In the foreword of my book, I talk about the first self-publishing lesson I learned from my mom's pre-internet desktop publishing business: Your Mailing List Is King.

There's another lesson I learned from her though, which isn't in the book.

When things get hard*, you realize a lot of what "was required" Before Times Got Tough were in fact, very optional.

Feel free to cut that optional shit out of your life now.

* She got cancer. It fucking sucked.

And if you cut out the optional, make work nonsense that takes all your spoons*, you just might have enough energy to still do the things that actually work.

*do you know about the Spoon Theory? We all have fewer spoons now, suddenly, and coming to terms with that is a process.

If you have an email mailing list, send them an email this week. It doesn't need to be fancy. It's okay if you don't have a new release to tell them about. They joined to hear about you, and you have an update.

Also, include links to a backlist book. Trust me.

If you don't have an email mailing list, start one. When Shit Gets Real, the people who have signed up for your mailing list will want to hear from you, will be happy to buy some of your books, and will, when It Gets Even Harder, send you the loveliest notes.

And just in case someone stumbles across this and is like, "I DO NOT KNOW HOW TO DO THIS, ZOE!", MailerLite and MailChimp are both free to use for your first bunch of subscribers.

Pro tip: always use a redirect link (I use SmartURL) for your sign up in case you change services.

OH! And the book in question in the first tweet is Romance Your Brand. IN MY ONLY NON-FICTION BOOK. I have a lot of other books, that's confusing.