Our first YA novel One Year One Night by SL Roman has been promoted both on the socials and by meeting people face to face.

Myself – Sarah Onions and my writing partner Laura Meloni Bywaters use Facebook, Instagram and Bluesky – with about two and a half thousand followers on Tiktok.

Social media is fast and fun and it’s an exercise in public relations. And it’s not necessarily what you think as there are lots of young readers on Tiktok.

We’ve gone out and met readers from the word go and it’s a different experience from interacting online.

A recent example was a VE Day street party in London where I dressed up in a wartime style. But the real hit of the day was a wartime quiz – free of course – which teenagers and parents with kids enjoyed and they could answer most of the questions.

In a memorable visit to a carehome we had to speak from behind a plastic screen to guard against infection. But once the elderly residents understood we had written a story about WW2 evacuation, the stories poured out.

So promoting a young adult novel is about using both new and more established techniques.

And in case you wondered about our wartime quiz? The most difficult question was how many UK street parties have there been since, but not including, 1945. See if you can count them up.

Note to editor. SL Roman is the pen-name of Sarah Onions and Laura Meloni Bywaters who both live in the borough of Kingston in SW London. Sarah was born in Brighton in southern England and Laura was born in Rome.

Now on sale everywhere: in the UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/One-Year-Night-S-L-Roman/dp/B09GZPYRJ4 and in the US: https://www.amazon.com/One-Year-Night-2nd/dp/194715981X.Also, at Barnes and Noble in North America. And in Surbiton, SW London at The Regency bookshop.