I have written my first novel and am somewhat desperate for feedback, so I signed up for TikTok. I am familiar with other social media platforms, especially YouTube and Instagram, but had never really been interested in TikTok. I discovered they have their own built-in promotional tools where you pay for reach and engagement. So I tried it. Being it is TikTok's own feature, it reportedly is supposed to reach real people for real responses, not bot farms like a third-party outlet would. I paid $30 and, after an evening and overnight, my quick video has received a little over 4 thousand views, 656 likes, and 15 new followers.

Here is the problem:

My book is difficult for me to categorize. It's sort of male bonding, character-driven, psychological erotica with some extremely explicit sex. There are also elements of humor. The book is called "Heavy Loads". I now am aware that "Heavy Load" is also the title of a very popular gospel song and, apparently, TikTok is pushing my video to religious people. I included several hashtags such as #booktok #erotica #booktokfyp, etc. but it seems that TikTok has ignored all of those. I'm getting Bible passages and "Amen" as comments and, when checking to see who has liked the video, it's either religious people or people who have filled their page with various glamour shots. Absolutely no one is commented, "Hey I'll check it out" or "Good luck with your first book" or anything like that. It all seems like random people who didn't even watch more than 2 seconds of the video.

I've never paid for internet promotion before and probably won't again. Lesson learned. I just thought it might be helpful to some to pass along my experience. I will stay on TikTok because I've seen some really interesting clips of people suggesting books and, at least, that was helpful. But, no more paying for promotions.

After years and years (and a bit too much procrastination), I did it! I wrote my first novel!

It started as a fun project and a way to keep my mind busy but slowly became one of the most fun and creative projects I've ever worked on. "The Language of the Trees" started as a serialized fiction on Substack and is now a full-length novel!

If you're anything like me, you probably have a half-finished project sitting around your house somewhere. I hope this post is the encouragement you need to get back to it!

If you're interested in supporting me, here's a link to my novel! If you're not into fantasy, no worries! I appreciate you just reading this!

The Language of the Trees: The Animist: Book One: Autumn, Gracie: 9798199623643: Amazon.com: Books

Pitch:
A true story about first love, distance, reconnection, and the question of whether the person you never stopped loving can finally become part of the life you built without him.

Blurb:
In Bad Aibling, Germany, I had built a life I loved—college, travel, and a future filled with possibility. Then a telephone call reconnected me with Ryan, the boy I had loved since 1988.

Four letters crossed the ocean. Familiar feelings returned. And I began to wonder whether the love I had carried for years might finally become the life I had imagined.

I Came Back for You is Book 3 in my true-life First Love: A Memoir series. The audiobook is also now available, narrated by Hedy V Parks.

Tropes / themes:
first love, second chances, long-distance love, coming home, emotional reconnection, young adulthood, true-life romance

Trigger warnings:
emotional trauma, relationship conflict, references to serious injury and recovery

Book:
https://www.audible.com/pd/B0HNHFV9RQ

I recently published Graves, the first novel in my Keller & Archibald series.
It’s a dark crime thriller set in the fictional small town of Millhaven, Iowa, where a landscaper named Ethan Graves has spent years hiding something beneath the ordinary life everyone thinks he lives.
When human remains begin surfacing, the investigation starts pointing toward a much larger pattern—and toward a man who has been quietly working toward a very specific number of victims.
The story follows investigator Sarah Keller as she gets pulled into Millhaven and a case involving missing people, black roses, a ghost orchid, and a buried history that keeps getting worse the deeper she digs.
I wanted Graves to feel like a collision between a serial-killer procedural, Midwestern noir, and small-town horror. It gets pretty dark, but the focus is as much on the investigation and the people caught inside it as it is on the killer himself.
It’s also the beginning of a larger series, with Keller carrying the consequences of what happens in Millhaven into the books that follow.
If you like bleak crime fiction, damaged investigators, rural settings, and killers who are hiding behind completely ordinary lives, Graves might be up your alley.

https://a.co/d/0eMIDA2M

Desperate to find her, Isla Everest would do anything—even accept help from a mysterious stranger who comes with a price. His solution is simple: send her into Wakefield herself, where she must pass as someone she isn’t to fit in and conduct her investigation.

But Wakefield holds more than Isla bargained for—and so does the boy waiting for her inside.

With her entire life at the school built on a lie, Ian Wakefield is everything Isla should stay away from. He is connected to the school, powerful, infuriatingly charming and determined to make her his fiancée, just as her new life says she is. Yet the closer Isla gets to uncovering the truth about her sister, the harder it becomes to keep her distance from him.

