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. All interviews are accessible to members of Too Much Instagram - upgrade your subscription to join.
Leah Hazard is the best-selling author of two non-fiction books, with a third coming out in 2027. She’s also a practising NHS midwife, an activist, a mother of two girls, has just launched her new Substack ‘Body of Work’ and, as though she’s not busy enough, she also has a very exciting fiction project coming soon in 2025!
I asked Leah to come and speak with me about her experiences of marketing both a memoir and a non-fiction book, as well as how she’s going to navigate promoting a, up-coming fiction project to her existing audience this year.
Over the last few weeks Leah and I have also been in frequent contact about the changes that are happening across Meta platforms that throw into question whether writers and authors want to continue using Instagram to promote your work. It’s a conundrum I’m deeply familiar with and we talk about the contradictions and compromises inherent in using these platforms.
Huge thanks to Leah for spending this time with me. Once you’ve had a listen, if you have any questions feel free to drop them in the comments and make sure you check out the links below to find out more about Leah’s work ❤️
Find out more about Leah’s work
Books
Hard Pushed: A Midwife’s Story
Womb: The Inside Story of Where We All Began
Substack
, Instagram
⏳ Time stamps
00.01 Introduction
06.53 Where did it all begin? How did the memoir come to be? And how much emphasis was placed on social media platforms at that time?
14.17 What it was like to be a lead title with Penguin Random House
15.30 The different roles Twitter and Instagram played
17.27 How sales of Womb affected subsequent book deals
21.16 What marketing activity has paid off in the past?
25.34 Navigating changes to social media platforms that you don’t agree with
42.25 From the macro, back to the micro: using your existing platform to market a book that is very different to what you’ve written in the past
49.39 How and why to keep going even when things are less than ideal
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