I'm a ST and right now there's an online VtM game that I have going on for nearly three months, and I'm feeling a bit drained and out of inspirations. From as far as I can see the players seem still pretty invested in the game which adds to my sense of guilt lol.

I think the fatigue largely comes from the fact that I didn't expect the original game to be this long, and it shouldn't be if I just ran it the way I planned it. But the story got complicated in actual play--the players wanted to split up into different teams and investigate separately so I had to manage multiple timelines, some of them kept venturing outside of "the sandbox" and I had to make things up and try to tie it back to the main quest, etc..

And to be fair, it was fun. I do think the way these players played enriched the story and made it more interesting than the original campaign, which was why I was willing to play along, but doing several months of this is just too exhausting.

I wonder if there are STs here who can give some suggestions on what to do? Do you guys have ways to recharge your creative juice? Or you just ask the players to take a break?

We all know the Sims 4 vanilla story system is pretty meh, so I usually use a lot of mods and build a premise for a story, then roleplay the sims as much as I can based on contexts, kind of like a one-person TRPG campaign, even then the game tends to work against me and make sims go out-of-character.

This save however is a totally different beast. I swear there were moments where I suspected my save was possessed so I wanted to share. Sorry for the lack of good screenshots, I wasn't expecting anything like it so I wasn't screenshotting until literally the end lol.

Before we begin, here's a trigger warning: sex, gaslighting, child neglect, drug use. Now let's go.

1. Heart of San Myshuno

I've always been a big fan of VtM so in this save I rebuilt the city into a cyberpunk Gotham and created a mega-rich corporate vampire executive (a Ventrue archetype if you know VtM) with the dream of founding a vampire dynasty (so the vampire family aspiration but royalty and legacy). Meet Sebastian, business career 10+, angel investor (his hourly rate is 666 btw):

https://preview.redd.it/s9gkpgoplj9h1.png?width=1490&format=png&auto=webp&s=30d0cb85532a76d17c7ab335a8ae96a0ef075b8b

Now he has a girlfriend starting out in his household, Lenora. The premise is she's been pretty much smitten with him since high school and staying with him ever since, not needing to ever have a job too. A very nice but naive dolly girl (for now). Artsy, so when she's really bored at home she draws and writes to kill time. Her starting aspiration was to find her soulmate, which she thought was going exceptionally well:

https://preview.redd.it/6a6rsuk1mj9h1.png?width=1509&format=png&auto=webp&s=b5416a4a6fd737c2f1ef8a9f9f1f29959ef2897c

The couple lives at 888 Spire Apartments, which I've built to fit what I feel like is a corporate vampire lord vibe (I suck at building so be kind pls UwU):

https://preview.redd.it/fbalohstlj9h1.png?width=2559&format=png&auto=webp&s=ae2a3a5129299fc3e678aaf820624ac2f2eb59e0

https://preview.redd.it/raenhleulj9h1.png?width=2559&format=png&auto=webp&s=49681d0b330f0a3fd6a72d2c98b1c63b6210c214

But before we even get to other sims in their life, the couple's relationship was already taking a surprising turn because of the game. My plan was Sebastian never should have taken Lenora seriously (he has traits like cold-blooded, non-commital, insatiably lustful from WW, etc.) and at best they would have a steamy relationship, but the two got along so well when left alone for some reason, that the game labelled them "wholesome" in life mode, and they became soulmates and official partners pretty much within the first week. So finally, I guess Sebastian found someone that really reached into his dead heart.

However apart from his playboy lifestyle, Sebastian is also a vampire with the insatiable thirst flaw (in exchange for complete sunlight tolerance essentially, I want to make him a lot different from Strauss) and needs to feed a lot more. Lenora's presence was supposed to help but now that he had genuine feelings for her, he felt bad about drinking from her too often, the plasma bags barely help, and hunting takes a lot of time. So his friends, Julius, came to the rescue... Or did he?

