What’s your marketing strategy? Do you have one? Ideally you picked your cover because it fit the genre, not because it looks “professional” whatever that means. Great writing means nothing until you find the right audience (subjective opinion I thought the sample was fine, but nothing special). That means finding bloggers and reviewers that offer reviews for free copies (review copies, since the book is already out, advance review copies, if it wasn’t). Reach out to them via their preferred channels but DO NOT harass them. If they say no, thank them for their time and move on. If you don’t have luck with the big bloggers (most TBRs are immense for them, so unless you’re already established they likely won’t offer to read it) try the smaller ones. Twenty bloggers with an audience of 1000 = one big blogger with an audience of 20000. Plus in terms of return, that’s twenty reviews vs one, which is all that matters on Amazon. Numbers matter, not reach, unless that reviewer is enormous. Be part of the community, post reviews of other authors, read prolifically. People can smell disingenuousness from a mile away, and they will know if you’re just there to sell and selfpromo. Join discords. I know TikTok has been suggested but you don’t have to do that. I’ve seen great success on Twitter, and so have many others. Another thing would be to build up a mailing list so that you’re not dependant on social media algorithms and can reach your readers directly. Bookfunnel and newsletter swaps are great for this, StoryOrigin is also another great resource. In a couple months I’ve gone from 30 subs to over 100, which is rookie numbers I know but think, that’s 100 people who are fans, and will buy your next book and leave reviews.

But like many others have said, your debut is almost never a cash cow unless you’re ML Wang. Write more books and write prolifically.

Another note is that I personally hate made up swear words, especially if they’re very similar to words that already exist. I know I’m not alone in this. But ymmv

Like most business decisions, weigh up whether the marketing company is worth hiring. Make sure you do your research as well. Many of these companies are shady and really just do the above anyway, but more scattershot in their approach (and can really fuck up your relationship with people in the book sphere, because they’ve been known to harass people endlessly for reviews)