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This is an excellent discussion. I work with Troy and Stacey as their marketing specialist and you are right marketing is an essential part of an indie authors book business. It’s such a huge topic and easy to become overwhelmed by. The two most important questions to ask yourself regarding this is: A) How important is it to me to sell my book? And B) What is my ultimate goal for being an author. There are no right or wrong responses but the answer to those questions will determine how you approach a marketing plan. If selling your book is as important to you as writing your book then like it or not, marketing needs to become as important as writing. Here are some tips and tricks I’ve learned to support authors. 1) Find marketing tactics you enjoy and make those efforts your priority. Depending on how important selling your books are to you will determine your approach on how to navigate the tactics you don’t enjoy. My husband is an indie author and for him selling books is MORE important than writing them at this stage in his author journey. As a result, he spends as much time marketing them as he does writing them. He spends most of his time on the tactics he enjoys and the ones he doesn’t enjoy, he prioritizes anyways. We have a saying in our house, “writing a book is really really hard but selling a book is harder.” 2) When it comes to marketing, figuring out what doesn’t work is as important as figuring out what does. I call this throwing shit at the walk and seeing what sticks. If marketing your books feels impossible, frustrating and occasionally makes you cry than congrats you’re doing it correctly. 3) It is a marathon not a sprint. Your author journey is something that is going to take a lot of time and energy, so pace yourself. And my final tip (Well, for today 😋) 4) Email lists, marketing permissions, lead magnets, sales funnels, the list goes on and on, can feel overwhelming. However, all of them have the same, simple, core aim: to establish one reader at a time and continue a conversation with them so that you can maintain the ability to talk to them about your books! Taking on the marketing mind set of establishing one reader at a time is a far more sustainable approach then some of the other author mindsets I’ve encountered. Be kind to yourself! You are doing your best!

Great Question and I echo everything Troy and Stacey said. A question I regularly ask authors is, how important is selling books to you? The answer can change over the course of an authors career. I encourage authors to get really honest with themselves about this because it can help them determine how much time, money and resources they put toward creating visibility for their books ❤️📚