The. Only. Good. Marketing. Is. The. Marketing. You. Do.
The best way to make money as an author is to not to grin and bear something you don't like. It's to find something you already innately understand and obsess over it.
Hi,
The best way to make money as an author is to not to grin and bear something you don't like. It's to find something you already innately understand and obsess about learning how to use it more effectively.
If you get jazzed about virality, then you should spend all your time trying to figure out how to hit the algorithm right. If you don't obsess over that stuff, you should stop worrying about it now. If you love crowdfunding, then you should run a bunch of campaigns. If not, then there are better uses for your time. If you love community, then you should learn everything about having a successful one. If you don't love it enough to obsess about it, then you don't need to do it.
There are no magic bullets...or, more accurately, there are millions of magic bullets, but they are all piled in a heap in the middle of the floor with no rhyme or reason.
You have to find the strategies that work for you.
We live in a world run by obsessives. The most successful authors and entrepreneurs today aren't dabbling in a bit of everything—they are fully immersed in the strategies that they innately understand and are driven to master. They don’t just participate; they dominate their chosen platforms by learning every angle, every trick, and every subtlety that others overlook.
I spent a long time doing conferences because I innately understood how to sell in person. I got really good at it because I did over 200 shows in a short time. I made a full time living from shows for years.
I love Kickstarter because I understand innately how to launch products to people and build a hype train. I've run dozens of campaigns in the publishing category because it worked. I've raised over $600k on my own projects.
I love Substack because I understand how to build consistent value thanks to Monica. I love scrolling the platform and figuring out how to hack it for people. I built my publication up to 900+ members and $17k in recurring revenue.
Before I write a new series I obsess over reading everything in that genre, and I only really write in genres I already obsess over anyway. I've written 40+ novels that way and made over $1 million from my creative endeavors in the past decade.
You excel at things you obsess over. When you obsess over something, you naturally invest more time, energy, and attention into it than others who merely dabble. This deep, sustained engagement leads to a level of expertise and proficiency that sets you apart. It is how you win.
The great thing about this is that you already have things you obsess over! You don’t even have to dig deep to find them. Are you on Instagram for hours on end? Do you make Tiktoks all day? Are you backing dozens of Kickstarter campaigns?
Using something significantly more than other people is a great start to an obsession. Spending 30 minutes daily can lead to initial proficiency within 2-4 months (about 30-60 hours), intermediate mastery in 1-2 years (around 200-300 hours), and advanced expertise after several years (1,000 hours or more). While advanced mastery takes time, you can become proficient in something with far less effort. Regular practice of 30 minutes a day, focused and deliberate, builds your skillset steadily and keeps you adaptable in evolving fields.
If you put in the effort, you’ll be surprised how little it takes to become an expert in something. The key is consistency, as even small daily actions compound into substantial results, allowing you to progress towards expertise without overwhelming your daily routine.
Obsession creates an environment where learning and improvement are constant. It’s not just about putting in the hours. It’s about immersing yourself in the process, experimenting, failing, and iterating until you find what works. This relentless pursuit of mastery means that you not only learn the basics but also uncover the nuances and shortcuts that give you an edge. In a world where many are content to just get by, your obsession can be the differentiator that propels you to the top.
Stop forcing yourself to obsess over things you hate, kicking and screaming the whole way. It’s not doing you any favors, and could be seriously hampering your success.
Forcing yourself to obsess over things you dislike is a surefire path to burnout and frustration. It’s not just about disinterest. It’s about the immense mental and emotional energy required to stay engaged with something that doesn’t resonate with you. This approach is unsustainable because it cuts against your innate natural tendencies, draining you rather than fueling you.
Instead, build on the strategies and platforms that already make sense to you. Look for platforms that already work in the way you need them to work.
Look for strategies you already gravitate toward without needing to be prodded. Do things you already do naturally. Ask yourself what aspects of marketing and sales you naturally enjoy or find easy to maintain. If you’re a data-driven individual who thrives on analytics, you might find platforms that offer robust ad targeting or SEO optimization particularly rewarding. Alternatively, if you love storytelling and content creation, blogging or serialized fiction platforms could be where you truly shine.
