Nerdology 101: Growth and Progress

Hi, how are you today, my beloved nerds? Welcome back to Nerdology 101, the official blog on the official website of indie author Maria Levato. Yup, that’s right, I’m kinds of official and stuff. Lol.

This week, I wanted to provide my readers (and any other inquiring minds) with a transparent update regarding my growth and progress as an indie author with specific regards to my newest release, The Fate of Angels and Demons, a dark romantasy book about a priestess who falls in love with the demon king fated to kill her family. So, let’s get into some Nerdology!

In this post, you’ll find the following sections:

1. Influencer Request Program and Reviews

2. Social Media

3. Events & Bookstores

4. Sales

Influencer Request Program and Reviews

For those who follow me on Instagram (@malevato6), TikTok (@authormarialevato), or Bluesky (@marialevato.com), you’ve probably seen me talk about my influencer request program. If not, though, here’s a brief recap: Back in April 2026 when The Fate of Angels and Demons came out, I decided to throw an open-ended line out for physical promotional/review copies. As an indie author, doing an ARC program with physical copies was too expensive because I couldn’t afford to print and ship physicals in bulk. So, I ran an e-ARC program. This did give me some yield, but not nearly enough to get the sort of momentum I needed. Knowing this, I decided to play the long game. Each month since, I’ve sent out 2-3 physical copies (usually 1 or 2 paperbacks and 1 special edition) to influencers who expressed their interest via the form I set up for responses.

So far, this program has been an overwhelming success. To date, I’ve sent 10 copies total. Of those 10, 4 have posted on their social media accounts, 1 has posted a review on Goodreads, and 2 have both posted on socials and reviewed on Goodreads (these 2 aren’t included in the count for those who did one or the other). This makes for a 7 out of 10 outright yield. Of the 3 leftover copies that haven’t yielded a response, 1 just got delivered yesterday, one is still shipping, and one has been with the person long enough that I’ve marked it no yield.

Ultimately, even if the 2 people who just got their copies or are still waiting on them don’t post, a 70% yield is above and beyond my goals for this program. It will be continuing for The Fate of Angels and Demons, as well as for future releases, if these numbers remain the way they are. Naturally, I’m also considering a mini-ARC program for physical copies, specifically for those who both posted and reviewed the book they got into the influencer request program (in addition to my normal e-ARC program, not in place of) because the upfront investment is likely to have a high return. It’s something I can afford since it won’t be a massive number of physical books and it’ll keep momentum building long-term if these influencers recieve, post about, read, and review more than one of my books.

Social Media

As for my personal social media accounts, I’ve seen some growth there lately. As expected, my recent announcement posts for my solo in-store signing at The New Romantics, as well as my attending author posts for multi-author book conventions like Love Among the Pages and Smoke & Embers, have a lot to do with that. On top of those, I’ve been trying to post more reels (anxious introvert, it’s hard for me), which gets me more reach. Finally, there’s the boost I get from the influencers participating in the request program tagging me in posts. All in all, I’m around 975 followers on Bluesky, 449 on Instagram, and 61 on TikTok—which makes sense since I created that account in April when my career goals finally started to outweigh my fear of the clock app. Point being, this is an increase in following. Views and engagement are also way up. My IG is at 5300 views in the last 30 days and 122 engagements, which is a massive increase from the 30 days prior. 80.3% of those views are coming from non-followers, most likely due to the collaboration posts I did for the event announcements I mentioned.

Events and Bookstores

Now, onto the part that actually covers my events and space in physical bookstores. This year, 4 events total have or will happened. In April, I have a local author fair called Bound & Bottled. In August, I have the in-store signing at The New Romantics in Orlando, FL. For September, I have Love Among the Pages in London, ON, CA. In October, I have Smoke & Embers in Thunder Bay, ON, CA. Prior to this year, I’ve only ever done one convention (it was one of the ones that turned out to be a disaster on the part of the event coordinators). I have done several other signings, author fairs, and other solo or small events though. Needless to say, getting some more substantial events like this is a big thing. The New Romantics, while still a solo signing, is a popular bookstore with a massive following that really helps my visibility. Love Among the Pages has some major names attending it, like the SmashCast and a ton of popular voice actors who played some of the most beloved characters in wide world of audiobooks. These are great associations for me to have on the visibility front.

