Many authors pin their hopes on one big moment. The debut that takes off, the ad campaign that finally works, or the post that goes viral. But for most authors, it rarely happens that way. And it’s not the path to a sustainable author career.
Most books that are published are not mass-market best sellers. And I think most authors understand this, but we’re optimists. So we treat each book release, or each post, as the one that will take off.
But it’s the wrong way to look at it, and more often it leads to disappointment that reduces confidence.
Think gardens and drafts, not lottery ticket
Think of it less like buying a lottery ticket and more like planting a garden. You don’t put one seed in the ground and expect it to feed you forever. You plant many, knowing some won’t sprout, some will grow slow, and a few will flourish. Over time, those few thriving plants more than make up for the ones that didn’t take.
Another way to look at it is through the work you already know best: writing itself. You’d never expect your first draft to be flawless. Drafts are messy. Some get abandoned. But each one teaches you something you carry forward into the next version.
Building an author career works the same way: each book, each launch, each experiment is another piece of the journey. They won’t all “win,” but together, they add up to a career that lasts.
Luck isn’t a strategy
Building a sustainable author career isn’t about luck. That’s not to say some people don’t get lucky, but it is to say that relying on luck or hope isn’t within your control, and building the author career you want is something you can control.
For many authors, this translates into meaning they need to write and publish more books. While there is some element of truth in that, you could write hundreds of books and still not achieve the success you hoped for, if you’ve never built and nurtured an audience of people who will actually buy and read those books.
The real way you can control the path and progress of your author career is through intentional audience building.
Spend an hour on pretty much any social media platform and you’re bound to encounter messages talking about how the algorithms suck, reach is down, engagement is low, selling books is hard. These are examples of creators, in pretty much every niche, relying on luck and hope to build their careers. Because they’re relying on an external factor, that they can’t control, to build an audience for them.
You’ll also see many comments that social media has become a “pay to play” space. But then you see others claiming massive growth without spending a dime on ads. How do you know which is true?
They both are. They’re simply representing two different tracks that are available for you to take.
I have a wide age-range in my audience, but for those of you who remember the days before the Internet, tell me how it was any different? Whether you remember those days or not, you could pay for newspaper or radio ads, put posters up on every flat surface you could find, or attend local events and have conversations with real people who would help spread the word.
Having been the co-founder of a local newspaper that relied on advertisers, I have no beef with the “pay-to-play” model of social media. I’ve also been a creator with no budget for ads, and have grown businesses from scratch through in-person networking. All of those experiences showed me the same thing: pay-to-play can work, but it’s not the only path to success for an author.
Algorithms won’t build a sustainable author career for you
But remember, nothing in life is truly free. Building your author career will always cost either time, money, or both.
When authors complain about algorithms, what they’re really mourning is that the algorithm used to do more of the heavy lifting for them. For a while, it felt like you could post into the void and the Internet would carry your work straight to readers. That time is over.
But that isn’t all bad news. Because relying on algorithms has never been a real strategy, it’s a gamble. It puts your career in someone else’s hands. When you shift your focus to strategies you can control, ones you can learn, repeat, and refine, you stop gambling and start building.
And that’s where real progress happens. Every launch, every post, every experiment becomes part of your portfolio. Not a pass/fail test. Not a matter of luck. Each step compounds over time into something lasting.
One viral post might gain you thousands of new followers, but that doesn’t automatically translate into thousands of books sold, as many creators will attest to.
Intentionally building an audience of loyal readers, one person at a time, might feel slow and like a lot of work. But consider how many hours of frustration you have (or could) pour into creating content in the hopes that it will go viral, only to have it fall flat. Or to have a post go viral, only to see zeros across your book sales dashboard.
Then consider how amazing it feels when you have a conversation with someone who is genuinely interested in your book, purchases it, and then writes a glowing review for it.
I can’t speak for you, but I know where I want to spend more of my time and energy.
Portfolios grow, one reader at a time
Building a portfolio of readers, one person at a time, feels amazing. It’s something you can enjoy doing day after day, without ever burning yourself out. And the beautiful thing about portfolios is that they grow over time. Before you know it, they start compounding as each person you connect with and nurture a relationship with helps to spread the word with the people they know.
The piece of this that most authors miss is that this is short-term pain for long-term gain. Because, once you’ve established a relationship with someone, you don’t need to establish it again when you release your next book, or the one after that.
When you solely rely on the algorithms to do the work for you, you’re relying on an external factor, that you can’t control, to push your content out to thousands of strangers. And you have to do that over, and over, and over, with every piece of content, with every book release.
Layer your efforts for sustainability
This isn’t to say that social media and the algorithms have no part to play in your growth. They absolutely do. But as the saying goes, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. If you rely on a single approach, you’ll always be at risk of it failing. A sustainable author career comes from layering your efforts: staying consistently visible, engaging with your audience, intentionally networking, and continuing to publish new books.
None of this happens overnight, or by waiting for that one big moment to make it all come together. It also doesn’t happen by focusing on just one piece of the puzzle. If you don’t have a loyal readership, publishing more books isn’t going to change that. If you build a loyal readership, and only publish one book, you’re not giving them a reason to stick around.
Building an author career is a marathon, not a sprint. Make sure you’re setting yourself up to make it to the finish line before you burn out.
And if you’re tired of figuring this all out on your own, enroll in my Mindset & Digital Foundations course. It’s the first step to laying the framework for a successful and sustainable author career.
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