Book Marketing for Longevity: My 7-Figure Author Business

When I started as an indie author nine and a half years ago, I had no background in publishing and was just hoping to make a little extra money. Today, I run a business that employs over a dozen people, generates multiple revenue streams, and doesn’t depend on constant new releases or heavy ad spend to survive. If Amazon went away tomorrow or decided they no longer support indie authors, my business would still thrive.

I still love writing, and I believe the last thing I will do before I die is get up from my rocker after writing an epilogue (and hopefully having a margarita in one hand while on a beach before I kick the bucket — why not go out a little tipsy while soaking in the sun?). But my career isn’t defined by chasing “best years” or racing to the next release — I’ve built this business and my book marketing strategy for longevity and sustainability instead.

The path to get here looked nothing like what I expected when I started, and it required going against the grain at nearly every turn.

How It Started: 2016 and the Write-Publish-Repeat Model

I started this career as a stay-at-home mom of two who was broke and had lost her identity. I had stories in my head that begged to be written, but no background in publishing. I searched for resources and came up short, but decided to give it a go, if for no other reason than to make an extra $5 a day for Dunkin’ before heading to playdates with my toddler and infant.

I’ve always enjoyed a challenge, and once I saw the possibilities, I fell in love with not just writing romance but the business of publishing and marketing my books.

Back in 2016, many popular indie authors who hit number one in the Amazon categories didn’t create paperback editions — let alone special editions or hardbacks. It was so different then compared to now. The system was simple: write, hit publish in Kindle Unlimited, and do it again. A singular Facebook post in a reader group was enough to market. There were no cover reveals. Audiobooks weren’t on anyone’s mind. It was a very different, seemingly much smaller community, though romance was still the number one genre by more than double any other genre.

I was shocked at several things after my first year:

1. The sheer burnout, and how authors relied so heavily on new release after new release.
2. The focus on the lowest ROI product: the ebook. Though I understand the appeal for those who just wanted to write rather than run a publishing business.
3. The lack of direct reader relationships. My background in sales made it clear that the relationship with the client is so important. Yet we weren’t getting any information on readers who purchased our books. Back then it made sense, but as the industry changed, that logic weakened.

In my first year, I had several top 10 books on Amazon, and every month I received a bonus that covered my ad costs and then some. I played the game I saw everyone else doing… until I hit a hard wall and realized this wasn’t sustainable. The constant writing, the industry dynamics I didn’t like — it has all snowballed. There are even more challenges now: AI-written books, high-volume publishing models, authors and publishers upping ad spend to outbid each other.

What Changed: Watching the Industry Evolve

In some ways I got lucky. As my mindset changed with burnout and the experience of high highs and low lows, the industry also changed dramatically.

Facebook turned to profit over organic activity. Instagram rose, bringing Bookstagram and new readers who preferred author interaction. Blogs were replaced with pretty photos and street team shares, and the cost of marketing a book rose from nothing to thousands a day to compete for visibility.

Another massive change occurred in 2020: Older books started going viral with the rise of BookTok. I had tons of older titles I knew I could sell on TikTok if I got them in front of this audience I hadn’t been able to tap into before. And that year, I had plenty of time on my hands to do just that, while I was pregnant with baby number three.

All this time I watched, adjusted, and kept an eye on two things: what readers said they wanted and the bottom line.

I compared notes with friends in the industry. Friends who hit number one but spent more than half their gross on ads alone, and when taxes came in, they realized how much lower their profits were than expected. Friends who watched their ad costs increase dramatically while returns became less predictable.

I focused on more strategic marketing approaches — using tools like BookBub Featured Deals to reach a wider audience with discounts on my first-in-series books and box sets, and building an organic social media presence to connect directly with my readers.

I made several decisions that went against the grain, but I didn’t mind. I love challenges and risks, and I saw opportunities that would need a little time and love but had much higher ceilings and lower competition than the mainstream way of publishing.

The Pivot: Building Multiple Revenue Streams

It started with small, low-risk, low-cost decisions. In late 2018, I had decided to offer signed paperbacks to readers. A friend said she’d help since she quit her job and wanted to stay home with her newborn. Paying her took all my profits initially, but it made readers happy and gave a friend a job she needed. Back then, I only had a few sales a day, but it quickly grew.

