Paralysis by analysis
The perilous search for advice
“Early Bird Offers for Creative Planners”
“Mastering Amazon for Authors”
“How to Promote YOUR Book on Amazon”
We all get solicitation emails that flood our email boxes. Everything from charitable asks to deals on your favorite team’s gear to a coupon at Buca di Beppo, email marketing is part of the sales game.
Most of the time, these go straight to the trash heap.
But… when it comes to my writing, growing my subscriptions, marketing my novels, I always take a second look. I need all the help I can get. Marketing yourself as a writer, particularly fiction, is difficult. Sometimes I feel like I’m a hot dog cart located in an alley, a neighborhood away from the fancy dining district, two blocks from the food truck roundup and around the corner from the McDonalds. And you either found me because you were lost or you pulled up a detailed map and knew to turn right at the dumpster fire.
I’m looking for advice, tips, hacks on writing and to grow an audience.
And marketers have found a prospect to mine, drill and entice.
What to do? I’ve shared in the past that my financial goal for writing is to be self-sustaining. At the very least, I want to make back the money I invest in myself. Any profits go to further development. The flaw with my mindset that anything I spend now on myself means more books I need to sell later to make up for those costs. I need to spend money to make money, but…
What is the limit?
What program provides the biggest return on investment?
Where should I spend my resources? The book? The Substack?
What if I get it all wrong and I just wasted my resources?
The cynic in me believes that writers make the most money by providing advice to other writers on ways to make the most money. They write books, create webinars, solicit coaching sessions to share the nuggets that can bring success. Most are reputable. Some are not. The problem comes when you have limited resources to dedicate, you may only invest in one or two. And how do you find the one that’s best for you?
For me, there’s some great free advice out by searching for it. There’s some helpful tips and hacks on YouTube. Here on Substack, I’ve found
extremely helpful in growing this newsletter. Another Substack I have found helpful is .
The most difficult aspect of this writing endeavor as an independent author is the lack of access to personalized advice. Everything has a cost and I’m bearing it. Edits cost. Design has a cost. Advice on marketing, publicity, social media all have costs. And when the author decides to go at it alone, second guessing is inevitable.
But then I take a breath and I realize I need to have trust in something, most of all myself. My goal is clear and my objectives for embarking on this journey are true. Confidence provides greater ownership of these projects, which leads to clear communication of my objectives and objective evaluation of the advice. Ultimately, trusting myself and the process allows me greater freedom in seeking further assistance.
So, as I embark on the release of Lose Yourself on April 2, I will continue to navigate the best I can, make the necessary investments on advice and use Google until all the rabbit holes are explored. Of course, there will be second-guessing but I can’t let that keep me from pushing forward. Maybe, just maybe, it all aligns, and everything grows beyond my expectations. That’s the dream and I’m so glad you’re here with me on this journey.
Glad you find it helpful! What you are dealing with is very common in authors and writers. It’s very hard to make any business self sustaining, and writing is one of the hardest businesses to make sustainable. That is why I have spent so long trying to give strategies to authors to do so.
Idk what the best roi is, but I believe it is reading the new book we are launching now Direct Sales Mastery for authors.
Most of my career has been selling fiction. The author services stuff happened because I saw authors struggling, but I mostly made my career selling fiction direct to readers
I feel this post 100%. Sometimes I have no idea where to turn or who to look to for advice on how to get the book moving and keep it that way. Only reason I'm still going is pure spite and stubbornness.