I’ve been writing for years. I have 3 published books. And I’m still being told the secret is to write the next book.
For many years now, writing has been my passion and my practice. Three books in print. Four Kindle short stories. A few unfinished projects. And somehow the answer to why my work isn’t reaching people is still “write another one,” the panicked flail of “run an ARC campaign,” or the last-ditch gasp of “do a giveaway.” At what point did the work itself stop being enough of a reason for someone to pick it up?
I understand marketing exists. I understand that readers need to find you somehow. But there’s something quietly depressing about the system we’ve all just accepted. The default move for an indie author is to hand over the thing they spent months or years building for free, and hope that translates into something real later. We’ve normalized begging for attention in ways that would make any other creative industry raise an eyebrow.
What I really want to know is whether anyone else feels like the conversation around indie publishing has shifted entirely to visibility, with almost nothing said about sustainability. Not just sales numbers. Actual sustainability. A future. Your future. Because I can optimize keywords, run promos, post on every platform, and still feel like I’m shouting into the same void with better hashtags. Somewhere along the way, talking about the actual writing stopped mattering.
Maybe the real product isn’t the story. It’s the machine behind it. The marketing budget, the algorithm placement, the name recognition. So what exactly are we up against? Failure. Or at least that’s what it feels like some days.
Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I’m just tired. But I’d rather be honest about it than pretend the next book will fix everything. I’m just as normal as you. Or weird. Pick your poison.
Anyway. How are you holding up out there?