2. The Good Samaritans:

Julius is a career 10 politician (national leader) and lives with his wife Yuki at IX Landgraab. He's not comically evil per se, but definitely greedy, ambitious and capable of cruelty just like any good old government weasel. His brother is also a mob boss back at Tartosa so his hands are not really that clean either (I'm sorry if he and Yuki look too basic, I remade/replaced every household in this save and I got lazy very often lol):

https://preview.redd.it/ps8ez94wlj9h1.png?width=1413&format=png&auto=webp&s=e23d5217b4fc31f782c236daf6c91dc130a659c0

Yuki is a stay-at-home, traditional Japanese housewife. She's loyal, family-oriented, nurturing, an exceptional chef as well, and let's just say that loyalty will put her into great peril later on:

https://preview.redd.it/3ty765qxlj9h1.png?width=1533&format=png&auto=webp&s=4f42f7545adaff271d8df083cb401291209a0343

Here's their home. I used a stunning build from the gallery for this one:

https://preview.redd.it/x4edvcf4mj9h1.png?width=2559&format=png&auto=webp&s=25b67f96c0f57361e9f66d9e69b2f17a4a79096c

Since these two households are neighbours, they are closer to each other than others in their elitist little circle, and Sebastian knows Julius too well--including his mob ties. I imagine Julius is a bit uncomfortable with this, his friend having dirt on him but not the other way around. So why not change that? Julius thought. He noticed how Sebastian struggled with hunting and blood thirst, trying to hold it back around Lenora. So he procured four young pretty girls, let them live at VIII Landgraab--literally the penthouse next to his own--and offered them up to Sebastian as his exclusive blood dolls. Julius assured Sebastian: the place is clandestine, whatever he does to those girls stay exactly where it happens. And the girls are not forced in any sense--there are plenty of twenty-somethings out there who'd do anything for a life of luxury, and they all should feel very lucky to have Sebastian as their sugar daddy.

Case in point, the blood doll penthouse:

https://preview.redd.it/odrdsds5mj9h1.png?width=2559&format=png&auto=webp&s=d21548ff04014c2a4fc7dbd836fa76ff56f34378

Sebastian accepted it without much hesitation. Sure, Julius is probably spying the penthouse for blackmail material, but this sort of mutual hostage is exactly how alliances work in their circle--making sure everyone has something on someone, so no one betrays anyone. He doesn't mind. Now he has four delicious, willing playthings waiting for him every day, no more risky scouting in nightclubs and feeding on colleagues. This is for Lenora, Sebastian told himself. If he comes home satiated, he can focus on treating her well instead of staring at her neck and struggling with his urges.

But then, predictably, putting a bloodthirsty Casanova and four pretty young party girls inside a beautiful secret penthouse is a slippery idea. Soon, the blood dolls became Sebastian's personal harem. Weirdly enough, having sex with them was never really satisfactory (he literally got the "unsatisfactory sex" moodlet most of the time), unlike how he felt with Lenora, but he couldn't stop himself from responding to their teases even though he felt guilty afterwards (this was also how he behaved in-game). Something about doing this feeds his ego so much that it's addictive.

Ah, it's ok. Both him and Julius know how to keep secrets. He uses protections. He can deploy his vampire powers to control the girls like puppets. Surely nothing can go wrong.

3. The First Crack:

On Lenora's side, everything was picture-perfect in the meantime. Sebastian took her on dreamy, extravagant dates and introduced her to all the important people--well, more like the wives of the important people, but still, she felt like the centre of the world. He told her she would be the queen of his immortal dynasty. He's a virtuoso and serenaded her with violin and piano. He's great in bed. Her only complaint was boredom when he's not around. Her life was pretty much revolving around his orbit. But that's an ungrateful thought, isn't it? She's really unremarkable compared to him and the kind of society he moves in. At least she had her easel and her novels. She had plenty of time to hone her craft, and Sebastian always listened to her enthusing about writing and proudly paraded her paintings in front of their guests, although that gesture always felt a bit... Unnerving.

So one day Lenora decided to finally meet and catch up with the one person in her contacts that's not introduced by Sebastian: Aubree (this was a want she had in-game). Her high school classmate that's been falling out of touch with her after graduation. Things like this happen--you go on separate paths in life. Acting on an impulse, she asked Aubree out to a cafe and she immediately recognised the pretty blonde. She hasn't changed much at all:

https://preview.redd.it/m1wrj5m7mj9h1.png?width=1373&format=png&auto=webp&s=6765d28fd5e096bf5065e043e530648fd66cc629

But the coffee chat went horribly wrong. Lenora thought she had been careful enough, but even the most trivial small talk didn't seem to work. Aubree was just mean and cold to her seemingly out of nowhere, and before Lenora could ask why, Aubree left abruptly (again, exactly how it transpired in-game). Lenora came home confused and complained to Sebastian about it. "People change." Sebastian just shrugged and gave her a comforting kiss.

