I’m planning future workshops on editing, manuscript preparation, publishing best practices, book launches, and other practical parts of the independent publishing process. To make sure I’m scheduling them at times that work for as many members as possible, I’d love your input. Please vote for the option that usually works best for you. Also, feel free to comment with your time zone and any specific time windows that are especially good or impossible. I’ll use your responses to plan upcoming Guild workshops.

Build an email list. Start a TikTok. Post every day. Don’t post every day. Run ads. Don’t run ads until you have a series. Get on podcasts. Build a launch team. Do newsletter swaps. Go wide. Stay exclusive. Make reels. Write long-form posts. Create a reader magnet. Optimize Amazon. Sell direct. Start a community. Build a brand. And the exhausting part is that they’re not wrong. That’s what makes it maddening. If the advice were all terrible, you could ignore it and go make a sandwich. But a lot of it is good advice in the right situation, for the right author, at the right stage, with the right book, for the right goal. So instead of clarity, you get a thousand open tabs in your brain. And there you are, holding your book, wondering whether you are supposed to be a writer, a content creator, a media company, a data analyst, a publicist, a graphic designer, an ad buyer, a community leader, and a mildly unhinged motivational speaker with good lighting. No wonder authors freeze. The framework I’m going to share with you today is one that you can do each day, and it’s a great place to start. It will not suddenly solve all your marketing problems and produce shiny rainbows and bunny rabbits with gold coins shooting out their fluffy little butts, but it will get you going. It will bring you forward motion. Remember, every beautiful oak tree begins with a buried acorn. Every perfect result begins with imperfect action. ASK So here is what I want you to do today. Do not try to formulate a marketing strategy. Figure out where you’re stuck. There’s only five places that could be the core of the problem: visibility, clarity/positioning, trust, sales, or connection. To help you figure this out, ask yourself the following questions: Do people not know the book exists? Then your problem is VISIBILITY. Do people see the book but still not understand what it is, who it is for, or why they should care? Then your problem is CLARITY. Do people seem interested, but they are not confident enough to buy, join, sign up, or take the next step?