stuff like that, and then you work your way out, and then hopefully at some point you hit a ripple that organically takes you beyond where you can see. That's when people start, that's word of mouth marketing, that's gorilla marketing there.

Nicole (21:22)
You

Cait (21:33)
I feel like we need

to do like a whole other episode on like actual marketing for your book. Like outside of social media, I think that social media is just like the thing that we sit down and we make the choice to be like, okay, today's the day I gotta get, have to like start this account or I have to like put my things out there, get my book out there. ⁓ Something I liked that also was brought up was ⁓ that we don't have a product.

Nicole (21:55)
Yeah.

Cait (22:02)
And that makes the content so hard.

Jenna G Judith (22:04)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm, like I know how to market organizations. I know how to market products. I know how to market associations. Myself with nothing else besides my personality is a little bit of a hard sell.

Cait (22:18)
you

Nicole (22:21)
Yeah.

Cait (22:23)
and we're writing for you.

Jenna G Judith (22:24)
man.

Jo Bentley (22:25)
can market the concept or the idea or even tease characters. I have a friend who's doing a fantastic job right now of building a fan base for her characters and her book's not even out yet and they're obsessed. She gets DMs all the time about these characters that no one's even read about yet. And it's just because the way she's posted, think character art helps if you have a visualization.

Nicole (22:43)
Wow.

Jo Bentley (22:50)
for people that that helps them kind of see, this is what I would be getting in this story and then building a personality around them through your content helps. But yes, without a book and you're just grasping on air, it's like, it's so, the concept of it is tricky.

Nicole (23:04)
You

Cait (23:04)
Yeah, that was a big reason.

And Nicole, tell me if you're in this boat too. Like, that was a big reason I wanted to just self-publish my first book. I was like, well, I know I can do that. Like, if I give myself six months, I know I can do that in six months. And then in six months, I'll have a product to sell.

Nicole (23:16)
Yeah.

yeah, it's having something out there because it does feel silly just posting like, hey, I'm a writer, someday I'll have a book out there. So yeah, that's that is also why I was like, okay, it could take years to go the traditional route. I want something out there now.

Cait (23:34)
Yeah, was super impetient. Yeah, I was impatient

just to have a product to be able to sell. And then was like, and then I'll work on the next one. And then that'll be the one that I go for the query and can wait and be patient with. Because right now I'm just like, I'm out here in deep water, just posting my Jo Jonas content.

Jenna G Judith (23:56)
how would you love to engage with people on social media? Because I feel like there's so many authors that do it really well where they feel...

like your followers are really along for the ride and they're like your BFFs in your book.

Cait (24:13)
I will just say that if you are being authentic and people are connecting with you, we will automatically celebrate your wins with you and be super happy for you ⁓ in whatever success that you have. We are happy to follow your journey. I would say if you are using social media, and we all know these accounts, but if you are using social media as just like your

Jenna G Judith (24:24)
Yes!

Cait (24:42)
like fan club platform of like, hey, like I got 10 author requests or offers of representation today. Like look at me or like a look at me platform. I'd say like that's when I stopped connecting. I'd say like I love when people post their success, like a thousand percent.

Jenna G Judith (24:55)
you

Yep.

Jo Bentley (25:01)
It's what-

Jenna G Judith (25:05)
Absolutely,

and we'll share it a hundred times.

Cait (25:07)
Yes.

We all want each other to succeed, but it's like the look at me accounts that you're just like, we know.

Jenna G Judith (25:15)
Yes, yes. We joked about it last time with Crystal of like the day in the life of an author. No! Like, I have a job, I have children. The day in the life is me being a person. ⁓

Cait (25:23)
I'm sorry.

Yes.

Nicole (25:30)
Yeah, like it's a

Cait (25:30)
Right, like

Nicole (25:31)
hot mess.

Cait (25:31)
follow me. Follow me as a bestselling author in New York City on like my regular day. Like crazy. Good for you. We're so happy for you.

Nicole (25:36)
Yeah. my gosh. Yeah. Like messy bun

Jenna G Judith (25:38)
No.

Nicole (25:42)
pajamas. Yeah. Cold coffee. This is great. Yeah.

Cait (25:44)
Yes!

Yeah, exactly. That's not a normal day for everybody else. I did not wake up like this.

Nicole (25:50)
Mm-hmm.

Jo Bentley (25:51)
when I look at posts that I don't necessarily relate to but I think it's super cool I pretend that or maybe this is true like liking it saving it reposting it sending it all the love is manifestation for myself to also one day have that life because I want to I want to be a New York City city slicker author best-selling author like hell yeah sign me up so I'm gonna like all those posts because maybe it's putting a drop back in my bucket who knows

Cait (26:04)
Yeah.

Nicole (26:10)
Yeah.

Jenna G Judith (26:18)
Look at that!

Cait (26:19)
⁓ There's

a lot of camera points I think you can earn on social media for sure.

I think, if you put the energy out there, it comes back. totally, we've talked about that a lot. ⁓ I think on the Impostor Syndrome episode, we were like, if you put the energy into the world, then the energy will come back to you. I guess that's what we're all doing here on social, or trying to do. But also connect with other people in general, and that's why we started the podcast too, because it was like,

Jenna G Judith (26:33)
Mm-hmm.

Nicole (26:43)
Yeah.

Jenna G Judith (26:45)
Thank

Cait (26:53)
This is so isolating and lonely a lot, you 90 % of the time when we are typing in front of our computers for months, days, hours at a time, ⁓ and not connecting with other people. This is like, honestly, the way that we do it as well as market ourselves, put ourselves out there, all those things to sell books, whatever it is. ⁓ it's a way for us to be a community because there's really no other way except for the.

Then retreat once a year or whatever you're doing if you are doing that. so it's super important.

Nicole (27:24)
Yeah.

Jo Bentley (27:27)
⁓ Thank God for

community. That's the best part about being a writer in my opinion so far.

Jenna G Judith (27:33)
It is.

Cait (27:35)
will do the end toast if we all feel like good about that. We feeling good?

Jenna G Judith (27:42)
I'm good.

Jo Bentley (27:42)
Now that my wine's

Nicole (27:43)
Yeah?

Jo Bentley (27:43)
gone, hold on, let me refill it.

Nicole (27:45)
Yeah!

Cait (27:45)
⁓

Jenna G Judith (27:45)
Hahaha

⁓

Cait (27:47)
I was like actually so excited to come into the kitchen because that's where my canned margarita is

Nicole (27:52)
There you go!

Cait (27:53)
OK, so thank you again to Jo and Nicole for joining us today on Margs and Manuscripts. ⁓ We just want to do a quick closing cheers to you guys. Cheers to writing the book. We are raising the kids. We're paying the bills, answering emails. We're posting the content, forgetting the content, feeling guilty about the content. And then we're doing it all again tomorrow.

Cheers to you guys. Thanks again for listening and.

Jenna G Judith (28:21)
Cheers!

Jo Bentley (28:21)
Cheers to

guilt-free content. Cheers.

Jenna G Judith (28:25)
Yeah.

Cait (28:25)
Exactly. Cheers.

Jo Bentley (28:27)
Take the guilt

out of it.

Jenna G Judith (28:29)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Nicole (28:29)
Thank you guys so much

for having me. This has been so fun.

Jenna G Judith (28:34)
This has been a lot of fun.

Nicole (28:37)
Yeah.

Jo Bentley (28:37)
I feel like

the four of us could get together in a bar somewhere and gap for 12 hours straight.

Nicole (28:41)
And that would be great.

Jenna G Judith (28:41)
Uh-huh.

Cait (28:42)
I would love that.