Further, The Fate of Angels and Demons is in a number of online and physical bookstores. Libreria Books in North Carolina, The Tipsy Bookmark (online and physical pop-up), Bethany Beach Books in Delaware, and obviously, The New Romantics in Flordia have all picked it up. This gives me a pretty good range of locations and a lot of traction. Then, of course, to add to it, I distribute wide through Ingram so most major online retailers like Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Bookshop, etc. also have it on their websites. It’s also on Hoopla and Libby for the library readers. More recently, it’s also become available on BookVault Shop and Beventi Wholesale.

Sales

So far, I have sold $205 USD (retail price accumulated) worth of books with $126 being profit that goes to me (the royalties) (Note: Proportions this high are unusual. I would NOT have made over half of the total in “royalties” if the majority of my sales weren’t directly purchased from me. I make about $2 on retailer sales. Event and direct sales have a much higher profit margin). These are just my most up-to-date numbers. Sales reports are SLOW to update (anywhere from 7 to 30 days depending on the sales avenue) and of course bookstores that are getting copies from me directly don’t let me know every time they sell a book, they just tell me when the stock is low, it’s time to pay me (quarterly, usually), or when asked for the occassional status report. Even so, I’d consider this pretty good for this book. It came out April 1st, so it’s only been about 3.5 months, which averages me at roughly $58 per month for in retail price and $36 per month in profit. In terms of number of copies sold, that’s a little over 10 copies per month (total 36 copies sold). This puts me on track to beat the infamous “most self-published books don’t sell more than 100 copies” stat in 10 months and get into the “above average for an indie author” zone by month 11, which should be followed by another new release shortly thereafter (that’s not an official release announcement. Let’s call it foreshadowing).

The hope is that between the events, influencer posts and reviews, continued reinvestment in growth, and new projects, I’ll be able to continue growing and that $36 per month will one day have a zero or two on the end of it. I have other streams of income to sustain me until then, though.

In summary, I think this book is doing pretty well. I have several more projects in the work too. In fact, I’m about to go work on one of them now. So, check back next Friday for another segement of Nerdology 101. Until then, have a nerdy week!

Nerdology 101: Bound & Bottled

Hiiii! Welcome back to Nerdology 101. I’m Maria Levato—indie romantasy author, anime nerd, kinda gamer, mythology and history freak, and all around menace. We’re here today with our 32nd post to discuss my recent exploits (Nope! Not that kind. These ones are more author-y, lmao). Yesterday, I attended Bound & Bottled, a bookish event in Vienna, Maryland, as an author. Copies of my newest book, The Fate of Angels and Demons, filled my table at this fabulous affair and I’m here to give you all the elicit details of how it did at it’s first live event. So, let’s get into some Nerdology.

The Stakes

First, I want to talk a little about what live events like these can mean to an indie author. Selling at events is often more effective than social media marketing for those of us that are masters of the algorithms—not that live pitching your book to readers is easier, but it is a face-to-face interaction that gives you opportunities to connect that may not work as well on socials. So, these live events can be a source of income and outreach that helps us build community more effectively. For that reason, I’m grateful to everyone who came out last night. Whether you bought my book or not, you’re awesome! I’m sure your support made a huge difference to any authors or vendors you did buy from.

