If you're a writer, you're probably tired of self-promotion.

So many writers are exhausted by the marketing machine. We're tired of the expectation to generate a seemingly never-ending glut of posts and reels, only to feel like we're launching paper boats into an ocean filled with tankers and cruise ships.

It isn't just a problem for writers with smaller followings. Over the years, clients with large audiences have come to me when their followers weren't converting to book sales or participating in meaningful engagement. The frustration is real, and it's everywhere—not just the publishing industry. Creators and entrepreneurs in many spheres are lamenting the tumultuous sea of algorithm changes, AI's impact on search results, content, privacy, and trust, not to mention the relentless pressure to maintain a "personal brand."

Rea Frey put words to what many authors are feeling in “Protecting Authors’ Privacy: The Cost of Marketing Our Own Books” (Writer's Digest):

"We are only as good as our numbers, not our stories. We are only as valuable as our followers, not our creativity."

And let’s not forget that the world is also on fire. Many of us are juggling more than ever with fewer resources, while drowning in an unrelenting stream of information. As if that weren't enough, we've chosen work that's historically undervalued.

We're resilient, but we're also inundated with marketing tactics and misinformation about branding and marketing. Frankly, I'm tired of unqualified people calling themselves "author brand strategists" or “marketing experts,” only to dispense trite, stale advice to writers. Don't get me wrong—there ARE excellent professionals who know their stuff. But they're not the ones I'm talking about.

Just because someone wrote a book, worked at a Big 5, or even at a big corporate brand doesn't mean they understand what it takes to create an effective, genuine author brand or sustainable career in this ever-changing climate.

On top of that, the proliferation of over-the-top personal brands has made personal branding seem synonymous with artificially crafted, validation-seeking, money-making automatons. And therein lies the irony.

Brand Strategy: The Medicine

Here's what most people don't realize: brand strategy can actually be the antidote to everything we hate about modern self-promotion. While marketing and advertising can exploit our human need for connection and belonging, good branding nurtures genuine connection.

When I see writers complaining about being too exhausted to market themselves or sick of building their "personal author brand," I understand. But here's the thing—the phrase "personal brand" has actually been misbranded itself.

For the past decade, I've been on a mission to show writers that brand strategy isn't part of the problem—it's the solution. It's the single most powerful tool we have for escaping the marketing hamster wheel and creating lasting, meaningful connections with readers.

The real root of our overwhelm isn't brand building itself. It's that we're sick of the Rube Goldberg marketing machine we feel compelled to participate in: pumping out "content," stretching so far outside our comfort zones that we feel disingenuous, spending hours on social media even though we hate how it affects our brains and moods. All for results that—for many writers—often feel paltry or intangible.

To be clear, I'm not saying you can ignore self-promotion and expect to succeed. But there is a better way.

The Power of Authentic Connection

Good branding gives us tools to create actual human connection. It's not just readers who crave this—we creators do too. Notice the difference in how your body feels when you think about "writing an email newsletter" versus "having a conversation with your readers." One feels like a task; the other feels like coming home.

Maybe you know that feeling when you get an email from a reader who truly got your book? Who saw themselves in your words, or felt less alone because of what you wrote? That's what authentic connection looks like—and it's what happens when your brand reflects who you really are rather than who you think you should be.

When life threw me some curveballs over the past few years, I had to put my own branding and marketing strategies to the test on a whole new level. Exhausted and overextended, I could no longer rely on my former "overachiever" mentality and had to find sustainable approaches that worked with my limited energy.

What I discovered wasn't found in my typical late-night worry sessions or scrambling to jump on the “right” trend. Shocker. What worked was already embedded in the authentic brand-building foundations and systems that kept me going when I didn't have energy for constant self-promotion.

I strive to make sure the work I do stays aligned with my values, my mission, and what I can actually handle and advise the same for clients. The reputation I've built as an author brand expert isn't by accident; it is in deep alignment with who I am as a human being. These past few years of challenges have only reinforced my belief that genuine branding and marketing works so much better than typical shallow-end promotion tactics. And it’s not just my opinion, the data backs it up.