Though Sebastian wasn't as calm as he let on that night. When he was having some fun with one of the blood dolls, Alison, the damned condom broke (again, in-game event lmao) and he found out too late. He asked Alison if she took birth control pill as required. She said yes. He asked her to take a pregancy test, she said she wasn't pregnant (in-game dialogues that I had Sebastian go through as well).

Here's Alison:

https://preview.redd.it/laifkax8mj9h1.png?width=1503&format=png&auto=webp&s=bd0334c2eedacad3caca78afbf9f76e064bb9c22

He was probably too paranoid, but who could have blamed him--he was serious about wanting Lenora to be his queen. He planned to propose to her soon (in-game want) and he knew Lenora would have been the perfect mother. He was listening when Yuki called Lenora, asking her advice on having a child with Julius (in-game event), and the pure joy Lenora expressed when encouraging Yuki to do it was unquestionable. If he were to have a child, it must be his and Lenora's.

4. The Bad News:

Then of course, it had to happen when Sebastian was busy. He was grinding to earn those vacation days for honeymoon and wasn't keeping an eye on the blood dolls. Before he knew it, Alison announced in a text that in fact, she WAS pregnant, when it was only too late, when he was literally having a candlelight dinner with Lenora. Was Alison just so dumb that she could misread a pregnancy test? Or was she covering it all up, lying, to get something out of it? He hid his panic and finished dinner with Lenora, drove her home and watched her sleep--a vampire of his age could no longer sleep in bed, so watching his beloved sleep was the best he could manage. Then, he headed to VIII Landgraab.

The penthouse was chaos, and Alison was particularly miserable. Turned out fate (or in this case, the Sims 4 game) had a cruel sense of humour: of all the blood dolls, Alison was the only one who hates children, and she was throwing a fit about having a baby with a man who couldn't even acknowledge her existence outside this penthouse. He only got her to calm down after asking her to be his secret lover, a watered-down form of recognition she sought.

One small solace Sebastian had was when the child was actually born. It was a baby girl named Daniella. She was perfect. A natural-born vampire. Beautiful too (which is rare considering how hilarious or hideous game-generated sims tend to look):

https://preview.redd.it/gjtowsjamj9h1.png?width=744&format=png&auto=webp&s=d1b54f154a30e5703c2e6765b33ff033ef1b2ec3

This is what Daniella looks like as a young adult, no make-up or some such. I think she's very pretty, combining her parents' features in the best way:

https://preview.redd.it/t28h96dcmj9h1.png?width=1293&format=png&auto=webp&s=298a771d26a87a82209436580814206961daae6e

Daniella was everything Sebastian wanted from a child. But Alison, on the other hand, was not fit to be a mother at all. She always got tense or embarrassed around Daniella, leaving her to be other blood dolls' problem. Sebastian had to come and take care of the baby as much as he could, further shrinking the time he could spend with Lenora. He was regretting all this blood-doll business, and already formulating a plan: he needed to propose to Lenora and marry her as soon as he could, then took Daniella off Alison's hands. He and Lenora would raise Daniella as an adopted daughter, and say goodbye to these blood dolls no matter how much they charge him for their silence. And yet, when these girls strip-teased him and asked him to stay a bit longer, it's like he was possessed and completely unable to resist (again, how he behaved autonomously around those blood doll sims).

At the same time, Lenora decided to try and sell her paintings and novels for some side cash. She was in no means a master at both crafts, and the money was a trickle compared to what Sebastian made, but the way Sebastian was always working late recently made her feel nervous, empty, in ways she couldn't explain. Maybe it was because she felt guilty for not being a provider, and indeed, she felt better after seeing those daily royalties coming in. She was writing some silly romance books, based on herself and Sebastian. That was all she could think about because it was her whole world.

5. Motherly Instinct:

Yuki was overjoyed when she finally conceived a baby--she's not a young adult anymore, and she felt lucky she got a chance to realise her dream of being a super parent before she grew too old for it. She and Julius prepared methodically and read all the books on parenting. They got all the baby furniture as well, sacrificing the home gym for extra space. Lenora often joked that she was over-preparing, so much so that she was using Lenora as target practice and treated her like a daughter. She couldn't help it. Lenora was so young.

