If you’ve stumbled across this post, chances are you’ve never had to worry about marketing a book. Consider yourself lucky. As someone deep in the trenches, let me share why book marketing feels nearly impossible these days.
The Market Is Absolutely Flooded
The sheer volume of books being published today is staggering. With AI tools becoming more accessible, this flood has only intensified—though I’d argue that AI can’t write a coherent novel yet (time will tell if I’m wrong about this).
A few years back, Amazon was hit with waves of AI-generated books: formulaic, mass-produced novelettes priced at 99 cents each. The problem got so bad that Amazon actually had to limit how many self-published books authors can upload per day. That tells you everything about the scale we’re dealing with.
Predators Are Everywhere
The self-publishing community on Reddit is filled with horror stories about scammers targeting authors. These vultures scan social media for author posts, then swoop in with promises of marketing help or publishing deals. There’s a cynical truth here: the only people consistently making money from books seem to be those selling courses on “how to get rich writing books.”
Here’s a recent post I made about one particular clever scammer, a post which, immediately earned me a fake one-star review on Amazon for my most recent book. Ugh.
Time Is the Ultimate Currency
Unlike a three-minute song that someone might casually stream, a book demands hours of commitment from readers. This creates a massive barrier not just for sales, but for something as basic as getting reviews. In my experience, genuine reviews are rare unless you’re paying for them or calling in favors—which feels like a whole other problem.
Are We Running Out of Readers?
This might be the most troubling question of all. I’ve considered creating audiobook versions of my work, but the costs are prohibitive, and frankly, I don’t have the voice for narration. It makes me wonder: in our shrinking attention span world, how many people are still willing to invest in long-form reading?
Many Authors don’t want to Talk About Themselves
Yes, that’s me for sure. I love writing, world-building, and inserting magic into stories in natural ways. But I hate talking about myself.
I suppose this is mostly me venting into the void, but if any of these points resonate with your experience—or if you think I’m completely off base—I’d love to hear your thoughts.
More Links
My Self-Publishing blog collection. Includes a multi-entry series on how I do the whole self-publishing process.
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