Hands down, the hardest part of the writing/publishing process is the marketing. Hands down. Especially for authors like me who tend toward introversion. It is uncomfortable at best—and downright difficult, at worst—to promote “self.”

But that is the reality of the self-published author.

There always lingers the hope, foolish as it may seem, that a book might catch fire, like a careless cigarette tossed in a dry field, and that all the marketing would be magically removed from the author’s responsibility and sent careening out to a public waiting eagerly to be charmed.

Using one’s imagination and creating characters, plots, scenes and even worlds is a fun and delightful exercise for any fiction writer. And so, too, is imagining wild publishing success.

But just like the writing process, success (read: marketing) also takes a whole lot of hard work.

What helps more than anything is when a friend calls you up and says, “Send me rack cards. I’m going to distribute them down here.”

Bless her.

Who needs publishing success when you have friends that good?