I then added seasonal subscription boxes, which I grew slowly but were profitable from the start. I focused on products for my back catalog and emphasized removing readers’ barriers to consuming my work over constantly producing new stories. I created discreet editions of every single one of my books in 2020.

In 2021, I did my first crowdfunding campaign for decadent editions, selling at $110 a pop. I knew their worth from studying different genres, and I knew I wanted to reach readers who would appreciate decadent editions.

I invested in art — traditional publishers were pushing artist renditions for romances, even the spicy ones. I invested in different versions of my stories to reach as many readers as possible. I knew I just needed the right packaging, and to be blunt: creating different products is much easier than writing a brand-new story. I quite liked the challenge of giving readers a personal touch. Imagine a reader saying, “I don’t like the cover,” and responding, “I’ll make a cover you will love, then.” Listening to readers and creating a relationship with them online, where they knew they were heard, was important to me — partly because my love language is acts of service, partly because customer feedback is essential to business survival.

In 2022, I started a Patreon and grew it slowly with special editions my husband created in our garage. We purchased a UV printer and later a gluer and binding machine because, at the time, special editions from indie authors weren’t a possibility. There were no US printers that could accommodate sprayed edges in limited quantities. As I’m sure you know, times have changed for the better, and accessibility is now possible.

I also studied social media, focusing on organic growth and reach over paying for ads. I wanted cash flow for my expanding business and other ventures that required capital. I grew my shop from a friend next door shipping a few packages a week to a hundred sales a day with a team of three full-time and three part-time employees, just for physical shipping. In 2023, we invested in a headquarters for shipping as the business exploded with social media attention and growth. As I write this, we are expanding that warehouse.

My Book Marketing Strategy: Organic Social Media Over Ad Spend

Marketing on social media constantly is key. I post multiple times a day on every viable social media platform — YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and even growing platforms like Lemon8. In 2024, I hired a social media team to help with responding to comments and posting, and it’s been a game-changer for freeing up time.

Some businesses prefer a single post a day or every other day to maximize likes on one post. However, I’m more interested in overall reach, interaction, and growth. Studies and my own analytics have shown that posting multiple times a day results in higher reach and interaction. More is better, even if it may not look like it on the surface. Data knows best.

What I post: I post packing videos daily, which aid in visibility. I share behind-the-scenes content of our headquarters, our team, and the process of creating special editions. I create educational content to help readers understand how to purchase different products or participate in crowdfunding campaigns — education is key for platforms and strategies that aren’t well-known.

I also give books away to influencers so they can share their love of the book with their audience and help readers understand how to acquire them. If there’s one thing I love to do (and I consider the expense “ad spend”), it’s giveaways. I don’t do gift cards — I always give away the book, because it gets readers who truly want the book to engage. It also makes a reader happy who may not have been able to get my book otherwise, and I simply love to give back to readers. It’s fun and a win all around.

The Numbers: What This Actually Looks Like

Let me share some concrete data to show what this diversified and organic approach has created.

Print sales have become massive. After direct sales from my website, print is my second-largest revenue stream and provides me with six figures a month in gross sales. Nearly 30–50% of my monthly sales from Amazon are print sales.

The majority of my books are wide apart from cowrites with Lauren Landish. I love libraries — including digital libraries like Hoopla and Libby — so I choose to be wide for now. The advantage is the ability to sell ebooks direct as well. I’ve been a longtime KU reader — and I started out as a KU author — but I’ve found that going wide offers far more opportunities for revenue streams and, therefore, greater stability.

Every option for my physical books is available on Ingram, Amazon, and B&N Press, apart from special editions, which I would make available if it were possible. These charts represent January of 2026 and come from my Publisher Champ dashboard. Direct sales focusing on print really takes the cake. (Keep in mind that IngramSpark revenue has not been added to the chart yet. It also significantly boosts my print sales figures.)

