Meet Joe Weinberg, author of “Between Death and a Hard Place”
Tell us what your book, “Between Death and a Hard Place” is about!
Sure! Here’s the summary:
A tattoo witch has to solve a magical mystery to prevent a culling of the witches in Minneapolis.
What did you love most about writing this book?
I love AJ. I love following her around and seeing what she’ll do.
How did you start writing?
I found a typewriter in my parents bedroom when I was six. I’ve been hooked ever since.
Tell us a little bit about your self-marketing experience.
My self-marketing journey starts from a place of anxiety, depression, and a voice in my head telling me that I deserve to fail. I started off just talking about my book on Facebook, posting about it a few times when the book was going to launch, and doing a virtual launch party (which was all the publisher was able to do for me marketing wise). I then had to kind of leave it to fate. I hoped I would get reviews, and I did get one or two, but I was pretty much relying on myself for word of mouth. When hanging out in online spaces, I would tell people about the book if there was a way to bring it up in conversation, and I would send people to my website (https://linktr.ee/jweinberg) in the hopes that they would buy it. But very few people did.
Recently, like early June of 2025, I finally decided to be serious about marketing myself, and I started using TikTok more frequently. I started posting every day to talk about writing, and to talk about this book in particular. I now post at least three videos a day where I do my best to support other writers and authors and to market my book. It's slow going, but it's the best I can do fighting against my own mind that continues to tell me I'm wasting time. I'm slowly building up a following - I've gained about 900 followers since I started posting every day - and I go live frequently to try to garner more interest. It's making me slowly learn how to market myself, and learn that I can do it, and that people really do care. I'm slowly stretching out to Threads, and hope to have more and more of a social media presence as time goes by. It's hard to do it myself, both because I'm not a marketer and because of the voice in my head, but I'm struggling my way forward, a little bit at a time. It really helps being able to encourage other people and spread positivity and support across a truly wonderful booktok community.
What was your biggest challenge in bringing the book to market and how did you solve it?
Definitely the marketing itself. But I’ve started talking about the book on TikTok, which apparently helps.
What's one piece of advice you have for other writers?
Be kind to yourself and remember that no first draft is perfect.
Anything else you want folks to know?
I’ve written and published many other books, many of them available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
What's the link to your book?
https://www.amazon.com/Between-Death-Hard-Place-Weinberg/dp/1928011810
