Allyson Johnson

The Publishing Journey – Step 6: Build your Literary Community

What the heck is a “Literary Community”? Why do I need it?

Well, back in the day, an author could count on their publisher to provide visibility for a new release, with a book launch event, book tours, interviews, trade reviews, and so on. But per Jim Millot in Publishers Weekly “The total number of books published in the U.S. in 2025 with ISBN numbers jumped 32.5% over 2024, to more than four million books, according to statistics compiled by Bowker.”

The five major publishers with all their subsidiary imprints published over a million of these titles, with small presses, hybrid presses, and self-publishers providing the balance. But at the same time that the number of new releases is ballooning, the universe of hard-copy book buyers is stable or shrinking.

So how does one find buyers for a new novel? Social media, that dreaded sinkhole of targeted advertisements and cute cat memes, has become a main channel for publicizing a new release. One goal is to find a community of contributors focused on a topic or genre that relates to one’s book, and become a member of that community. Post often, post constructively, and put your name on every post. When the book is released, the power of name recognition will kick in. Other contributors, seeing a familiar name, will be more tempted to click on that “BUY NOW” button.

Sounds like a long-shot bet, doesn’t it? But with the average published book selling less than one thousand copies across all formats and all markets (per Steve Piersanti – Barrett-Koehler Publishers) the author must resort to any possible stratagem.

So what are the communities I might try to join? There are several Facebook groups which focus on historical fiction, both readers of and writers of. That’s a start – though most FB groups do not allow direct publicizing of one’s own work. So I have joined:

• the Historical Fiction Book Lovers.
• the Historical Fiction Book Club
• the Historical Fiction Lover’s Book Club
• the Historical Fiction Authors

Unfortunately for my literary community building, I don’t always have that much to say, and what I do say, I usually say on my blog. Being an active contributor to even these four FB groups is going to take time I usually spend (on a good day) writing my next novel.

(Some of my younger relatives point out that FaceBook is mostly used these days by parents and grandparents doting on their children. The real jazzy stuff goes on TikTok and Instagram. The more I thought about this, the better I felt about FB – it’s those same parents and grandparents who are still buying hardback books, bless their hearts!)

Image – Pete Sutton