You nailed this: we have to think of ourselves as product providers, and our writing as one (but not the only) product we provide. I love the mindset shift you outline here. Indie writers especially (but far from exclusively) need to pay close attention to marketing — but not just how to buy Facebook and Amazon ads. There are (as you mention) better ways.

I have to bring this up, though. Lots of indie authors (actually, nearly all of them) (and boy, I seem to be loving the parentheses today) spend time and treasure building their own markets through email, etc., exactly as you propose above and elsewhere. But it has struck me many times that what would be even more valuable than a list of people who want to hear about your writing is a list of people that actually bought your stuff.

Of course, Amazon will never give you this list, although they have it. But that doesn’t mean it’s not possible to get it. Maybe I’m wrong about this, but I have come to firmly believe that the most valuable thing I can own as an author is not my books, but the customer base that purchases them — a customer base that, even as an indie — I have delegated to Amazon, et al.

That needs to change. Amazon, after all — you said it above — doesn’t give a crap about me, and will do nothing at all to sell my books. Yes, my customers can find my book on Amazon, but only if I tell them to search for it. So why, on earth, am I not telling them to look for it someplace where I can capture their data? Why am I spending so much time and effort collecting email addresses for folks and then turning the most valuable part of the interaction — the sale — over to a trillion-dollar behemoth that I know is right now looking for a way to screw a few more bucks out of me and my friends?

I think I decided while I was writing this that I’m not going to do that any more. I can sell books, too. It’s a little more work, but it’s a MUCH bigger payoff.

Thank you intensely for this kick in the butt. I’ll let you know how it goes.