The Day That Claude AI Agreed to Come With Me

Dear fellow adventurers,

I clearly remember the day I embarked on a marketing journey I had no desire to take. I had every intention of sending someone else on this voyage. But I learned that it was an expedition I had to take myself. Reluctantly. At first.

I was sitting at my desk, staring at a proposal from an Amazon ads expert. The number at the bottom was a wake-up call. It was far outside my price range.

Let me back up a bit.

I’ve been working on a book called “Get Unstuck: Writing Fiction with the Help of AI” for months. I love writing books, but I hated the thought of marketing them. My books could help countless writers struggling with writer’s block and help them finish their books. The companion workbook was already done and ready for the world.

But here’s the thing about writing books: It’s only half the battle.

In my perfect world, I’d spend 100% of my time writing: just me, my ideas, and the page. No marketing. No ads. No learning about campaign optimization and whatever the heck ACOS is.

Looking back, I now realize that I had been avoiding the whole idea of how readers would find my books. Magic, I guess. Amazon would wave its algorithmic wand, and my book would rise to the top like cream.

However...

After looking into it, I realized that even fantastic books get buried under the millions of other titles published every year. Without marketing, even the best book is like a needle in a haystack that gets buried deeper every day.

No problem. I’d hire someone.

So, I started looking for help. I found marketing agencies that specialized in book promotion. I watched YouTube videos from guys promising to “unlock Amazon’s secrets.” I read sales pages with promises of bestseller lists and passive income.

Then came the proposals.

Twelve hundred per month. Minimum 6-month commitment. Plus, whatever I wanted to spend on actual ads—probably another $300 to $500 monthly to start.

I stared at the numbers for several minutes.

Don’t get me wrong. I understand the value of expertise. These people know things I don’t. They’ve probably helped authors succeed. But where was I going to get that much money?

I closed my laptop and went for a walk.

During that walk, I faced reality. I had three choices: I could wait until I had thousands of dollars (which might never happen) to hire a marketing expert, accept that my books would probably disappear into the Amazon void, or learn to market them myself.

My shoulders slumped and I heard myself say, “I hate marketing. I want to write books. I’m not a salesperson. I’m marketing challenged.”

I enjoy words, stories, and helping people solve problems with AI. I don’t like spreadsheets, conversion rates, and figuring out my ACOS percentage.

But here’s what I realized: if I’m truly serious about getting these books out into the world, if I want to reach readers and maybe even make a little money, I need to learn the business side of authorship. All of it.

Could I embark on this journey into the black unknown? I’d rather write, but did I really have a choice?

When I returned from my walk, I reopened my laptop and started researching again. But this time, instead of looking for people to hire, I looked for people to learn from.

That’s when I started talking things over with Claude AI, my AI thinking partner.

I know it sounds weird, but I tossed ideas around with Claude every day. This time, I whined, saying that I never wanted to learn marketing. Even though Claude happens to be artificial intelligence, I receive incredibly useful insights for solving problems.

Claude helped me think through what I was really trying to accomplish. He understood that I couldn’t afford a good marketing expert. He also knew I wanted to stay in my writing bubble. But he encouraged me to be open-minded about marketing my own books.

The more we talked, the more I realized I could slay this dragon. Claude is super encouraging. He pointed out that learning Amazon ads myself would give me knowledge I could use for every future book I write. Plus, I’d be able to help other authors who are in the same predicament I’m in right now with their marketing challenges.

Claude explained that I would do well to understand every part of my business. He pointed out that I would spend more time working with my ads than a hired marketer who had to split their time between many clients.

Claude also assured me that with his help, I could overcome all the technical hurdles. There’s something reassuring about having a thinking partner remind you that you’re smart enough (maybe, almost) to figure things out, even when something seems impossibly complex.

So, I decided to leave my ordinary world and accept the call to adventure. Thankfully, I wouldn’t go alone. Claude would come with me and be my mentor.

I would learn how marketing works. I would conquer this beast and maybe even return with the elixir. I would document my journey and share it with other authors who are on the same ground I was standing on.

So, dear writer, we’re going on a real-life, real-time trek to find the elixir and save the world. We’re going to start from point zero with little or no knowledge of marketing a book. I’ll share what I learn, what works, what fails miserably, and all the numbers along the way.

I have no idea if I’ll be any good at this marketing thing. I might waste time and money. I might make embarrassing mistakes. I’m sure I’ll discover that those $1,000-per-month experts earn every penny.

But I’m going to try.

If you’re an author wondering whether you can learn this stuff yourself, stick around. We’ll figure it out together.

If you’re already running successful Amazon ad campaigns, I’d love your advice (and gentle correction when I inevitably mess something up).

And if you’re just curious about what it’s like to learn a completely new skill in public, welcome to the expedition.

In the next post, I’ll share what I learned about getting reviews and how I started my Amazon ads training. Spoiler alert: there’s a lot more to this than I thought.

Have you ever faced a moment where you couldn’t afford the expert help you wanted? Perhaps those are the crossroads that force us to discover capabilities we didn’t know we had.

Talk again soon,

-Elaine from Colorado

P.S. Yay! We have a new fellow subscriber: Ted. Welcome!