Because at Wakefield, nothing is quite what it seems.

And the greatest mystery of all may be the boy she has begun falling for.

Read story on Inkitt: https://www.inkitt.com/stories/1864167

Hi dear fellow Artists of the Written Word ❤️

What do you do when your toddler keeps you up at night for the better part of the last three years? You write a novel of course!

Some games are played for money...
Some are played for power...
And some are played with reality itself...

Butterblume never believed in fate. She believed in structure. Logic. Control. Her life is built on small rituals that keep chaos at a distance, black panties on difficult days, pomegranates at three in the morning, sarcasm sharp enough to cut intimacy before it cuts her.

Then her uncle dies and leaves her something strange. A single golden card. The card carries a simple invitation: Play me to meet a devil.

At first it feels like a curiosity. A strange object with no meaning. But the deeper Butterblume digs, the more the world around her begins to change. Coincidences stop feeling accidental. Encounters feel orchestrated. Certain people seem to know far more than they should. Because the card is real. And it is only the entrance to a hidden game; one played by powerful figures who manipulate reality itself through cards no one admits exist. Some players are brilliant. Some are ruthless.
And some may not be entirely human. Now Butterblume must learn the rules of a game she never agreed to join. A game where curiosity can be more dangerous than fear… and where the most seductive players may also be the most dangerous.

Because the question is never who holds the cards. The question is who is holding the strings. Un Homme Noir et Une Femme Fatale is a dark noir thriller of manipulation, temptation, and hidden power; blending psychological tension, supernatural intrigue, and dangerous games where every move may change reality.

Self-published via amazon, a behemoth of a novel Amazon USA (also in Amazon UK, Germany... ) ^^ around 17,69 USD

Hey guys!

Thought you might like my book "AS ABOVE" (Currently on Kindle Unlimited) about a family that builds their own spaceship, and goes to live on the moon :)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DNFV2YZH

And tell me if you know any cool sci-fi books you think I should read, I´m all ears.

Cover: https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71IwGLHZVBL._SL1500_.jpg

Pitch: A man looks into a mirror, and something older than memory looks back. What follows is a lived record of visions, past lifetimes and the slow work of remembering.

Blurb: What if your soul remembers everything, every lifetime, every choice, every love, even when your mind forgets? The One Who Remembers is the first volume of The Soul Chronicle: a soul autobiography where past lives, prophecies and soul memories converge in a story of love, loss and awakening. It is neither fantasy nor a simple autobiography. It is the testimony of a man who began to remember. It offers no dogma, only memory.

Themes / "tropes": past-life memories · soul oaths across lifetimes · prophetic dreams and visions · eternal love bonds · sacred symbols and messengers · spiritual battles · the return of the King

Content notes: spiritual and religious themes; love and loss.

239 pages · English (Italian and Turkish editions also available) https://www.amazon.com/One-who-Remembers-Lifetimes-Prophecies-ebook/dp/B0FLVZR3KW

This novel is very close to my heart and 2 people have read it - I feel like I'm flying in the sky.

Hope others also give it a try.

Writing Book 2 from the same world - it's already completed there in my mind, just need words.

https://amzn.in/d/02zdjGlO

Hi everyone. I’m the author of The Day Satoshi Returned, a near-future techno-thriller, and I just started releasing the audiobook on YouTube. One chapter goes up every Sunday, read by a professional narrator, Luke Walrath.

The premise: it’s 2044, AI runs most of the world, and Bitcoin has become the global standard. Then, after 33 years of silence, Satoshi Nakamoto’s Genesis address signs a message. It verifies. It’s real. And nobody knows who holds the keys. Daniel Mercer, a journalist who is addicted to proof, gets pulled into the middle of it.

The Prologue is out now (about 11 minutes):
https://youtu.be/pZriic6SfXU

Any feedback on the story or the narration is very welcome. Thanks for taking a look.

The Day Satoshi Returned

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0GSHJ6JPR

Available on Amazon as a paperback and Kindle edition, and it's included with Kindle Unlimited.

I just released my debut novel, HOW MUCH OF ME IS MINE, a psychological thriller with a dark-romance spine.

Two strangers are locked in the same room.

Dean measures doors, distances, weaknesses. Eden measures people.

Their captor watches everything — what they fear, what they notice, what they’ll endure, and what they’ll do to keep the other alive.

But he isn’t simply trying to make them obey him.

He’s teaching them to control each other.

The book explores coercion, conditioning, survival, agency, attachment, and the uncomfortable question of what choice means after obedience becomes reflex.