The Outcomes

For me, last night was great. I brought 4 special editions and 19 paperbacks with me to the events for a total of 23 copies. One of the special editions I had already planned to give to an influencer who was attending the event at no cost because she had filled out my Influencer Request Form. It’s a type of ongoing marketing program I have for The Fate of Angels and Demons where each month I give out 2-3 free copies of my special edition to influencers so they can read, post, review, and so on (that has had a wonderfully high return so far, an overwhelming majority of the influencers who have requested have also followed through on posting about the book). So, that brings out total to 22 copies, 19 paperback and 3 special editions. Of those 3 special editions, none of them went. For the paperbacks, 4 did, which means about 21% of my paperback stock sold and 18% of my total stock did. Those aren’t bad numbers. It’s enough that it covered my registration for the event, gas, the food I had while I was there, and left me a few dollars—so I’m not complaining.

Here’s the AWESOME part, though. One of those 4 paperbacks I sold was bought by a bookstore owner who also attended the event as a vendor. She wanted to consider it for the shelves at her store. She has placed an order for her store, adding another 5 sales to the overall number of sales related to this event (if not actually at it) and making the total 9 sales and about 40% of my stock. Needless to say, that alone makes this event a huge success for me because that one sale may now have created a long-term partnership that leads to more sales in the future.

Another really cool thing that happened was that the author whose booth was next to mine, Sill Bihagia (you should def check out her book, Red Demon), also added sprayed edges to some of my paperbacks that match the pink ones from my special edition. While, of course, the special edition has other features like character art and a playlist, the sprayed edges are the most eye catching part of it’s external features. Having some paperbacks with them is nice. I posted that the next few paperback sales from my website (this website, STORE page) are going to come with the sprayed edges at no additional cost (Only 2 left now because some of them went to the bookstore order since the copy I originally sold her had them).

All in all, I think Bound & Bottled was well worth attending. If you’re a reader, indie author, or other human on the Eastern Shore, I definitely recommend checking out Ashley, the host of this event, and keeping an eye on her page for future ones.

Conclusion

So, that’s about that for this weeks segment of Nerdology 101. I hope you all enjoyed my little update. I’ll be sure to drop some more as things continue to progress. My next live appearance (currently scheduled, who knows if more will come up before then) is at The New Romantics Bookstore in Orlando, FL on August 29th from 12-2PM. Can’t wait to meet some readers in the area! This will be my first Flordia signing.

Of course, until then, people from anywhere in the world are welcome to stop back in. As always, the Nerdology 101 will have new segments every Friday at 3PM EST. Until then, have a nerdy week!

Nerdology 101: Writing & Social Media

Hi, loves. Welcome back to Nerdology 101. I’m Maria Levato, indie author, hostess of this here blog, anime nerd, part-time gamer, cat lady, kink guru, and all around queen of the Nerdom. This week I’m going to talk about about the ups and downs of being a writer on social media. To keep it nice and neat, I’ll just go platform by platform. So, lets get into some Nerdologyyy!

Instagram & Other Meta Socials (My Worst)

My author Instagram, @malevato6, is my oldest account. In part, I attribute that fact to why I have such a hard time growing it now. When I started it, I didn’t know much about social media marketing, so I made a few mistakes that made effective use of the platform difficult for me. For the sake of transparency, I’ll start by telling you what those mistakes were.

1. I used my personal account that I barely ever posted on prior to starting my publishing journey instead of creating a new one.

2. I didn’t change my original username to something that indicated what the page was about.

3. I didn’t post regularly when my first book, The Islands of Rune, came out. In fact, I didn’t start posting regularly until my second book, Journey to Rallem, came out. Then, of course, by the time The Fate of Angels and Demons, my most recent book came out, I had become a lot better at making quality posts and I had experimented with making talking reels.

So, obviously, there was a lot I could have done better early on that would have made growth a lot easier, but that didn’t happen so I can only talk about my experience as it is. Right now, I have 445 followers on Instagram. In the past few months, I’ve definitely seen it start to do better. It’s exciting, but nevertheless, the platform is not making it easy to recover. In fact, my average posts only reaches 20-100 people. That makes it pretty difficult to get more substantial growth. As a result, my IG is mostly stagnant and I have to fight for every follower/engagement I get much harder than should be necessary. This sort of unforgiving algorithm makes things extremely difficult for indie authors, who typically learn as they go since most of us don’t start out with a team to help us.

