This conversation is part of a series of interviews with authors and writers who are walking the talk when it comes to marketing their work and books. You can find the rest of the series of interviews here. Scroll down for the time stamps of this conversation.
Last year, five months before the publication of her debut middle-grade novel, The World Between The Rain, Susan Cahill reached out to me for support with her Instagram account. She understood that Instagram could be a powerful tool for reaching the people who would buy her book for their children, but, as a time-poor writer, editor and mum she wanted support with making the most of the time she had.
We ended up working together from June-Dec 2024 and in that time, Susan more than doubled her Instagram following, harnessed her network to reach over 26k people with the launch post for her book (even though at the time her following was under 1k), and gained clarity on the kinds of posts she needed to create in order to reach her ideal audience.
In the first two weeks the book sold over 1k copies, received rave reviews, was shared widely across Instagram, and has since secured a long-list nomination for Susan and her editor, Mikka Haugaard, for the Branford Boase Award 2025.
I’m delighted that Susan agreed to come along and be interviewed as I think many of you will relate to the position she started from - with little idea, even less time, but lots of worries - and you’ll gain insights and inspiration from the very practical steps she took to get her book into the hands of her readers.
Links to Susan’s work
🎙Listen to the StoryShaped Podcast
📖 Buy The World Between The Rain
⏳Time stamps
⏳00:01 my introduction to Susan
⏳03:41 Susan talks about her work and why she wrote The World Between The Rain
⏳05:07 the fear of using Instagram to promote her work and how her expectations were contradicted
⏳09.13 Susan describes her book
⏳12.14 what marketing support was Susan given by her publishers, and how did she respond to the suggestions that she should avoid talking about one of the core themes of her book: grief
⏳18:00 misconceptions about children’s literature
⏳21:08 Susan knew early on in the publishing process that her publisher’s weren’t in the position to give her lots of support so what did she do to self-drive the marketing for her book
⏳25:09 how Susan leveraged her network - including Instagram connections - to supercharge her launch, and how this is often a scary thing to ask for
⏳30:30 the difference between what your publisher’s responsibility is, compared to what you can take responsibility for yourself. In this part of the chat I reference this conversation with from February. I’ve removed the paywall on this so you can listen:
⏳32:16 creating a ‘thunderclap’ moment for launch day so the launch post for TWBTR was viewed over 26k times, at a time when Susan’s Instagram account had under 1k followers, and the importance of thinking cumulatively, rather than focusing on people with large accounts
In this part of the chat I refer to a conversation I had with in October 2024 where she shared her approach to using her network:
⏳41:20 understanding why we feel so ‘grubby’ about marketing books, and the pressure to stay ‘clean’ as a writer
⏳46:13 how to navigate the feeling that marketing takes you away from the thing you love: writing
⏳49:56 what were the assumptions you brought to Instagram at the beginning of marketing your book, and how did those assumptions shift and change?
I hope you’ve enjoyed this free to listen/ watch Q&A with Susan Cahill - please be sure to check out her work and buy her book!
If you’d like to enquire about working with me to launch your book using Instagram, or to build an audience to strengthen a book proposal, then please get in touch nicola@toomuchsocial.com
You might also be interested in the TOO MUCH INSTAGRAM membership that I host here on Substack.
Members enjoy:
a weekly check in chat where they can share their post ideas, receive feedback from me, and ask any questions they have
a monthly Ask Me Anything clinic where I do a detailed deep dive into any problems members are facing
fortnightly Content Create-along sessions where we work in community and accountability to create Instagram posts - something I know often gets pushed to the bottom of the to-do list
exclusive access to workshops, tutorials, post ideas and more
Upgrade your subscription for £12/ month or £120 per year for full access to the archive and all future resources.
Share this post