In a 2025 survey, “96% of marketers reported that focusing on the customer and their experience” with their brands became more important over the past year and that this connection-centric approach directly impacted their sales. (2025 Hubspot State of Marketing Report)

A Different Path Forward

Over the past decade that I’ve been in the industry, I've watched meteoric rises and falls. You know which writers keep hanging in (aside from mega bestseller anomalies)? Those who have a deeper sense of who they are, what they stand for, and the impact they want to have. No shade if, for instance, TikTok works for you, but if you want a long-term career, it can't be your entire brand foundation—you need deeper roots that will outlast any platform.

Of course I’m aware of the “overnight” success stories as well as the controversies ala Luke Bateman and others, but honestly I tune a lot of drama out. There is always something to learn, but it’s not found in the wallowing, or conversely, in believing in a fantasy. I’m only interested in what works.

Showing up as a consistently authentic, well-articulated human counts more in the long run than just consistently posting content. But we do need to show up.

If you're tired of social media, I get it. If you're tired of email newsletters or trying to be a content machine, I get that too. What we need are sustainable solutions. Complaining won't help us—finding what works for each of us, based on data, psychology, and intuition, does.

Maybe it's my ex-fundamentalist evangelical background, but I have a real distaste for "that's just how things are" or "these are the rules."

You weren’t born with your talents, dreams, and obsessions for no reason, and I'll be damned if the death throes of late-stage capitalist marketing systems are what stand in the way of building your impact.

Let’s Take a Breather

I think it's time to take a collective breath. We're lost in the details, the tools, the methods. I fall into that trap too—it's easy when we're bombarded with these messages daily. But what if it could be different?

Just like in writing, we have constraints. But just like in writing, if there was only one formula that worked for every story, we'd be bored senseless.

The reality is, we live within a system where most of us need to make money, and if we want to earn it from our writing, we will need to do the work to get it out to an audience. We need to understand how the existing systems work to find workarounds that align with our personalities and capacities.

What if you could take a slower, more mindful approach to your author brand and marketing? What if that's exactly what you actually need? What if instead of rushing, you took time to think, unpack, shift mindsets, and learn new perspectives and methods? What if you could move through a process that sheds the "shoulds" and embraces the excitement of "what's possible?"

It doesn't matter, for instance, if TikTok creates bestsellers if you don't have a strategy to use it in a way that works with how you're built as a human being.

I want you to know that you're not doomed if you've published a book with lackluster sales. It's not over if your career isn't where you hoped it would be. You don't only get one shot. It's time to stop looking at what everyone else is doing and consider what you truly offer the world, who needs it, and how to show up for them.

Exploring Beyond the Old Playbook

I cut my teeth as a marketer, designer, and brand strategist in the business world before I came to the publishing industry. So I'm always comparing how the two operate. It's why I created the first author branding class in the first place. The publishing industry has long overlooked the importance of investing in authors rather than only their books. But that’s fine, because they can’t really create a brand attuned to who YOU are anyway.

Where I came from, you'd never launch a product (book) without having a clear brand strategy. But corporate branding often lacks soul or can be manipulative. I stand in the gap between publishing as usual, business strategy, and you as the author with big dreams—combining strategic rigor with authentic humanity. I know this unique combination of experiences wasn't accidental (no matter how haphazard living it out felt at the time!), and I'm here to help you bridge that gap too.

The world continues to change faster than we humans do, and so we must ground our tactics in sustainable practices that are rooted in human behavioral science, not just marketing fads. That doesn’t mean ignoring what’s new, but it also doesn't mean selling our souls or grinding ourselves down in the marketing machinery.

Fame doesn't always predict book sales. Influencer or bestseller status doesn't necessarily translate to a life well-lived or even a successful career. An author brand doesn't need to be some shiny, polyurethane version of yourself. You don't have to contort into something you're not in order to sell your work, but you will need to do some real work to promote it properly.

If you want real talk about how to build your writing career without losing your mind—from someone with low tolerance for BS and over twenty years of brand strategy experience and a decade of publishing industry experience—I hope you'll subscribe. I’ll share what I know and what I’m exploring and together we’ll find more aligned, sustainable, and meaningful ways to share our work with the wider world who can’t wait to find it.

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