Just this year, I was able to hire a PA, @jazzys_books/@apenandapromise, for the first time. She focused a lot on my IG during my launch for The Fate of Angels and Demons. It was definitely a big help and got me through a barrier I’d been stuck at for a few months. If you can afford it, I definitely recommend hiring someone to help you through moments where you get stuck like that. IG, at several points, has taken up so much of my time and energy that it made it difficult for me to keep up with writing. I’ve heard other authors say the same. Hiring a PA is probably more affordable than you think and having that support there is a pretty big deal. For IG, I think it’s one of the best strategies, especially for those busy periods. A PA can do most anything for your socials except for the reels that require you to be on camera. Even for those, though, you might ask your PA to help you with editing the reel, writing a script, or finding a caption that will help it get seen.

I did also meet the cover and character artist, @sincerrio, I used for The Fate of Angels and Demons via IG. They did great work and I loved working with them. So, IG is good for finding artists if you’re looking for them, but I also feel like there’s a slew of artists on any platform that are easy enough to find if you’re looking for them.

Ultimately, I think IG is a great tool for creating community with readers, but it is also kind of set it its ways and not the most writer friendly social media platform, especially not for indies or people who tend toward the nervous side when it comes to posting reels of themselves. As always though, the readers make it worth while. I love meeting them, seeing what they’re enjoying, and having the connection I do with the few of them that do seem to be deeply engaged with my work. The same applies to other Meta-owned social media platforms.

Biggest IG Pro: Getting to vibe with readers, no matter how many or how few.

Biggest IG Con: Unforgiving of early mistakes.

Bluesky (My Best)

Bluesky has been my largest following for a while now. I started the account about a year and a half ago. My profile, @marialevato.com, has 924 followers at the moment and is the only platform on which I have more followers than following. It gets regular engagement and is overall the platform I’m doing the best on. From my experience though, it’s not a place to make sales. Regardless of the struggles I’ve had with IG, the platform is responsible for more of my sales than Bluesky, where I have more engagement and a larger following.

In my experience, Bluesky is better for connecting with other industry professionals than it is for finding readers. My editor, Robyn, is someone I connected with via Bluesky. Bluesky is also where I connected with Ann Rose, an agent from Tobias Literary Agency, and Despina Karras, the author who hosts PitchDis, both of whom I worked with on an event I put together for Authors Guild as one of the ambassadors for the Washington, D.C. chapter. So, yes, Bluesky is great for me in that aspect. Connecting with other members of the writing and publishing communities is a huge help for me and has led to some pretty awesome things.

Biggest Bluesky Pro: Meeting other industry professionals.

Biggest Bluesky Con: More difficult to connect with readers on the platform.

TikTok (My I don’t know yet cause it’s new to me)

TikTok is my newest social media account. I’ve been on it for less the 2 months. My profile, @authormarialevato, is currently sitting at 53 followers and 56 following, so I’m not off to a bad start. At least, I don’t think I am. I already have at least a handful of followers I’d consider deeply engaged. They engage with more of my content then they don’t. They’re readers too. I won’t judge how TikTok does on actually getting me sales yet since it is still so new, but I will say that I’m hopeful on that front. A already have a fair number of influencers posting about my book on the platform and tagging me. That type of early engagement might make both growth and conversion a lot higher. I can definitely say I get more reach and engagements on my posts than I do on IG. For now, that’s all I can really say about being on the platform as a writer. Hopefully, I’ll have more updates on the TikTok front soon!

Biggest Pro: More reach and engagement, more influencer collaboration.

Biggest Con: Very aggressive about pushing AI features and I’m not a fan of that, but that can be said of pretty much any major social media platform right now. I think TikTok is maybe just a tad more annoying about it than Meta or Bluesky.

Anyway, these are my thoughts on using various social media platforms as a writer. That’s about it for this weeks segment of Nerdology 101. Come back next Friday for another. Until then, have a nerdy week!