An Interesting Discovery About Online Platforms

I recently decided it was time to update all of my social media profiles–not a simple task when you’ve been blogging and writing for as many years as I have! My reasons? Well, it’s been a while! I recently won an award that I thought should be included, and I’ve committed to the editor’s position for FellowScript magazine. Both seemed like things worth mentioning.

After my daughter Eliza died in February of 2025, I pretty much quit all marketing of any kind, including on social media, and only posted to my personal accounts about personal things. Book marketing went out the window. It just didn’t seem to matter. Now that I’ve been trying to re-integrate myself into the “writing life”, I knew it was time to refresh my online presence.

Here is something VERY INTERESTING that I’ve discovered in the process. My book sales and revenue in 2025 were as good or better with virtually NO MARKETING, as they had been in previous years when I spent a lot of time and effort on online marketing.

Huh. Just sit with that for a minute. 

I haven’t checked my 2026 sales to date, but I have a feeling the results will be similar just based on sales reports I’ve received. It’s led me to take stock of what I do, how I do it, and why. Obviously, all the effort and time I was putting in before wasn’t having the desired results, but I had no way of actually measuring this since Social Media as a marketing tool is rather hard to measure beyond “likes” and “follows”.

I am still mulling over what this actually means for me moving forward. In the meantime, I plan to continue updating and refreshing. Besides my Social Media profiles, I’ve updated my Press Kit and CV. (Both downloadable on this website.) Refreshing one’s entire platform takes time, so I’m tackling it in small batches. Next, I’ll be moving on to my email marketing and automations.

I’m also praying about it.

This passage jumped out at me this morning while I was reading in Isaiah: “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.” (Isaiah 52:7 ESV)

Notice how the ESV version uses the word PUBLISH. It refocused my attention on the fact that writing (and publishing) are part of God’s mandate. All the marketing “tips and tricks” in the world mean nothing if God isn’t in it.