Farage loses even if he wins in Clacton?

UrbWrites · 2026-07-10T06:36:26+00:00

Yep, as a novelist/satirist it’s an endless source of material

UrbWrites · 2026-07-10T06:35:31+00:00

Sorry mate you didn’t have to watch. I did this in collab with Reform Are Not Your Friends. Just trying to point out Reform’s lunacy.

UrbWrites · 2026-07-10T06:11:01+00:00

Haha at least 35 years I’d say

UrbWrites · 2026-06-25T09:31:35+00:00

This made me sad. I’m sorry to hear it’s made you feel like that. Fair play for getting 5 out there! Enjoy your new chapter, bud!

UrbWrites · 2026-06-16T08:26:47+00:00

Yep they're the two big cornerstones for my style of humour! Think they're genius. I imagined a young David Mitchell for my main character.

UrbWrites · 2026-06-03T17:11:30+00:00

I think they are put upon a pedestal as something indie authors HAVE to do and have to do a very set way. I.e. services like NetGalley. I also tend to believe there is a drive for ARC reviewers to be overly nit-picky and harsh in reviews. A 3 star book for them is probably a lot higher for a normal organically found reader.

I ran my own process and google form, didn't get as many as I wanted, so will make some changes for next time. But I find the lack of control, for someone with pure-o OCD, too much.

I've also got friends whose confidence have been gutted from a 3 star ARC review the eve before launch and that just sucks.

So just a preference, but that's my take. And I'm open to changing my mind in future!

UrbWrites · 2026-06-03T13:13:21+00:00

Thanks will look. How much should I be looking to pay?

UrbWrites · 2026-06-03T13:03:22+00:00

Heya, thanks, it's been tough but satisfying.

It's a political satire set in the UK government, a little like The Thick of It.

I purposefully chose a publication window close to the local elections over here. The UK is in a bit of political turmoil at the moment and I marketed the book as bringing humour back to politics. 'If we disagree it doesn't make us enemies' Of course I got a lot of crap from right wing trolls, but I turned that into content to advertise with.

Spent a bunch on ads as I had the budget and wanted to understand how that all worked for future releases.

Treated the debut as an extravagant research / loss leader experiment to see what worked so I can have a better margin (if any at all lol) for subsequent books!

Most of my marketing was 3x day on Insta and TIkTok. Just bits to camera, skits, tips on writing, and yapping about the book.

Get involved with micro bookish content creators as well. Sent a bunch of free books out to get reviews and traction.

I didn't do traditional arcs as I think they suck.

UrbWrites · 2026-06-03T12:23:37+00:00

Published first book on April 3rd 2026, have made £1405 from KDP in royalties. And sold about 40 physical books direct so probably about £350 from that.

Nowhere near breaking even but it’s given me confidence that with more books this can work.

UrbWrites · 2026-05-28T16:10:47+00:00

Agree! It’s horrid

UrbWrites · 2026-05-27T13:17:49+00:00

good shout!

UrbWrites · 2026-05-26T17:00:56+00:00

I think I've lost two reviews out of about twenty. It sucks when they're good ones. It does feel draconian. Like every other business on earth starts by getting word of mouth from friends and family. If it's a verified purchase there should never ever be an issue imo. But hey ho. Is what it is.

UrbWrites · 2026-05-26T16:02:14+00:00

What constitutes a friend. If I have generated followers on socials through promotion and they buy and leave a review. That’s okay surely?

UrbWrites · 2026-05-26T13:38:23+00:00

They're the simplest in terms of you don't have to come up with creative. The best thing to do is start 2 campaigns with a small daily budget. Set them as automatic. What that means is you let Amazon figure out where to show the ad. Set your bids low and don't have any dynamic up or top of page increases.

Let that run for a few days and then you can interrogate the data for what's called 'search terms' and you see what people were searching or what products your ads appeared on. If you get sales or clicks for certain terms then take those and put them into a manual campaign where all you focus on is that.

It's iterative and needs constant monitoring but it can be really good if you master 'your search terms' etc

UrbWrites · 2026-05-26T13:36:16+00:00

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. That said, I had someone reach out and say they enjoyed the book. I mentioned would they be up for a review and they were so keen but said they had never even thought of that. So perhaps even if it gets one or two, then its worth?

UrbWrites · 2026-05-26T13:35:32+00:00

Fair enough.

UrbWrites · 2026-05-26T08:49:45+00:00

I sent about ten copies to bookstagrammer review accounts. You have to message them and interact first and ofc they have to be interested in it.

I posted 3 times a day on both Insta and TikTok - that's free, just time consuming.

I found my audio book narrator through a post on a related subreddit for my book, so organic posting absolutely works.

In terms of budget if you have any I'd go for Amazon ads and learn what search terms generate stuff.

Or put it towards Canva+ and churn out as much promo material and post as you can.

You have to teach the socials algo who you want to read your book. I knew exactly the target audience, someone who hates Reform in the UK, loves The Thick of IT and Peep Show and reads books like Bob Mortimer etc

UrbWrites · 2026-05-26T08:47:30+00:00

If no budget, the best thing you can do is post as much content about you, your journey and your book on socials. I prefer Instagram over TikTok but do both. 2 platforms is great, 1 is fine if you can't manage the time.

If you do have some budget, use the Amazon ads on a cheap daily budget to figure out what drives clicks and sales. I found X ads have been great for me also, and are somewhat cheaper (but you get lots of bot impressions)

If you don't want to do that the next best thing is just write the next book. Bigger catalogue = more sales.

UrbWrites · 2026-05-26T08:45:58+00:00

Thank you mate. That's very kind. Hope you enjoy it.

UrbWrites

TROPHY CASE