So imagine how Yuki felt when day after day, she passed through her neighbour's door after a walk, throwing out garbage or getting a mail, she saw an infant girl left alone on the floor, often dirty and hungry:

https://preview.redd.it/s89ydk8emj9h1.png?width=2559&format=png&auto=webp&s=c60db05478b726c9d3abba162f0ba90ebd7c0258

It was not her child, of course. And being Julius' wife, Yuki knew snooping around too much was unwise. But perhaps it was the hormones, perhaps this happened too often, one day she found herself knocking on the neighbour's door and politely asking if someone had left their baby outside. When the door opened, it was always noisy with loud music and the air was heavy with the smell of drugs and alcohol, and a black-haired young lady would drowsily rise from the sofa and smile apologetically but impatiently before taking the baby girl in. Yuki assumed that was the baby's mother from the resemblance (This was actual gameplay. I know sims are just dumb and often leave babies everywhere but in this case, it just serves the story so well).

An unwanted child of a mother who wasn't ready. Not uncommon in this city. Yuki scoffed. That child would probably end up in social security soon. End of story. But then one night she realised it was more than just an irresponsible mother living next door--the neighbours were getting too noisy and she was about to tell them to quiet down, but instead she saw it--Sebastian came out of their neighbour's front door, picking up the crying infant girl. He gave someone inside the penthouse an angry glare, but then gently rocked the baby and brought her in (again, true in-game encounter, I just dramatised it in my head). He seemed too occupied to notice Yuki peeking through the door.

Then Yuki couldn't stop thinking about it, how that baby looked like Sebastian. Could it be... Should she tell Lenora? In the end she brought the topic up to Julius, disguising it as harmless, playful gossip about neighbours and their mutual friends. Julius was never really a mild-tempered man, but he's been gentle since she was pregnant. Yet the moment she asked about the neighbours, he got visibly displeased and ordered her sternly not to speak of this to anyone. His anger and panic told her more than anything. Now the loyal Yuki was trapped between her allegiance to her husband and her best friend.

From this point on, something interesting happened to Yuki in game: she kept wanting to chat or socialise with Lenora when she was at home. For the story's sake, here's how I interpreted it: Yuki could never bring herself to tell Lenora the truth, so she wanted to keep asking her over--to feel the baby kicking in her belly, to keep her company since she can't go anywhere, whatever the excuse was--so she could create opportunities for Lenora to stumble upon Sebastian's affair, like the way she did herself. Unfortunately for Yuki, Daniella hadn't been left outside VIII Landgraab after this, for some reason, so there was no reason for Lenora to knock on that fateful door.

6. The Dam Breaks:

Lenora was looking forward to the Friday night date with Sebastian at the Bellacorde Pallace, in the beautiful kingdom of Ondarion. They haven't got much quality time together recently, and Sebastian promised he'd make it up to her. They dressed up like a proper prince and princess. The Rococo ballroom was a jewel in itself. He gifted her a grand bouquet. He taught her how to waltz. Then, when the dance was over, he fell to his knees and proposed with the most dazzling diamond ring. It all felt like a fever dream. She said yes. Their wild sex lasted all night and she was spent. Her mind only recovered from the fairytale ecstasy on Saturday afternoon, and she immediately called to tell Yuki the wonderful news.

Strangely, Yuki sounded less enthusiastic than Lenora would have anticipated. Yuki explained it was because she had been a bit drained after giving birth to Yasmine, and asked Lenora to come over to see the baby and tell her about the big proposal in person. Lenora wanted to ask Sebastian to come along, but he left for overtime work again, so she went there herself. She gave Yuki a big hug and made funny faces at a giggling Yasmine. No offense to her best friend but... Yasmine looked like a tiny wrinkly alien. Lenora thought to herself. Would her and Sebastian's baby look this weird too?

https://preview.redd.it/rx9o4p0gmj9h1.png?width=2559&format=png&auto=webp&s=6737e4bfc49e36eb60f6f090509c15f460cd5d16

https://preview.redd.it/me5u4mjgmj9h1.png?width=2559&format=png&auto=webp&s=0c1c0410595fae2c0ba9b142ac627d11b72b31c0

(At this point I'm just marvelling at the irony here. Like she's here cooing at Yuki's baby and Sebastian's literally right next door doing god-knows-what.)

Then, loud laughter, screams and bangs came from next door (Lenora got an in-game noisy neighbour moodlet). Lenora frowned and shook her head. Yuki needed to rest, and no way this noise pollution would help. Since Yuki was not feeling well, Lenora decided to take a look for her and asked the neighbours to tune it down a bit. Yuki didn't protest, but watched her all the way as she stepped out the door with a sad look.

