"Is It Worth It?" (How to Make Investment Decisions in Your Author Career)

*A quick note before I dive in: Real Talk for Writers is shifting to a biweekly schedule for the remainder of 2025. If you want more support for your author career, be sure to check out The Author Burnout Cure Podcast, which will continue to post weekly.* 

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I've been part of several conversations with authors lately -- both with clients in coaching sessions and in broader author communities -- where marketing conversations turn to the hard-to-answer question of "is it worth it?" 

Is commissioning character art worth it?

Has anyone paid for an outside publicist? Was it worth it?

Is it worth spending money on a pre-order campaign? 

Is traveling for events worth the expense? 

It's hard to give a definitive, blanket answer for any marketing strategy (let alone financial investment), because so much of it depends on your unique situation. There are so many factors that play a role in whether a particular strategy is right for you. Age category and genre of your book. Your financial situation. Personal preference. 

Rather than try to give you a list of "good vs bad" investments, I'm sharing a decision making framework to help you make empowered decisions about how to spend your time/money in your author career. 

Step 1: Identify the Value of the Investment

When you're considering any investment in your career--whether it's under a $100 or multiple thousands of dollars--the first step is to get really clear on the specific value you plan to get out of the investment.  

It's tempting to paint with a broad brush and declare that whatever your'e considering will help your novel "sell better," but don't let yourself get away with an answer that general. How will it help? How will you know whether it was effective? What do you expect will be different if you move forward with the investment? 

Let's look at commissioning character art as an example (which can range in cost from $50 - $2,000+ depending on the artist and what you're looking for).

Why do you want to commission the art? What value will you get out of having that art?

I like to make a list of the different ways I'll get value out of the thing I'm considering investing in. For character art, that might include:

• I really love character art and having some for my book will make me happy (and yes - your own enjoyment is a valid reason!) 
• I enjoy paying artists for the work
• I'm more likely to post about my book on Instagram if I have fun art to use for the graphic
• As a reader, I've purchased books based on seeing character art + quotes from the book, so it's likely the same is true for some of my readers
• I could also use the art as a pre-order incentive (which, again, gives me an easy thing to post for promo)

Once you have your value list, it's easier to decide whether the price matches the value you expect to receive. 

Note: "Selling more copies of my book" is not on my value list. 

While increasing sales is the goal of marketing, there's no good way to "test" or "prove" that the art led to sales. But I can determine (and control) how often I use that art to post about the book, so that's the value I focus on when making decisions.

Step 2: Get Clear on What You Can Control

Once you've articulated what you want the investment to do for you, it's time to get specific about what YOU will do with the investment.

What will you do to ensure that the money you spend provides a positive return for your career?

This step of taking ownership of your results is intended to help you avoid slipping into "silver bullet" territory, where you (subconscious) outsource the success of your book to someone else.

Book marketing is not as simple as "spend more money, sell more books." If that were the case, publishers would never have books with high advances and high marketing spends "flop."

But flops happen. Even when there's a ton of money put into them.

I'm always wary of any service or product that promises to "make you a bestseller" or "increase your book sales X%." Nothing in this industry is guaranteed, so steer clear of people who make promises they can't keep.

With that in mind, decide how you will ensure that the money you invest is well spent.

If you commission character art, how often will you post it? What are the different ways you'll use it?

If you're hiring someone to make graphics or reels for you, how will you use those assets? How often will they be posted?

How much time/stress will hiring someone else to make graphics save you? Is it worth it to get those hours back from Canva so you have more time to write? 

Whatever investment you're considering, remember that you will still have some role in the success of that investment. You're the one deciding when and how to share the art you commissions. You're the one who has to hire and supervise (and maybe even train) the person managing your social media.

If you're hiring a coach, you're the one who has to implement the coaching they provide. 

There is no investment where you can throw money at it and sit back while the sales roll in. (If only!)

Step 3: Remove the Option for Regret

If I could prevent you from doing one thing with investments, it's this: using an investment that doesn't meet expectations as "proof" that you're bad with money or that you shouldn't invest in your career.

Especially if you're part of a marginalized group, you've been socialized to believe you're bad with money, that you're irresponsible with finances, and that you can't be trusted to make money decisions. 

Everyone makes money mistakes.

The difference is that the cishet white dude CEOs who make multi-million dollar mistakes write it off as a "normal part of doing business" and the rest of us look at any "wasted" money (whether that's art commissions, writing courses, dipping a toe into ads, etc.) as proof that we're incompetent failures who should give up on our author goals.

Not anymore. Not on my watch. 

