: Re: Is it true that the need for marketing/promoting one's books is a "myth"? For indie fiction authors, is it true that if one simply writes and publishes regularly, one will begin to see sales

@Tiffany377

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I wrote a non-fiction book and got a deal with a well-known publisher but beyond putting it on their website and in their annual catalogue of new titles for that year they really did very little. A couple of interviews with tame podcasters and that was it. They expected me to be full-time, all the time, promoting it myself, including flying to the US (I'm in the UK) to be at book dealer events and big educational conventions where I'd have to pay for flights, accommodation, meals and everything else myself in order to schill my book on their stand on the off chance I might get the odd speaking gig out of it. The relationship soured very quickly when I said no, and given that I was getting pence per book sold against a rrp I'd have had to have sold literally 1000s of books just to cover costs. This isn't unusual in the fiction world either. I know lots of authors in the SF&F world who are expected to give up as much time as possible to be at signings or events or readings because, well, that's what you have to do to make a career out of it. Anyone who says you don't have to market your book, is trying to market something to you.

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