A Modest Proposal: A Fair Marketing Plan for the Self-Publisher (The Writer’s Workshop)
By Dr. John P. Elcik IV
In publishing, marketing fees are often certain—while outcomes remain vague.
Awareness is praised. Activity is celebrated. But readership is rarely measured.
A Modest Proposal is a short, reflective essay written by a retired business-to-business marketer and longtime independent author who has lived inside this contradiction for decades.
Drawing on more than 160 published works and years of professional marketing experience, the author asks a simple but uncomfortable question:
What would book marketing look like if risk, reward, and respect were shared more fairly between authors and marketers?
This is not a how-to guide. It is not a complaint. And it is not a pitch.
Instead, the book offers a calm examination of industry norms that are often accepted without scrutiny—particularly by self-published authors with limited resources.
Written to be read in a single sitting, A Modest Proposal invites readers to pause, reflect, and reconsider assumptions about value, compensation, and success in the modern publishing ecosystem.
A continuing conversation for readers is available at penodyssey.com/modest.