Episode 2 of The Difficulty.

The hardest thing about indie publishing isn't writing the book. It's giving up the fantasy that the book will market itself.

In this one I get honest about the ego defenses we run as creators when it's time to put work into the marketplace — the survivorship bias of the "no marketing" success stories, the isolation that breeds false certainty, the asymmetric gap between making (which feels like magic) and marketing (which feels like math).

Some of what comes up:

— Howard Finster on his farm. Emily Dickinson and her response to Thomas Higginson. Fernando Pessoa's 200 heteronyms in a Lisbon trunk.

— The German musician who poured everything into one album, got profoundly little response, and stopped.

— My own Iris Blackwood cover that got 14 thumbs up and 38 thumbs down on NetGalley — and what to do with that.

— "We haven't failed. We just haven't found our audience yet."

The challenge at the end: pick one marketing lane, commit to it for 30–60 days, and report back.

If the show is doing something for you, the easiest way to support it is to share this episode with one person you think it'd land for. Or restack the post. Or both.

Episode mentions:

— The Difficulty Field Guide (free PDF — eight difficulties every working writer faces): https://crossroadspublishing.group/assets/pdfs/The_Difficulty_Field_Guide.pdf

— Iris Blackwood and the Curse of Hemlock Island, just out at IF/THEN Books — extras page (Decision Tree map + reading guide): https://crossroadspublishing.group/if-then-books/hemlock-island/

New episodes Mondays (the why) and Thursdays (the how).

The difficulty in life is the choice.