Kindle: $4.99

Kindle Unlimited: Included

Paperback: $15.99

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HN7TLCY4

I’m the author, sharing this transparently as self-promo. If the premise sounds like your kind of thing, I’d love to know what part of it grabbed you most.

Most discussions about time travel eventually end up talking about going faster: relativistic speeds, approaching the speed of light, wormholes, warp drives, enormous amounts of energy, etc.

I started wondering about the exact opposite.

What happens if instead of making matter go faster, we find a way to make its relevant motion approach zero?

The starting point is the de Broglie relation, λ = h/p. As momentum approaches zero, the de Broglie wavelength increases without bound. That by itself obviously doesn’t give us a time machine, but it raises an interesting question about matter, localization and the physical meaning of time.

The idea I’m exploring is that time may be fundamentally connected to oscillation and physical change. If the oscillatory processes that define the evolution of matter could somehow be coherently slowed toward a limiting state, could matter undergo a transition in its relationship with space and time?

I’m calling that hypothetical transition The De Broglie Shift.

The machine I’m developing for the thought experiment uses a harmonically tuned rotating disc and standing-wave resonance to drive matter toward this state, followed by controlled relocalization. One consequence I’m exploring is that reappearance would be endothermic, producing a sudden drop in temperature as the material state is restored.

And there’s a stranger implication I want to explore. If the limiting state really did mean losing ordinary localization while physical time ceased to have its familiar meaning, the object wouldn’t simply be “somewhere else.” In the extreme version of the hypothesis, it would have no unique position in ordinary space and no ordinary progression through time.

That starts sounding suspiciously like language humans have used for thousands of years: outside time, everywhere and nowhere, omnipresent. I’m not suggesting that physics proves anything supernatural. I just find the conceptual overlap fascinating.

There’s a lot here that goes beyond established physics, and that’s part of the point of the book. I want to start with what quantum mechanics and relativity actually say, then clearly mark the point where my own hypothesis begins and see how badly conventional physics can beat it up.

One interesting connection I explore in The De Broglie Shift comes from the ending of the 1979 film Time After Time. H. G. Wells sends John into infinity, removing him from the physical world with no apparent way to return. That scene reminded me of the de Broglie relationship: as momentum approaches zero, the associated wavelength grows without bound. Could matter, under extraordinary conditions, lose its ordinary spatial localization and become inaccessible to our familiar world? Established quantum mechanics doesn't predict such a disappearance, but the parallel raises an intriguing question at the heart of my book: what if the key to time travel lies in understanding what happens when matter approaches absolute stillness?

If anyone is interested, I've been working on this book for a while, and just released it on Amazon. Be advised, there are a few chapters that require a mathematical understanding of graduate level physics.

I've recently published The Laws of the Unnatural, a collection of short stories exploring unusual ideas, strange situations and the darker, more unexpected sides of life.

I wanted to write stories that leave room for interpretation, allowing readers to find their own meanings and take something different from each one.

If you enjoy short fiction that explores the unusual and steps outside the ordinary, you might find something to enjoy here.

The Laws of the Unnatural

Available on: Amazon Kindle

Read more: https://amzn.eu/d/05FrZZJj

Thanks to anyone who takes a look!

It’s called *Glad Tidings to the Stranger*, a coming-of-age novel about Somali girlhood, migration, family, faith, and figuring out who you are while navigating two very different cultures.
I’ve been writing through a pretty difficult time, and somehow it turned into a whole novel.
I’m a little nervous putting it out there, especially with everything going on right now, but I wanted to share it.

I ask you kindly to hold your cultural critiques from both sides for now 😂 Just enjoy the book, at least until we’re past this shitstorm of an election season.

If you’re curious, here’s the link:
https://a.co/d/0cxb3K5l

Cover for Sisters

Tommy and his girlfriend are going to her cabin in the middle of the woods so he can meet her family for the first time. What he doesn't know is that her family is hiding a dark secret, and that their intentions are anything from pure. Will he figure out that Alyssa is actually taking him there to kill him in time, or will his soul feed her appetite like so many before him?

Blurb:
When Alyssa brings Tommy to her family’s secluded cabin for the weekend, he expects the usual awkwardness of meeting her father and sisters.

However, Alyssa’s sisters are beautiful, alluring, and immediately unsettling. Their conversations feel coded, with their strange remarks dismissed as inside jokes Tommy wouldn’t understand.

