I get asked this question a lot.
What do you mean, rare book author?
Just that. I write books. I write books you've most likely never heard of. I don't market. I don't have an advertising budget. I don't have a ten point plan for putting my stories in front of readers.
I don't have TikTok. I don't have Facebook, Instagram, or pretty much any social media.
I'm a storyteller. I tell stories. I write words and craft them into exciting tales.
I do this as much for the people who discover my work as I do it for myself. I spend countless hours imagining, drafting, and revising each new book, then pour myself into procreate to give all those words a suitably flashy cover.
What I don't do is have any marketing plan of consequence or an advertising budget. You won't find Martin Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ads running on any platform.
I'm a storyteller. I tell stories.
I tell a lot of stories.
I've been doing this for years. Since the 'before times.' Before the eruption of generative AI, before everything was rage bait, thumbnails, and reaction videos of people reacting to people reacting.
So, how does this work?
It's simple. I write books. I get them printed, bound, and shipped to me. From there I reach out to my readership. I send them an email and let them know that a new "Rare Book" is out.
How many copies do I have? Not many. I have enough to cover about 50% of my mailing list each time a new title is released. So when they sell out, they sell out. You'll find sold-out titles on my website all the time.
Will they be back? Sure.
When? That's just it. I don't know.
I order books for conventions, for shows I attend, and sometimes a handful for speaking engagements, of which I am quite fond of doing.
Does this work?
That's a great question. It works for me. I spent years trying to chase the trends, trying to figure out the right combination of ads, PPC bids, thumbnails, social media platforms, video, audio, etc.
Did that get me anywhere?
No.
It's just too much to keep track of. In my opinion, the deck is stacked against you. There are just too many indie authors, too many AI generated works, too many posts. Most author platform sites have become just echo chambers of various versions of "Buy my Book!"
I get it. It's tough. These things aren't easy. We pour our souls into this. We put ourselves between these pages and hope they find a receptive ear, a fertile imagination, that perfect reader we know will understand everything we've tried so very hard to share with them.
And sometimes that happens, but most of the time we spend a fortune trying to accomplish something that never quite pays back the money spent on it.
I chose a different path. It's slow. It's small. It's deeply personal.
You know what it also is? It's human.
I think that's what resonated with me the most. This is storytelling the way it started. It really doesn't differ much from those tales told against the backdrop of flickering firelight. This isn't mass media. Hell, it's not even social media.
This is me, telling a story, hoping you enjoy it, and maybe getting you to tell a friend.
That's what it means to be a Rare Book Author. It means choosing to do less in a world that demands you do more.
Thanks for reading, and for joining me on the journey back to something we lost along the way.
Martin
April 21, 2026
Photo by Mike Erskine on Unsplash
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