How social media helped Horan gain a following for her writing

Through her social media platforms, Horan had received many kind words and encouraging feedback from her followers during the writing process.  Although she believes that “you shouldn’t rely on outside validation,” the support from others was what motivated her to continue writing.

“It was so nice to hear from people that weren’t obligated to say it, in a way, and that they actually wanted to read it,” Horan said. “I was already a little bit into the publishing process when I started my tik tok account, but I think I might not have finished it if it weren’t for the support that I got online.” 

Once Horan realized that social media would become the main marketing tool for her book, she started to develop a love-hate relationship with the internet.

“It’s so easy for me to be like ‘well, every like that I get matters’ and suddenly, all I’m checking is statistics and how many people have looked at my account in the last month,” Horan said. “It’s a little bit difficult to think about because at the end of the day, you can’t really put a number on it because who knows if maybe there were just less people online that day.”