Lenora was expecting some rowdy teenagers, college kids, or nasty tech bros to answer when she knocked on the door of VIII Landgraab. It was a pretty girl of her age whom she didn't know, naked and high, barely able to form a word with her lips through her uncontrollable giggles. Lenora scrunched her nose and walked further in. Then she saw--

(WARNING, THE IMAGERY DEPICTS A DISTRESSED, NEGLECTED CHILD but it's literally in-game screenshot. I was speechless when I saw it too. Just the theatrical effect, wow. Something is wacky about this playthrough.)

https://preview.redd.it/vahb6x1imj9h1.png?width=2559&format=png&auto=webp&s=4382acc2b701857b3c8259a4583d5b1429780585

An infant girl with black hair and blue eyes--familiar blue eyes--on her eating chair, crying out loud, hands waving helplessly in the air. At the far corner of the living room, a naked, sweating Sebastian was wrapped in beautiful feminine bodies that were eagerly rubbing onto him.

Now Lenora knew why Aubree was so cold and mean to her. Because there Aubree was, kneeling on the ground and sucking Sebastian's dick.

Then--and here's an autonomous sim doing something that I know is just random but when you fit it into the context of the story it just hits different--after the automatic jealous reactions, after game notifications of being cheated and all the very sad and very angry moodlets pop up, the first thing that Lenora did was to carry Daniella over to a corner far away from the orgy and talk to the baby.

https://preview.redd.it/cwkx78zjmj9h1.png?width=2559&format=png&auto=webp&s=e75aef2d5c8918e579c7d979e41353675981b82e

(I mean, it's beautiful, what can I say)

Then she just left.

7. The Aftermath:

Lenora headed straight to home--Sebastian's penthouse. She took care of herself first--cooking dinner and eating, taking a cold shower with all those pent-up emotions inside her, then she painted and wrote furiously, finishing up her current projects. The UI showed she had developed a fear of being cheated. She felt defeated that her soulmate--both her lover and best friend--had failed her. She wanted to sell a few more paintings or books, then move out.

Sebastian returned too shortly. He went upstairs and tried to talk to her, even throwing some cheeky compliments at her. But Lenora barely responded and just kept working. The two were having a cold war.

This lasted for a day or two--and pathetically, when Lenora shut him off, the game let Sebastian jerk himself off once in the bedroom (again, totally autonomous action... Blew my mind). He didn't look for Alison (who should be his official partner now that Lenora broke up with him) or the blood dolls or anyone, just did it himself like a sad teenager. And even more ironically, the game gave him an unsatisfactory sex moodlet after he finished, just like the one he got all those times with the other girls. The story writes itself at this stage.

Lenora finished all her current project and sold them at one dawn, and she made her final breakfast in this place. Sebastian was sitting on a sofa and quietly reading. This time the game didn't let her sit at the closest dining table (which was what she always did before), but in opposition to Sebastian. She ate. They had quiet small talks.

https://preview.redd.it/y76mz8dlmj9h1.png?width=2559&format=png&auto=webp&s=e96a3580f77276490f927213300972c403b78c0e

Lenore washed her plate and cleaned up--she was always neat and responsible, the habits she had been building to be a good wife, while Sebastian watched. When she was finally ready, she gave Sebastian a final hug, then stepped out of the door. She was no longer part of the household, and Sebastian was alone again.

The End... For now.

--------------------

This playthrough really caught me off not because of how dramatic it was (though I think it does make a good soap drama TV series, I mean that's literally the plot of season 1 right there) but how surprisingly well the sim autonomy and random in-game events play into the story, especially nearing the end. Honestly I regretted not screenshotting the earlier half of the playthrough now.

Probably the longest reddit post I've ever made. Haven't proofread it at all so hopefully it's not too painful to read lmao.

I learned a lot from this subreddit and thought I'd contribute my own experience, especially considering I'm in a very niche category and my results might differ from the more mainstream works, so hopefully this will help other writers who are in the same situation.

Before I begin, just know that my debut is a grimdark literary fantasy with a lot of social commentary and is safe to say, politically radical. My prose is also pretty maximalist and classical and the book is 170K words long. Zero fame or some such before any of this. So take these in mind when you consider if my experience can be applied to yours.

Services I used:

(1) NetGalley: DO NOT RECOMMEND AT ALL.

