Welcome to the Too Much community!
Want to use Instagram to find more readers? Ask me your questions, or share your frustrations in the comments - I want to know how I can best support you!
I’m Nicola, a social media strategist and I’m here to teach writers how you can use social media - especially Instagram - to find your readers and promote your work, without it taking over your life.
Perhaps you have a Substack you want to promote, maybe you want to grow a community around your ideas, or perhaps you’re working your way towards publication date for your book: whatever your reason for being here, I have lots of free resources that can help, and if you want more support you can choose to become a member of the Too Much Instagram membership by upgrading your subscription.
First of all though, I’d love to hear more about what you’re working on, AND what problems, issues or challenges you’re facing with Instagram or social media in general. Leave a comment underneath this post and let me know how best I can support you.
This is how I got here…
For twelve years I was a secondary school English teacher and seven years ago, when that career was flushed down the maternal brain-drain with all the ceremony of a goldfish funeral, I was completely untethered.
I’d identified my whole self so strongly with my job that the loss of that label, alongside the concurrent mind-altering shifts of relatively early motherhood, left me with as much shape and direction as a corner-shop plastic bag being tossed around on the breeze.
Rebuilding myself is an ongoing process and only in the last year or so have I stopped answering the question, ‘What do you do?’ with the preamble, ‘Well… I used to be a teacher…’
Long story short, I learned the hard way not to define myself using my job.
So, while the first sentence of this post tells no lie, I feel it’s also important to tell you I’m also mother of two, a wife (we only got married last year after twenty years together so this idea is still wild to me!) a whippet-owner, a country-phile, a London-dweller, a curious soul, a dedicated collector of (often fairly useless) knowledge, a recovering people-pleaser, a quiet rebel, a lover of ideas, words, books, and <deep breath> a writer (I had to delete the word ‘aspiring’).
I’ve been working on a fiction project for the last three years. I’m edging my way through its fifth (I think?) edit after some encouraging feedback from a couple of agents.
I’ve also been experimenting with writing short stories, inspired strongly by
whose Miniature Worlds Short-Story Course I took earlier in 2023.I have a constant whirl of ideas swirling around my mind which is simultaneously a gift and a curse as ideas are great until you (I) can’t decide which ones to pin down, and even once you (I) do it’s an ongoing battle not to let them go in pursuit of something shinier…
Anyway, that’s quite enough about me - I’d love to know more about the people who are joining me here so please go ahead and leave an intro in the comments :-) PLUS let me know your Instagram handle so I can find you over there too!
Hello! I am Cressy McLaughlin, I am an author of contemporary, often cosy romance books, including a series set in Cornwall called the Cornish Cream Tea series. I have been writing full time for the last seven years, and I absolutely LOVE it. Instagram is definitely my favourite social media platform, because it's fun and creative and, certainly in my little corner of it, seems to be a really positive place. I want to do more with it, be more innovative and use more of the features, and I also want to be better at reels. I feel like my reels are so clunky, but I like the possibility they have, and want to be able to create reels that feel fun and interesting. I also just want to be better at engaging with the community on Instagram. I have peaks and troughs of being really inspired and into it, and then my brain feels empty and I have no idea what to post. I am @cressmclaughlin on Instagram.
Dear Nicola, you know me a little already (thank you so much for sharing about my writing course!) but I am introducing myself here to say hi to the rest of the Too Much community. I'm Huma Qureshi, author of the novel Playing Games, the short story collection Things We Do Not Tell The People We Love and the memoir How We Met. I have a lovely little newsletter list (off Substack) called Dear Huma, and I also have a Substack celebrating Alice Munro called Reading Alice & Others, and I teach online writing courses via my website also.
I've joined Too Much because publication has really taken its toll on my confidence and that in turn has really affected the way I use Instagram (ie, now not at all) whereas once upon a time I genuinely enjoyed it. Where once I gained followers easily now I lose them every single time I post and my account hasn't grown for over a year if not longer. I really struggle with self doubt and therefore also self promotion, and I'm here for some gentle encouragement to not be so scared about it all. My instagram handle is @humaqureshiwriter and I'd love to connect with any fellow uncertain and slightly shy authors too x