When Writing and Marketing Are Both Full-Time Jobs
The Impossible Equation
I'll be honest with you—I'm tired just thinking about everything I'm supposed to be doing right now.
According to the experts, I should be writing my next book (because that's the single best marketing tool available). I should also be building my email list (because that's the foundation of sustainable success). And posting consistently on social media (because readers need to feel connected). Oh, and running strategic ad campaigns (because organic reach is basically dead). Plus reading in my genre (to stay competitive), attending conferences (to network), analyzing my sales data (to optimize), and maintaining a regular newsletter (to keep my audience engaged).
Did I mention I should probably also be, you know, living my life?
What nobody tells you when you decide to become an indie author is that you're not just choosing to write books. You're choosing to become a writer, marketer, data analyst, social media manager, graphic designer coordinator, customer service rep, and small business owner—all at once. And unlike traditional publishing, where you can hand off some of these roles to professionals, indie authors either do it all themselves or figure out how to pay for help before they're actually making money.
The math doesn't work. It just doesn't. There literally aren't enough hours in the day to do all these things well.
I Admit, I Don't Have This Figured Out
I've published two novels that have done better than I ever imagined—international deals, strong reviews, recognition I'm still processing. I've built a newsletter to over 30,000 subscribers. On paper, I look like someone who's cracked the code.
But you want to know the truth? Most days I feel like I'm barely keeping my head above water.
I wake up at 5:00 AM because that's the only quiet time I can protect for actual writing. Then the rest of the day is a blur of newsletter planning, ad management, reader emails, social media, and all the business decisions that come with running what is essentially a one-person publishing company. By evening, I'm too mentally fried to write anything creative, which means tomorrow morning's 5:00 AM alarm becomes even more critical—and even more daunting.
The cycle is exhausting. And from what I can tell, I'm not alone.
Why We're All Exhausted
If you're feeling overwhelmed by the competing demands of writing and marketing, it's not because you're doing something wrong. It's because you're trying to do something that's genuinely, objectively difficult.
Writing quality fiction requires deep focus, creative flow, and sustained mental space. It's introspective work that happens in silence and solitude. Marketing requires constant visibility, social engagement, and promotional energy. It's extroverted work that happens in public, with metrics constantly judging your performance.
No wonder we're all exhausted.
The Cycle Problem
The modern publishing landscape has created an impossible standard. Authors earning $100,000+ annually have an average of 28 books in their catalogs. Twenty-eight books. If you're publishing two books a year (which is already aggressive), you're looking at 14 years to reach that level—assuming every book meets quality standards and finds its audience.
Meanwhile, the algorithm gods demand constant feeding. Take a break from social media? Your engagement drops. Pause your ad campaigns? Your visibility disappears. Stop publishing for six months to focus on craft? Readers move on to authors who are releasing more frequently.
The system is designed to reward relentless productivity, not sustainable creativity. And that's a problem, because burnt-out authors don't write good books. They don't build lasting careers. They flame out spectacularly and leave the industry altogether, taking their unique voices with them.
The Decision I've Made
I've made a choice: quality over quantity. At this stage of my life, what I leave behind matters more to me than how much I leave behind. I want to write books that readers remember.
That decision comes with tradeoffs. I'll watch other authors in my genre release three or four books in the time it takes me to release one. But I'll sleep at night knowing I wrote the best book I was capable of writing—not the fastest book I could push out the door.
My Mantras
I don't have all the answers, but I've learned a few things that make this impossible balance slightly less impossible:
I can't do everything. The 80/20 rule is real—20% of your activities generate 80% of your results. For most of us, that 20% is: writing the next book, building an email list, and strategic advertising. Everything else? It can probably wait, or not happen at all.
Protect creativity. Protect it like my career depends on it—because it does. My morning writing time is sacred. It's not flexible, not negotiable, and not available for anything else. Without that protected space, I don't write. Without writing, nothing else matters.
No heroes. I need to build systems, not heroic efforts. I can't market through sheer willpower every single day. But I can set up systems—like newsletter templates, ad campaigns that run automatically, and reader magnet funnels—that work when I'm focused on writing. The goal isn't to be personally "on" 24/7; it's to build infrastructure that functions whether I'm having a productive day or a disaster.
What I'm Still Learning
I'm still grappling with one of the hardest challenges in modern creative work—how to honor both the art and the business without losing myself in the process.
The authors who build lasting careers aren't necessarily the most talented or the most productive. They're the ones who find sustainable rhythms. They write the best books they can, publish them consistently (not constantly), market strategically (not exhaustively), and protect their creative wellsprings by remembering they're in this for the long haul.
I don't need to have it all figured out today. I don't need to be running Facebook ads and posting daily on Instagram and writing my next bestseller and responding to every reader email and attending every conference and mastering TikTok and—
Ugh.
I need to write my next book. I need to connect with readers in whatever way feels authentic to me. I need to learn enough about marketing to avoid shooting myself in the foot. And I need to survive this marathon with my love of writing intact.
That's it. That's the whole thing.
Today
I'm writing this on a Monday morning, caffeinated and optimistic before the week's chaos begins. I have a third book to write, a newsletter to grow, advertising to optimize, and about seventeen other things I'm supposed to be doing.
But right now, I'm writing this post instead. Because sometimes the most valuable thing I can do is remind myself—and maybe you—that this journey is supposed to be sustainable, not exhausting. That quality matters more than quantity, even in an industry obsessed with content churn. That we're allowed to build careers at a human pace, not an algorithmic one.
I'm figuring this out as I go. Some days are productive masterpieces. Some days are survivable disasters. Most days are somewhere in between.
The goal isn't perfection. It's persistence. Keep writing. Keep learning. Keep showing up, even when the math doesn't work and the hours don't stretch and you're pretty sure you're doing everything wrong.
Say it with me: "I'm doing something incredibly difficult, and I'm still showing up.”
So, keep plugging—chipping away at it.