We live in a world where you can make money on almost anything if you obsess about it enough. After finding that obsession, you will likely be able to manufacture asymmetric, exponential growth using it. Then, you can use that growth to build a stable, steady stream of income from it.
Once you have that one stream humming along, then use the excess revenue you made to hire other people to run those parts of your business you don't like, or spend time learning another bit that fascinates you.
I'm not saying those things you hate doing aren't important, but you aren't going to do things you don't like, and the only good marketing is the marketing you do.
I'm gonna say that again.
The. Only. Good. Marketing. Is. The. Marketing. You. Do.
The only marketing that works is the marketing you do. You only make money on things you do, and you only do things that work. The emphasis should be on doing—taking consistent, actionable steps that keep your name and your work in front of readers.
Whether it’s a weekly newsletter, regular social media updates, or a new book launch, the key is to keep moving forward. You learn what works by doing, and you refine your approach through action, not theory.
The most successful authors aren’t necessarily the ones with the most polished strategies. They’re the ones who are out there, trying things, iterating, and consistently showing up. You are wasting precious resources half assing a dozen things instead of full-assing one thing.
Guess what, tho?
There are other people out there that love the things you hate, and they are great at making money doing those things. You can just hire those people with the money you make doing the thing you love. We think that just because we hate something it means everyone does, but that’s just not true. Similarly, there are things you do with ease that other people can’t stand (and you can charge people to do them for you, if you want).
These people know the tricks you'll never know because you hate doing it.
For instance, if you ask me about Kickstarter or Substack, I will tell you so many things about them you never thought to ask or wanted to know. All of these people know things you'll never know because you haven't done it at a high enough level and/or you don't care enough about the topic to obsess about it.
I have spent hundreds of hours on Substack in the past year, and even more hours on Kickstarter since back in the day to learn every trick that I could find about them. You probably aren't going to do Kickstarter as well as me unless you obsess about it and/or read our book/take our courses.
It's very unlikely.
So, stop doing things you hate. Stop doing things you don't understand. Stop doing things you fight tooth and nail to avoid.
If you aren't having success with a strategy, you probably aren't obsessive enough to develop an asymmetrical advantage using it.
If this sounds like you, then it’s time to go find something you already love and somebody you resonate with who already does that thing better than you. Then, learn from them how to be better than almost anyone.
Experiment until it works for you.
After it clicks, double down on your success until you stop getting exponential growth from it. Every strategy loses effectiveness over time. Once you reach the limit of your success running one strategy, find the next thing you love and try again.
Keep exploring things you love until you can't grow anymore, and then use your excess cash to find things you hate and hire people to do them. If a strategy doesn't make intuitive sense to you, then you will probably suck at it, abandon it, and waste your resources on it.
So, stop doing it.
Consider this permission to burn everything that doesn't work tonight.
The #1 thing I've learned from seven figure authors is that when they want to do something, they find somebody who already knows how to do it and pay them.
Do you know why they can do that? Because they made money doing things they liked that worked. Then, they reinvested it in doing things they like less to help stabilize their business.
It's probably a pretty good model for your career, too.
What do you think?
What marketing do you hate doing?
Is there something you’re obsessed about?
Let us know in the comments.
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This is a great article and makes so much sense. My struggle is that I hate everything about marketing… posting on social media (Substack being the exception), creating graphics, creating captions, figuring out funnels and automations, etc.
I like writing, on lots of different topics. I like researching and reading about those topics. But none of the topics have anything to do with marketing. Consequently, the amount of money I’ve made (and have available to hire someone to do the things I hate) is minimal.
Thus I’ve forced myself to learn how to grow an email list, send out email campaigns, set up a welcome series, created lead magnets, created my website, and on and on.
I’m glad I learned all these things but I don’t see the “payoff” - money in my pocket. This is my conundrum.
I know 100% that marketing is key. There are just so many different ways, sometimes it’s overwhelming 😞