Happy Friday friends ... I hear this so often I made a video to address it: "I just need to grow my social media and the book sales will follow." I get it. It sounds logical. But I want to push back on that because I think it's sending a lot of great authors down a very slow, very frustrating road. I was listening to Don't Write THAT Book with Mike Michalowicz recently, and his co-host asked him how he managed to sell thousands of copies at launch. His answer? 18 years of networking. Not a viral TikTok. Not a perfectly optimized Instagram grid. Eighteen years of showing up, building relationships, and earning trust. That is the part few authors who have big launches say out loud. There is no strategy that works instantly. But social media is genuinely one of the slower ones, especially if you're starting from scratch. You're competing with full-time creators, AI-generated content, and algorithms that don't care about your goals. That doesn't mean skip it. There's real value in social media — I use it myself and I believe in it as part of a bigger picture. But it's an amplifier, not a foundation. And if it's your entire plan, you're essentially outsourcing your book's future to an algorithm. I made a video breaking all of this down, including the numbers behind where book revenue is actually growing right now. Dropping it here because I think it'll reframe some things for you.

No KDP. No rankings. No algorithm. What’s your backup plan?

Some of the things that use to really block authors from being successful aren't in the way anymore. This video talks about how social media, professional reviews, viral content and Amazon are all things you don't have to put so much energy into in 2026 ... and what's replaced it. :) Happy viewing.