Most authors are running on a treadmill. It looks like a business and it certainly feels like work, but every launch starts from zero.

You publish, you push, sales spike, sales fade, and then you do the whole thing again with the next book and roughly the same audience you had last time.

The instinct at that point is almost always the same: write another book. If the last one didn't stick, the next one will.

But another book on a treadmill is just a longer treadmill. You'll be standing in the same spot, more tired.

September 5th, 2026   •   6 minute read   •   Issue #170

Read The Full Letter →

There's a pattern I keep running into, and it's the wrong way round.

The authors doing the most are earning the least.

Ask an author earning a few hundred dollars a month what they've got running to sell their books, and the list keeps going.

Ask an author earning a few thousand a month and the list is shorter.

Ask one earning $10,000 or $20,000 a month and it's shorter still. Often three things. Sometimes two.

That isn't a coincidence, and it isn't that success bought these higher earning authors the freedom to drop things.

It's the other way round. The shortlist is what got them there.

August 29th, 2026   •   4 minute read   •   Issue #169

Read The Full Letter →

Facebook doesn't know whether you sold a book.

It knows someone saw your ad. It knows someone clicked it. It knows what that click cost you.

Then the reader lands on Amazon, and Meta loses them completely.

Everything after that point is a blank. Which means every number on your Facebook Ads dashboard is describing the doorway, not the sale.

Most authors are running their entire business off numbers that stop at the doorway.

August 22nd, 2026   •   4 minute read   •   Issue #168

Read The Full Letter →