Multiple revenue streams provide stability. I now have income from:

• Print-on-demand through Amazon, IngramSpark, and B&N Press
• Direct sales of signed paperbacks and special editions
• Monthly subscriptions for exclusive special editions
• Seasonal subscription boxes with limited editions (generating a couple hundred thousand dollars in gross revenue per season)
• Kickstarter campaigns for collector’s editions (my most recent campaign reached over $300k with a goal of $5k)
• Standard ebook and audiobook sales across retailers
• Strategic price promotions through BookBub Featured Deals to reach new readers

Each stream serves different reader preferences and creates different marketing opportunities. Critically, I’m not dependent on any single platform or strategy, and it’s entirely organic marketing.

Crowdfunding provides more visibility. Here’s an interesting insight from one of my crowdfunding campaigns: 42% of buyers came from the platform’s own audience, not mine. There are readers willing to support authors they don’t know yet as long as they love what the author is providing — if the author takes initiative to tap into that audience.

This chart represents typical Kickstarter growth for me, and you’ll notice the growth never stops because I post EVERY day. The key is consistency and authenticity. Readers can tell when you’re genuinely excited about what you’re sharing versus just trying to make a sale.

Building a Team for Sustainability

I couldn’t have done all this by myself. I have financial specialists and a team of passionate women who keep me on my toes with excitement, ideas, and to-do lists that are a mile long — and my husband, who quit his job to help me handle the details of running a business like payroll, taxes, and monthly meetings with the accountant.

This shift from solo author to business owner required thinking differently about investment and growth. Every hire, every new product line, every piece of equipment (like the UV printer and binding machine we purchased for creating special editions in our garage) was a calculated risk based on reader demand and profit margins.

Starting with that one friend helping part-time in 2018, I’ve grown to a team of over a dozen people.

Key Takeaways: What I’ve Learned

Looking back on a decade in this industry, here’s what I’ve learned:

Your backlist is valuable. You don’t need to write constantly to have a thriving business. I have over 60 books published, and finding new ways to package and present them to readers has been more profitable than churning out new releases. Creating different products is much easier than writing a brand-new story.

Listen to what readers actually want. Not what the market says they want, but what your specific readers tell you. Create products that remove barriers to consumption — different covers, different formats, different price points. When a reader says, “I don’t like the cover,” that’s an opportunity to serve them better.

Organic marketing can replace ad spend, but it requires serious commitment. Multiple posts per day, consistent engagement, building genuine relationships with your audience. Organic book marketing takes work, but it builds equity in your brand rather than paying for temporary visibility. I wanted cash flow for my expanding business, not a drain on resources for ads.

Diversification creates stability. Multiple revenue streams mean you’re not at the mercy of algorithm changes, platform policy shifts, or market saturation in any single area. If one revenue stream slows down, others continue.

Think like a business owner, not just a writer. This means investing in your team, systems, and infrastructure. It means tracking data and making decisions based on what’s actually working, not what you wish would work. It means understanding profit margins and cash flow.

Find your competitive advantage. I’m not interested in spending 50% or more of my proceeds on ad spend to compete with publishers and authors with massive budgets. Some authors successfully use a strategy where new releases primarily drive visibility and read-through, with long books and large backlogs that justify significant daily ad spend. This approach works well for many, and I respect that they’ve found a model that suits them. But I’ve seen how this strategy can be risky — vulnerable to platform changes and market shifts that are outside an author’s control. I chose to find spaces with lower competition and higher ceilings instead.

My advice has always been: write for yourself, edit for the masses, market for the money. But I should add: don’t stop selling and providing for readers in as many different ways as you can.

I hope this has inspired you and illuminated ways authors can achieve a sustainable and flourishing career. I wish you all the best with as much abundance for you and your readers as possible. There is plenty to go around, especially “happily ever afters” in books and out of them.

The views and opinions expressed in this guest post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of BookBub.

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About Willow Winters (Guest Blogger)

Willow Winters, author of several bestselling romance novels, is a stay-at-home mom turned writer. She often pushes boundaries in the publishing industry and sets trends that turn viral. Loving both happily ever afters and the challenge of running a business is her self-proclaimed super power. Follow her on BookBub here.