: 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

@Kevin153

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We need to distinguish between "marketing" and "promoting" your book. Traditional "marketing" doesn't play a huge role in publishing --when was the last time you read a book because of an advertisement? However, even successful authors often spend a great deal of time "promoting" their books.
If you are self-published, you need to be prepared to sell all copies of your book yourself, and that involves promotion. For successful self-publishers of physical books, this typically comes in the form of constant speaking tours, author visits or book-signings --the book becomes part of the "merch" sold after the event. For online self-publishers, promotion usually equates to a ton of networking, often initially taking place within niche communities. Even those publishing traditionally, however, do promotion. The initial "promotion" work is selling your book to a publisher. After that, you'll be expected do interviews and book-signings. (Yes, these are not perks of being famous, but rather a part of the job --a form of self-marketing.)
With all that said, there is real value to this advice. The most effective "marketing" for books is word of mouth. Given that, publishing strong material regularly is actually the best "promotion" work for an established writer, because each new work "promotes" all the others. Conversely, most marketing efforts pushed on independent authors are nothing but money-grabs that won't do anything except make them poorer. The only real gray area is for people just getting their start. Even here, you're better off focusing primarily on your craft rather than your marketing --unless you really want to be someone who is best-known as a producer of well-promoted crap.

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