Marketing: Or How I Accidentally Became an Expert Overnight

 When I decided to self-publish, I thought the hardest part would be writing the book. Oh, sweet, naïve past me.

Turns out, writing is just step one. The real challenge? Getting people to actually find and buy the book. Enter: marketing.

Now, I didn’t major in marketing. I didn’t take a single class. In fact, I’m pretty sure if you’d asked me a few years ago about “brand strategy” or “conversion rates,” I would have nodded politely while internally panicking. But self-publishing doesn’t care about your lack of knowledge. Nope. It throws you headfirst into the deep end and shouts, “Good luck!”

So, what do you do? You scramble. You Google. You devour every blog post, YouTube video, and TikTok rant from other authors who have somehow figured this out. You learn about keywords, email lists, ad targeting, and why the Amazon algorithm is basically a cryptid that no one truly understands.

And just when you think you’re getting a handle on things—just when you’ve figured out how to make a semi-decent social media post—your inbox DROWNS in messages from “expert” marketeers.

“Hello, author! I’d love to create a book trailer for you!”
“I can get your book on a bestseller list in just three easy payments of your soul!”
“Want to boost sales? Let me run ads for you that will totally work (probably)!”

It’s overwhelming. Half of them seem scammy, the other half are probably legit but wildly expensive, and meanwhile, I’m just here, trying to figure out if I should invest in ads or just hope for the best while throwing my book at the internet.

Marketing as a self-published author is a never-ending learning curve. You don’t just write—you sell, you promote, you analyze data like some kind of business wizard. And honestly? Some days, I just want to chuck my phone into the void and pretend books sell themselves.

Spoiler: They don’t.

But hey, at least I’ve learned some valuable skills. I can now:
✅ Make semi-decent Canva graphics.
✅ Write ad copy that probably doesn’t sound like a robot wrote it.
✅ Pretend I have a marketing strategy while internally screaming.

Progress? I’ll take it.

So, if you’re also drowning in the marketing madness—solidarity, my friend. We’ll figure this out together. Or at least cry over our ad spend while drinking too much coffee. Either way, welcome to the struggle.