When Alyssa repeatedly disappears with them, leaving Tommy alone with her peculiar father, her explanations only raise more questions. As the weekend unfolds, desire blurs with unease. Reality becomes harder to trust. And the woman Tommy thought he knew begins to seem every bit as mysterious as her family.

Tommy came to the cabin expecting to meet Alyssa’s family.

But why does it feel like they’ve been waiting for him?

• Horror/thriller/spicy/nsfw/witches
• Trigger Warnings! Nudity, profanity, human sacrifice, lots and lots of death.

Check it out on Amazon!

https://imgur.com/a/50wGrRD

ARE YOU HEROES OR PREY?

For many years, the Guardians of Saint Avastead have watched over the cold lonely town: loyal and noble souls whose Gifts have helped defend their home. More than a team, they are a family.

This winter, a new enemy has come for them.

Cautious. Cruel. Calculating. The opponent built an armor. Studied their abilities. Made a plan. All to defeat the Guardians one by one, strip them of their identities as heroes, take the Gifts of all who stand in the way, and tear apart the family they refuse to lose.

This is the story of how I joined her side.

Tropes: Superpower, fights, romance out of conflict, cerebral fights, strategies, heroine, adventure

TW: Violence, fictional but harsh language, bodily injury

Cinematic trailer found here (never used AI, hired human artists): https://youtu.be/GD0dXs3JU-I

I made this for an English assessment task where we had to write a horror plot, I decided to turn it into a book.

It follows a film crew who encounter strange happenings on set while the Director falls deeper into madness and people begin getting hurt at his hands.

https://www.lulu.com/shop/lachlan-ryan/out-of-the-blue/paperback/product-m2g48zy.html?q=Out+of+the+blue+&page=1&pageSize=4

Hello guys, I published my first book on amazon some time ago and I am looking for new readers and I appreciate the feedback regarding the book.

I will link the description from Amazon, so you guys know what it is about.

Whisper of a Blade, Colors of Flame is the debut novel by rising author Zvonimir Mandić - a captivating blend of epic fantasy, philosophical reflection, and deep emotional resonance that invites readers into a world where the line between right and wrong is blurred, and redemption is a journey forged in flame.
At its heart is Arendiel, an elite assassin born of a powerful family that was cast out after the great war from the ancient and revered continent of Inglorien. He serves under his ambitious and cunning uncles who are manipulating the kingdoms of Denelurias, preparing them for war. The ambition and thirst for power of the protagonist open the gates of his downfall. The mission he takes unveils the unknown darkness of his clan. Once certain of his path and the cold precision of his blade, Arendiel begins to feel the weight of years spent burying his guilt. As his internal struggles rise to the surface, so too does a quiet rebellion in his soul - one that questions loyalty, purpose, and the very nature of redemption.
But Arendiel’s journey is not one of clear-cut good versus evil. It is a path paved with conflicting truths, shaken values, and the haunting realization that understanding is born not from certainty, but from embracing uncertainty. Alongside characters like Niscinia, a voice of perspective and insight, and Netherin, who mirrors the protagonist’s inner battles, the story unveils multiple sides of the conflict, challenging readers to see the world through different eyes. Arendiel begins to see the world not in the absolutes of right and wrong, but in the shifting colors of fire and shadow. Each voice brings a new truth, each choice a new weight. And in a land where even hope casts a shadow, every step forward could be his undoing or his salvation.
This is a fantasy novel with no heroes in shining armor, only complex souls seeking meaning in a world unraveling at the seams. A story that strips away the myth of good and evil and reveals something deeper: that fantasy is not a way to escape reality, but a way to face it.
Whisper of a Blade, Colors of Flame is not merely an escape from reality, but a mirror that reflects the deepest corners of the human experience. It is a call to adventure, a meditation on guilt and grace, and a tribute to the power of storytelling itself.

Hope you guys will give the book a change, and if you do please feel free to give me a feedback.

Here is the link - https://amzn.eu/d/07vqJZXK

https://i.imgur.com/2mUNLq2.jpeg

⚔️ PITCH

What if a nine-year-old slave dared to become a legendary warrior in a world where survival itself is a battle?

No magic. No special powers. No chosen-one privileges. Just a boy who refuses to remain powerless.

📖 BLURB

Hey everyone! I'm Vitalii Peredrii, and I'd love to share my debut novel, Oblivion: The Legend of Berserker Nor.

A mysterious Catastrophe shattered the world. Cities fell, monsters emerged, and humanity was forced to fight for survival.

In this broken world lives Nor, a nine-year-old slave with an impossible dream: to become a legendary berserker.

