The Curse of the Blank Marketing Calendar

One of my least favorite questions to answer is, "How's the book coming?"

Not because I don't like talking about it. Quite the opposite. I could ramble for an hour about spaceship layouts, why hypergates should work the way they do, or how many decks belong inside a freighter.

The hard part is explaining everything that isn't writing.

For most of my life, I thought publishing a novel looked something like this:

1. Write a good book.

2. Publish the book.

3. Readers magically appear.

Simple enough, right?

Yeah... about that.

Writing the book is only the first project.

Then there's editing. Then formatting. Then cover design. Then websites. Then newsletters. Then social media. Then trailers. Then figuring out why your Amazon page decided to eat your formatting.

And somewhere in the middle of all that, you're supposed to keep writing the next book.

I've always been much more comfortable making things than selling things.

Give me a blank page and a story idea, and I'm happy.

Give me X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, Threads, and whatever social media platform someone invented while I was typing this paragraph and suddenly I'm looking for excuses to reorganize my desk.

The funny thing is, I know marketing works.

Every successful indie author I follow says the same thing.

Consistency beats brilliance. You don't need every post to go viral. You need people to remember you exist.

That sounds obvious, but it's surprisingly easy to disappear for months while you're heads-down writing.

Ask me how I know.

So this time I'm trying something different.

Instead of waiting until Bridgefall is finished before talking about it, I'm sharing pieces of the journey.

The evolution of the Talaria.

Character artwork.

Worldbuilding.

Maybe even a trailer if I can stop changing my mind every five minutes.

Because I realized something.

As readers, we love behind-the-scenes content.

I still watch concept artists sketch Star Wars ships.

I love seeing alternate comic book covers and deleted movie scenes.

Why would my readers be any different?

They might actually enjoy watching a spaceship slowly evolve from a rough idea into the version that ends up on the cover.

Will any of this magically turn me into Brandon Sanderson?

Probably not.

But if someone stumbles across one of these posts, likes what they see, and decides to give Bridgefall a shot, that's one more reader than I had yesterday.

I'll take that.

Until next time, true believers.