Going viral can sell a few books, but only when the viral moment was actually about your books to begin with. Most viral content has nothing to do with what an author writes, so the audience it brings isn’t the audience that buys. Build genuine social connection instead, and the readers who show up are the ones who actually want your books.

Why doesn’t going viral sell more books?

Alexa Bigwarfe went viral for a New Kids on the Block video. It still brings her new followers today. It has never had anything to do with her business or her books.

 Diana’s story runs the same experiment with the opposite result. She wrote an eco-thriller, and she went viral talking about the wildfire smoke crossing into Canada, where she actually lives, and the politics behind it. That’s not a post she made once and walked away from, either. She’s kept building on it, most recently with a video titled Orwell Was Right, still talking eco justice, still holding her own book in the shot.

Same mechanism. Two completely different outcomes. Alexa’s clip is unrelated noise that happens to keep circulating. Diana’s is the argument of her book, playing out again and again, with her name attached every time.

A viral post only helps if it’s actually about the thing you sell.

What should authors do instead of going viral?

 So how do you actually create content that reaches your readers? Here are the actions that work.

 These are fiction-focused first. Nonfiction and memoir folks, I’ve got more built for you separately, don’t worry.

Start with understanding what a glimmer actually is. A glimmer is the opposite of a trigger, a tiny moment that brings you joy or pulls a smile out of you instead of pain. The term comes out of polyvagal theory, so there’s real psychology behind it, not just a nice metaphor.

Here’s why it matters for your content: if you want to hook a reader, give them a glimmer. Content that gives someone a glimmer invites them in. It makes them want to be inside your book, not just aware that it exists.

 Stop asking what should I post. Start asking where can my audience enter my world, and what can I do to invite them in. Need some ideas?

Here are three ways to actually do this.

 Go where the glimmers are. Find the accounts in your own readership that make you smile, and go show up there. Not to promote yourself. To actually talk to people.

 Build an absurdly detailed character profile. Give your character a fake social media profile. A list of their favorite celebrity quotes, their go-to coffee order, their most-used emoji. Go overboard. The goal is a reader who feels like they’ve hung out with this person, or can’t stand them, either one works.

 Run a character takeover day. Hand your Stories over to your character for a day and let them post what they’d actually post.

 The character is the door. You’re not performing when you do this, you’re worldbuilding in public. You stay the author. The book becomes the content.

Want to see this in action?

My Substack essay, FCK the Algorithm and Influencer Culture*, breaks down a real author’s pinned intro post line by line, the kind that makes a stranger want to introduce themselves and become instant friends. It also talks about a burned-out, 10k-follower acquaintance from earlier in this post, and what happened next.

 Read the full essay on Substack

Common questions authors ask about going viral

 Am I shadowbanned?

Probably not, and chasing an answer to this question is usually a distraction from the real one. Reach dips happen for a dozen boring reasons, a slow week, a format shift, timing, most of which have nothing to do with a platform working against you. Worry less about what the algorithm is doing to you and more about what you’re actually posting.

What is a glimmer in social media?

A glimmer is a small moment of content that brings a reader real joy instead of trying to sell them something. It’s the opposite of a trigger, a term borrowed from polyvagal theory. Give readers glimmers consistently, and they’ll want to be part of your book’s world before you ever ask them to buy it.

How often do authors need to post to sell books?

There’s no magic number, and chasing one is how burnout starts. Post when you have a real glimmer to share, not on a schedule dictated by fear. Consistency matters more than volume, and consistency is sustainable when it’s built around content you actually want to make.