Kay Cooke is an experienced teacher, life coach, therapist, author, and NLP Master Trainer, who is on a mission to transform the way we approach mental well-being.
July was momentous for me – I finally succumbed to the marketing promise of ‘beating the algorithm’. It’s a business, after all, right? Yet, I felt deeply uncomfortable. Being called Pollyanna many times, I naïvely thought, “just write the books, and people will read them”. But, as it turns out, that’s not the case!
The creative dilemma as an author –Passion vs. visibility
9 books later and Amazon rankings in the millionth zone, I am invisible. Like so many independent publishing authors, if you don’t get visibility, how will people know about your (awesome) books? This is as much a call out to all indie authors. It’s tough out there, isn’t it?
25 years ago, I worked on a project that trained and mentored women entrepreneurs in the creative industries. The brief was simple: go teach these people HOW to market themselves; how to run and grow a business; how to network and cross-market. It’s so obvious to the outside world that ‘all’ that is needed is just some training.
But here’s what I discovered then – and it’s just as relevant today – creatives love doing what they love doing and what they’re good at. Whether that’s painting, pottery, crafts, writing, composing – that’s where the genie resides. Right there. It feels delicious to be churning and enveloped in creative juices, lost in the moments. That’s genius at play, because it’s never work, right?
Yet, when we model the mindset and processes of highly successful creative businesses, there is more beyond production. There is a system that takes the right product to the right person, at the right place, at the right price. And that system requires visibility. In 2024, visibility comes from an algorithm.
So, I succumbed to the demands of modern marketing. We ran a campaign. I sent emails and texts to my nearest and dearest, asking them for this (one and only) favour – please review this book, "Jez Discovers Mind Magic" (chosen by the marketing company). It felt deeply uncomfortable, but I pushed through my personal feelings and rode the echoes of Tony Robbins: ‘people want and need this material’. I asked for reviews from my clients, which felt disingenuous and embarrassing, but that only brought my energy back to me instead of out to the world. Onwards I marched. And for three nail-biting days, I watched the result of many wonderful people keyboard clicking until lo and behold, we made it to Amazon Best Seller in three categories!
Whoo hoo. I should feel elated, right? Ahem, actually no. I didn’t get my (fab) product to the right people, at the right place, charging the right price – I just beat an algorithm for a few short hours and managed to screenshot my badge of honour.
My takeaway from this exercise? Badges of honour hold currency, and I can choose to keep supplying my loft and garage space with my drawings, poems, and books or take the reins of running a creative business that requires visibility.
Are you an indie author? Does this resonate with you? Will I do another social media campaign? Probably.
Would you like to learn more about balancing your thoughts, feelings and behaviours? Reach out and start a conversation with us –mindset is the key!
Read more from Kay Cooke
Kay Cooke, Life Coach, Therapist, Author & NLP Master Trainer
Kay's work through The Happy Brain Co Ltd revolutionises mental health for a brighter future. Now more than ever, it is crucial to have a safe framework for understanding and taking responsibility for our mental and emotional well-being. Kay’s work is paving the way for life skills that support healthy transformations and create resilient social systems. Building a brighter future, one happy brain at a time.
