How Authors Can Build a Reader Community on Facebook Without Constant Self-Promotion

From Edie: Heidi McGill shares how authors can build a thriving Facebook reader community through genuine conversations, meaningful connections, and less self-promotion.

How Authors Can Build a Reader Community on Facebook Without Constant Self-Promotion

by Heidi Gray McGill @HeidiGrayMcGill

My husband left early this morning on our vacation for a boat dive, so I carried my laptop out to our balcony in Curaçao to write. The second-story balcony faces west over the ocean, where a warm breeze drifts in off the water and the waves roll in below me. Birds call from the tops of trees beside me, and a short distance offshore, a crew of local fishermen work on the day's catch.

I planned to write for an hour, but the scene on the water kept pulling my attention away from the screen.

Ten men worked as one crew. First, they secured a holding net that would keep their catch alive and unable to escape. Then they hauled what looked like hundreds of yards of tangled net into a boat I would have sworn was too small to hold it.

Every man had a job, and every man knew it. Two stayed in the boat while six worked the waist-high water around it. One snorkeler went deep to make sure the bottom edge of the net rested flat on the sand so nothing could slip underneath. Another swam inside the ring and tossed out toward another man on the short whatever did not belong. My guess is that he also kept an eye out for sea turtles, since these waters are known for them, and no one on that crew would have wanted to trap one.

Once the net was secure, a pelican glided in and settled in the middle of the ring. My first thought was that he had to be the laziest bird in the Caribbean. He did not dive or search. He floated where the fish were and scooped up one dinner after another.

Then it dawned on me that the pelican was not lazy at all but wise. He had found the place where provision gathered, and he stayed put. By the time the bird had eaten his fill of those fish, I wondered how he would ever lift off the water.

I have thought about that pelican all morning because of what Edie Melson shared here recently in Meta One and Facebook Link Restrictions: What Writers Need to Know. Meta has rolled out a new paid subscription, and some professional pages and profiles now face a limit of two posts or comments with outside links each month unless the owner pays. Edie did not panic, and she urged us not to either. Instead, she reminded us that Facebook has always been a place for conversation and connection rather than a billboard for our books. One line from her post stayed with me, and I told her so in the comments. "It's a conversation, not an advertisement."

Those fishermen understood what Edie teaches. They did not toss a net overboard and walk away. They worked together, cleared out what did not belong, and built a safe enclosure that kept the catch alive. Their morning gave me a picture of what a healthy reader community looks like.

We Were Never Meant to Work Alone

No single man on that crew could have managed the catch by himself. The diver needed the men in the boat, and the men in the boat needed the snorkeler clearing the ring. I think of Simon Peter in Luke 5, when his nets filled to the breaking point and he signaled his partners in the other boat to come help. Even a seasoned fisherman knew when to call for his friends.

Writing is solitary work, and marketing can turn even lonelier. We sit at our desks and wonder whether one more post will reach anyone. When Facebook changes the rules again, the temptation is to scramble on our own. The better answer is to lean on the community God has given us by sharing one another's news, pointing readers toward other authors they will love, and praying for each other when the platforms shift again.

Readers Deserve Better Than Our Clutter

I keep coming back to the snorkeler inside the ring. His whole job was to remove what did not belong so the good catch had room. Outside the net, his crewmates appeared to do the same for the ocean itself, tossing debris toward shore as they worked. These men take pride in this stretch of water because it feeds them, and they care for it in return.

Our readers need that same care. So much of what we push onto social media is clutter we assume they want, like one more buy link, one more cover reveal, or one more reminder to click. Edie pointed to Meta's own numbers showing that nearly every Facebook post view in the United States in early 2026 landed on a post without an outside link. Readers come to Facebook to connect with people, and they scroll past the rest.

Being in community means learning what our readers want and giving them that. Some want a glimpse behind the scenes of a story. Others want encouragement for a hard week, a laugh, or someone to pray with them. When we clear away the clutter, we have room to offer what feeds them.

Be a Safe Place for Readers to Rest

Forty-five minutes after he arrived, that pelican was still inside the ring, though he had stopped fishing. The bird floated on the surface, fed and safe, with nothing hunting him and nothing left to chase. Those boundaries had become his refuge.

That picture is what I want my Facebook page, my newsletter, my blog, and my reader community to be. Every time we ask readers to give something of themselves, whether their time, their money, their feedback, or their friendship, we owe them a haven where they can count on finding what they came for. No reader should have to brace for a sales pitch every time they stop by.

I also loved that the pelican had a variety of fish to choose from. The fishermen had filled the net with myriad meal options, and he took his pick. Our readers deserve the same freedom. As a community of Christian authors, we do not need to compete for the same small audience. When we each bring our best stories and point readers toward one another, readers get to choose, and every author's net holds more.

By the time I finished writing, the fishermen were gone. Their holding net stayed anchored offshore with the day's catch safe inside, and to my surprise, the pelican finally took off. He flew low over the water, heavy with his meal, but he left satisfied and ready for the rest of his day.

That is what I want for every reader who spends time with us. Before your next post goes live on Facebook, ask yourself whether it feeds a reader or chases one, and share the one that feeds. I would love to hear in the comments how you plan to care for your readers as the platforms keep changing.

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How Authors Can Build a Reader Community on Facebook Without Constant Self-Promotion from @HeidiGrayMcGill on @EdieMelson (Click to Tweet)

Heidi Gray McGill is a Selah Award finalist and five-time NEST Award-winning author of Christian historical and contemporary fiction. Her Discerning God’s Best series has earned over 3,500 five-star reviews on Amazon, where readers describe her work as ‘faith-filled fiction with flawed but lovable characters.’ She began her writing journey in March 2020, after retirement, proving that God’s calling has no expiration date. A sought-after encourager in the writing community, Heidi speaks and writes on the craft of storytelling, writing with biblical conviction, and reaching readers across generational and cultural divides. She is both independently and traditionally published, and she writes despite progressive vision loss, which has only sharpened her perspective on what it means to walk by faith and not by sight. Connect with Heidi and receive a free prequel to her bestselling series at HeidiGrayMcGill.com. Christian Fiction. Relatable Characters. Life-changing Stories. Fusing Faith and Fiction™ Listen to the book mentioned in this post on Heidi Gray McGill’s YouTube Channel.