But unlike the extraordinary warriors who stand against humanity's greatest threats, Nor has no special abilities to rely on. His journey begins with nothing but his will to survive.

Every step forward must be earned. Every mistake has consequences. And becoming stronger means facing a world that shows no mercy to the weak.

If you love dark fantasy, post-apocalyptic worlds, brutal training arcs, desperate battles, and protagonists who aren't handed their victories, this might be the story for you.

🔥 TROPES & THEMES

• Underdog protagonist

• Weak-to-strong progression

• Post-apocalyptic world

• Monsters and superhuman warriors

• Survival against overwhelming odds

• Training and personal growth

⚠️ CONTENT WARNINGS

Violence, death, slavery, child endangerment, and dark post-apocalyptic themes.

📚 AVAILABLE ON AMAZON & KINDLE UNLIMITED

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GCCNGL6M

❤️ Thanks for taking a look at my debut novel!

The City That Refused the Future — My First Story

Hi everyone! 👋

I’m excited to share my first published story!

Imagine a London where gas lamps still light the streets and carriages move through the fog, while the rest of the world has already embraced the future.

When a man is found dead, Detective Edward Justice takes on a case that may uncover something far more disturbing than a simple murder.

Why has this city refused to move forward? And what secrets are hidden in its fog?

📚 Curious? Find it on Amazon Kindle: https://a.co/d/0cZp7lRP

I’d love to hear what you think!

The tunnel is finished. The crews are in position. Getting into the vault is only half the job.

BANK follows one Los Angeles bank robbery and its consequences through conflicting perspectives on both sides of the law.

THE TUNNEL IS DUG. THE DAY HAS COME.

For weeks, the Ashes of Dusk have worked beneath the streets of Los Angeles. Every load of dirt, every piece of equipment, and every secret arrangement has led to this one night.

Now the jobs are assigned, the crews are in position, and the vault is only a wall away. What began as a reckless idea in a biker clubhouse must finally survive contact with reality.

But reaching the money is only part of the plan. They still have to get back out.

When the robbery begins, every person involved sees only a fragment of what is happening. Decisions are made in seconds. Accounts conflict. Loyalties are tested in ways no one anticipated. Before the full consequences of the day are known, a second struggle begins over responsibility and the version of events that will become official truth.

Will the Ashes of Dusk pull off the robbery? And what will remain of their shared dream when the day is over?

What to expect:

- A detailed bank heist

- Multiple POVs and a large ensemble cast

- Morally complicated characters

- Outlaw motorcycle club and law-enforcement perspectives

- Loyalty under extreme pressure

- Consequences that continue long after the robbery

Content warnings: strong language, organized crime, gun violence, blood, injury, death, and medical trauma.

BANK is Book 2 of the Bank Robbery Saga and continues directly after TUNNEL. The series should be read in order.

Start with TUNNEL:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FXGWFYXJ

Continue with BANK:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HMTTHVWK

I'm the author of Halo of Ashes, a dark fantasy epic that blends post-apocalyptic worldbuilding with grimdark military fiction and the psychological depth of literary fantasy.

It's a world where bullets are currency, Burt is a prophet, and the things buried underground are worth more than the living who walk above them.

If you enjoyed The First Law, The Stormlight Archive, Prince of Thorns or The Name of the Wind, it may be for you.

Happy to answer questions about the book. A rating or review helps a lot if you read it.

Halo of Ashes: Book One of The Grimknot Chronicles

I had this massive idea of exploring relationship dynamics between two whole people. I mean people who are self-sufficient and competent.

I wondered: will a story like that even work? Will a relationship like that work without constant drama?

Imagine a romance without power imbalance, codependency, family interference, or external turbulence. I wanted to see what happens when we silence some of these contexts.

What resulted was a character-driven, slow-burn romance series featuring an analytical couple.

Two guarded individuals: one who rejects people and one who questions everyone.

Roman filters people without a second guess. But an encounter with Sarah during an otherwise ordinary seminar unexpectedly sparks his attention.

Sarah Millers has no idea Roman Blackford doesn't do subtle—or that he'll propose marriage before either of them has said a real word to each other.

What begins as curiosity for Roman soon turns into his certainty. Sarah, however, needs proof before she believes his declarations. So instead of a simple acceptance or rejection, she brings him a contract.

Set in the world of business and finance, follow their journey as they navigate each other. Basically, a romance that feels chosen rather than something that just happens.

I got my first reader here on Reddit and I'm very curious to know if my book interests anyone else, too!

A Choice – Terms of Interest is now available on Amazon Kindle. Paperback will also soon be available.