Now in ARC reviews I think it's fair to say writers look for two things: 1. Positive social proof (no brainer); 2. Constructive negative reviews that can either help readers tell early on if my book is not for them or help me improve my writing. Netgalley delivers none of these, especially considering the astronomical price they charge for just listing your book up there and their "professional reviewers" branding (which was what drew me in originally). The return-on-investment both in terms of the quantity and quality of reviews is terrible.

I also suspect a lot of the users up there are impersonating famous book bloggers/trade professionals to get free books. I personally ran into two occasions where a seemingly big bookblogger requested the book but when I contacted them on other channels, they said they don't use Netgalley at all.

So unless you can get a super cheap bargain listing from them, my advise is don't bother. There are so many other better alternatives.

(2) BookSirens: GOOD SERVICE, BUT NOT FOR ME.

Ironically I only tried BookSirens post-launch when ARC campaign on NetGalley totally flopped, but they were nice enough to accept my application and let me list on a cost-per-reader basis. I didn't get any ARC reader through them (I got 5 from my own invitation link), but they are pretty professional and the process was smooth on my end, the pricing is reasonable as well. I suppose my book is just not for their reader pool :)

(3) StoryGram Tour: GOOD SERVICE, BUT A BIT OF AUDIENCE/TIMING MISMATCH.

I tried their instagram tour package and it was scheduled pre-launch. They often work with trad pub books and got some bloggers with decent following (5K to 50K) for my tour, though I think some of the bloggers obviously were too romance-heavy for my book and caught off guard by how political or dark my book is (I don't understand why personally because I stated it loud and clear in the blurb, but I suppose these bloggers read A LOT of books on tours and they often just skim through stuff), so they were reluctant to tour the book.

On the bright side, I did find some other bloggers from the tour who were super enthusiastic. They left really passionate, thoughtful reviews and I feel like they salvaged my otherwise 100% disastrous ARC campaign and created a little bit of early buzz. I also think the tour didn't yield many sales because I'm a debut author and this book is niche, so in this case a pre-launch tour isn't really that effective.

Overall Storygram was pleasant to work with, but their blogger pool is mainstream, genre-book-leaning, so unfortunately not for me.

(4) Amazon Ads: CPC TOO HIGH.

I ran some tiny trial ad campaigns and the clickthrough rate was about 0.15% to 0.2%, and I got about 1 purchase every 12-15 clicks, which I honestly don't know if that's good or not, but what I found really annoying was they just simply do not give me any traffic unless I allow CPC to go over 2 dollars per click. I tried both keyword targeting and product targeting. Not sure if it's niche book thing, or my review number is not high enough, or I'm doing something wrong, but anyway not looking like it's making money. If anyone has any tips to share, please do🥺🤲🏻

(5) R&R Book Tour: SMALLER BUT BETTER FIT, RESULTS UNKNOWN YET.

I just recently got in touch with them and while the tour is still waiting to happen, what I like about them already is: 1. Their blogger pool seems to like my book a lot more; 2. They are very open to accommodate custom tours. They are not as big as StoryGram, but a better fit, and long before the tour starts I have already received some nice reviews from bloggers who finished reading, so I'm looking forward to the actual tour.

Results So Far:

(1) Sales: 30 books in two months, half of them print-on-demand paperbacks, which is surprising because they are so expensive (and I still only make like 2 to 3 dollars per copy). My saving grace here is none of them came from my family/friends/colleagues etc., because I'm apparently the only book nerd in my circle lmao.

(2) Reviews: 28 reviews and 4.2 on Goodreads; 15 reviews and 4.5 on Amazon.

Lessons Learned:

(1) It's Pay-To-Play. Unless you are already famous or important, then you certainly need to invest money or A LOT OF TIME in it to get any traction at all. It's just the way the market is. Very sad.

(2) Don't put all eggs in one basket. My ARC review campaign is saved largely because I have NetGalley AND book tours AND some organic social media outreach going. Can't afford to rely on just one thing.

(3) Organic social media works better as networking tool rather than promotion channel. I'm mainly on Bluesky and I got way more readers just by interacting with people sincerely. I even got to know some pretty reputable trad pub writers.

(4) Audience match > audience size. When choosing influencers to work with, I always find that one with fewer followers but fits my book's niche better and genuinely likes the book is more helpful than a big influencer who just makes a generic post about it.

(5) Keep your expectation realistic and know when to stop. If you keep grinding to market this book, you will never be able to write the next one.

If I try anything new in the future and get any interesting results I will keep everyone posted. Best of luck to you all out there :3