So after you've done your best to get clear on what value you hope to get from the investment and what part of that you can control, it's time to regret-proof the investment. 

Before spending any money, ask yourself: If there's no measurable impact on sales, will I still be glad I tried this? 

If yes, why? What other benefit will you receive? (Again, remember "It'll make me happy" is valid -- you just have to weigh the price vs enjoyment and make sure it's a value match for you.)

If no, what worries/concerns come up when you imagine skipping this investment and spending your time/money elsewhere? Are you worried you'll have FOMO if you don't go to that conference? Are you willing to spend money to avoid that feeling? (Personally, I don't like to invest because of FOMO or other scarcity-based reasons.) 

If you've already invested in something that didn't work out the way you wanted, you can still get your "money's worth" in lessons learned. 

What did you learn about your investment decision-making process? What can you improve for next time? Were your expectations for an investment misaligned with what it could actually do? That's something you can take forward into the next thing you want to try! 

What did you learn about yourself/your marketing preferences? (For example: did you think you'd use character art to make a ton of different posts/reels but ended up hating canva and only posted it once?)

Did you learn something about timelines that you want to keep in mind for next time? (Sometimes art commissions can take several months to even get on someone's schedule!) 

Force your brain to pull as much value from the "fail" as possible so your growth as an author/entrepreneur matches the money you invested. 

When you can say, "I made that decision with the best information I had at the time, and now that I've had that experience, I have new knowledge and can make better decisions going forward," there's no need for regret.

 
My Personal Investment Priorities

Since I get this question a lot, I figured I'd share my personal investment prioritizes as an author.

These are specific to my personal tastes, the types of books I write, and my current financial situation, so please only take the information that's useful and relevant to you. Don't use my list as a reason to feel shame, doubt, or insufficient about where you are in your career. 

#1: Coaching

Probably not a shocker, since I am a coach, but the thing I invest the most money in each year is coaching.

I pay for both business and author coaching, plus I have a private life coach to help me navigate all the challenging parts of my personal life. As a creative professional and entrepreneur, my mental and emotional health is the most important asset I have, and I take that seriously. I want to make sure I'm well supported, and coaching means I'm never facing any of it alone.

#2: Writing Retreats 

Since 2022, I've gone on at least one writing retreat each year (a few of those virtually), and I find these to be such an important outlet for me.

In-person retreats in particular are a chance to connect with other authors (which fills the soul in a really special way), escape from regular life for a bit, and get a ton of writing done. While writing retreats don't have a specific "financial" return, I get so much personal fulfillment out of them that I am always pleased that I spent money to attend. In fact, 2025 will be the first year that I'm attending two retreats -- both at Highlights. The first was back in March with my agency, and I'm going again in November with a few of my clients. 

#3: Character Art

As a reader, I love seeing character art on social media, especially when it's paired with a clever logline or excerpts from the book. As I started thinking about marketing my 2026 release, I knew I wanted character art to play a key role. I've already commissioned one gorgeous piece and have plans to get a few other stand-alone character designs. 

Will this help sell more copies of the books? Who knows! 

Will I feel good knowing I had something beautiful and intriguing to share with readers? Hell yes. 

Plus, it makes me happy to look at, so that makes it an easy yes for me investment-wise. 

#4: Book Covers for Indie Projects 

The final place where I've started spending money in my author career is on book covers for indie projects. In the next few months, I'll be releasing a short story set in the world of These Witches Don't Burn, and I've hired a designer to make the cover. 

Will I make back the cost of the cover in the first year? Eh, probably not. Especially since the short story will initially be a free newsletter incentive before going for sale for $0.99.

But I love the cover, which means that I'm more likely to actually share it online, which means it's more likely to bring readers into my newsletter, all of which are things I feel great about. Plus, I want my readers to have a cover that they love and feel proud to have on their eReaders, too! 

Final Thoughts

Making decisions about how you want to invest in your author career can be as unique as your writing process. We all have different values, financial situations, and goals for our books.

There is also nothing you "have to" spend money on if you don't want to. Don't let anyone tell you that your success is contingent upon you paying for any specific thing. You don't have to commission character art. You don't need to hire a publicist. You don't have to travel to events. 

When it comes to investing in your author career, my hope is that you feel empowered to surround yourself with the support you want (whether that's coaching, hiring artists or VAs, etc.) in a way that feels doable and accessible for you. And remember, your needs and goals may shift and change over time. The decisions you make today don't need to be your forever choices. 

Happy writing,
Isabel 

PS - I have 4 spaces for new private clients opening later this fall. Get on the waitlist to be the first to know when spaces are available.

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