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: Experimenting

Hey, loves. It’s Maria Levato here and we’re back with another segment of Nerdology 101, the blog where we discuss all my nerdy interests from anime to gaming, mythology to history, and yes, of course, my writing. This week I’m going to be telling you all about a project I started (mostly out of boredom since both of my active manuscripts are in editing).

Is it going to be another romantasy?

Nope! It won’t be a romantasy. I know that’s my usual genre, but I was sitting on an idea for a little something different, so I’m experimenting.

What will it be then?

This project will be a short story in the contemporary romance genre. Here’s some of the tropes I’ll be working within:

• College Romance

• Artist x Business Tycoon

• He Falls First & Harder (always)

• Strangers to Friends to Lovers

Ohh, Tell me more!

Of course I will, darling. This story will center Kyra Nettle and Osiris Carhart, two freshman at ___ University (unamed because I’m still researching whether or not it’s okay for me to use the name of the university the campus and programs were based off of). They’re both communter students who meet the morning classes start due to a tiny car accident in the parking lot sparked by nervousness about their first day. While exchanging information for the insurance claim, they realize their families are in the midst of negotiating a business deal. Planning to succeed his father as head of the company, Osiris pleads for Kyra not to deliver the news about the accident to her father in a way that might make him look reckless or irresponsible. One thing leads to another and a friendship starts to blossom between them by the end of their first week, all the while their underlying attraction leaves them wondering if friends is all they’ll ever be.

Love it! When can we have it?

I just started writing it last night, so it might be a little while. To give you a clear idea of where we’re at, the file is currently titled “Untitled Short Story Thingy” in my computer. As you can tell, I haven’t decided much. As always, though, you’ll be able to find updates on this and all my other WIPs on the Coming Soon page of this website. I do hope you’ll check it out when it’s released in whatever manner I have not yet decided. Probably not on IngramSpark as I usually do because that wouldn’t really serve my goals for this (which is mostly to see how readers vibe with my writing in this genre). If you’re interested in it, drop a comment to tell me your preference here.

1. KU

2. Kobo

3. Submit to Anthologies or Lit Mags

That’s about all for this week’s segment of Nerdology 101. Drop in again next week for another. 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!