Yes, if you're an independent author, who just wants to write and create, marketing will kill your dreams and your success. If you know, then you KNOW!
Not all indie authors have this experience, but a lot of us do. Trying to market your book can be so debilitating!!! It can cut you off at the knees. And what I've discovered is that TikTok, who is the main culprit of social media, creates an illusion of the possibility of gaining lots of book sales; but all it does is allows an author to rack up followers, who are only there to be entertained by your clips, never intending to purchase a book.
But I've also come to realize that, for me, I don't need a ton of followers, I just need the ones who do follow me to buy my books, and all 1024 of them are a hard sell. Either they're not into reading, and just there to support me, or my clips don't motivate and inspire a curiosity for my books. Whatever the case, it's frustrating. I call it: uninterested rejection.
An example of this "uninterested rejection" is of an indie author I came across on TikTok, who had done really well with her books, with 11k followers. I don't know exactly what happened, but she had an emotional breakdown in one of her clips because, I think it had to do with the fact that no one was buying her books anymore. But she still had a 300+ follower engagement with her posts, but those other 10K+ followers were just dead in the water, with glazed over eyes.
I just knew that I'd be able to live a quiet, exciting, thrilling life, writing and publishing my books. With my screenplay produced by a major studio that would become a major hit, with my dream cast. Both my TV Pilot and my spicy-romance, grown folks ebook, produced for HBO, and maybe all of my 7min stories also produced by HBO.
Anyways. . .
I had no idea Marketing would become a crushing arch nemesis!