Dead Internet Theory and Author Marketing: Back to Real People in Real Places
When it’s all bots talking to bots, your in-person connections are more valuable than ever
Dead Internet Theory and Author Marketing: Back to Real People in Real Places
When it’s all bots talking to bots, your in-person connections are more valuable than ever
Photo by Heidi Erickson on Unsplash.
Dead Internet Theory suggests that the internet is now mostly bots talking to bots, AI-generated content filling feeds, fake engagement inflating metrics, and algorithmic manipulation replacing genuine human connection.
Not exactly dead, but a chattering wasteland of bits and bytes.
Not exactly dead, but quite removed from the utopian 90s vision of the internet leading to radical democratization through connection and information access.
So, yeah, not exactly dead, but much less fun and not really a thriving center of human flourishing.
Whether you believe the theory in its extreme form or just recognize the trend — less human, more automated, harder to reach real people meaningfully — the implications for authors are the same.
You may be starting to wonder if you’re spending fruitless time and energy fighting for attention in an increasingly hollow space.
And that just might be liberating…
Permission to De-Emphasize Online Marketing
Here’s your permission slip.
For years, authors have been told they must be on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube — and now Substack! It monetizes! (yeah, right) — posting constantly, engaging algorithmically, collecting followers, optimizing for visibility, strategizing for virality. If you do it right, you’ll reach readers. And customers. And more. And more. You’ll scale!
Turns out, this was a long slow descent into performing for bots, algorithms, mindless scrolling, and attention deficits. Genuine engagement has become rare. Sales from social media are almost nil. The ROI can be abysmal, demoralizing.
Dead Internet Theory validates, however, what many authors have been feeling: online marketing isn’t working the way it used to (if it ever did). The good news that may not have dawned on you yet is that you don’t have to keep playing a game you can’t win.
Instead, place your bets on, return your efforts to, what’s always worked: focusing on real people, mainly real people in real places having real interactions.
Start with These Big-Picture Concepts
Below are some riffs on recurring themes I write about that can smoothe and soothe your off-ramp to the real world.
Outreach. Stop waiting to be discovered and start making direct contact with the people, businesses, and organizations who can help you reach readers and customers. Outreach is active, strategic communication — proposing partnerships to local businesses, pitching volume sales to book clubs and organizations, walking into stores with your books, contacting media with specific story angles — that creates opportunities instead of hoping they materialize.
Here’s an easy, time-tested formula to fall back on:
And an easy one for DIY author PR:
And, finally, a quick plea to stop with the demure…
Events. Events, as makes sense for you and your situation, are a pillar of nearly every successful author “cottage industry” I’ve ever seen.
Author events aren’t just book signings — they’re experiences that create connections, memories, and sales. From home-based book clubs and garage sale add-ons to ticketed workshops and partnership events with local businesses, events put you in front of real people having real interactions with you and your work in ways online marketing can’t replicate.
Here’s a primer:
Here’s more on home-based events:
Here’s more on book clubs:
And, here’s a list of 100+ event enhancements to elevate your next gig:
Partnering with Local Businesses. Build mutually beneficial relationships with businesses whose customers align with your readers. Coffee shops where you write can promote your events, gift shops can carry your books, specialty stores can create products tied to your work, restaurants can host book club dinners. These partnerships create sustained visibility in your community, introduce your work to customers already interested in related topics, and generate value for both parties — not through sponsorship requests but through proposing how you can bring new business to their businesses.
Here’s how one indie author does it magnificently:
Here’s another in-road to real-life connection with your neighborhood shops:
Service Marketing. When someone comes to you with a request or problem — overtly or disguised as a casual question — respond with “Yes, I can help you with that. This is how.” Service marketing means turning everyday interactions into business opportunities by making specific proposals that serve both parties. A neighbor mentions trouble filling a wedding expo? Propose your talk on alternative gemstones for your speaking fee plus book sales. A historical society needs summer programming? Offer your expertise at their budget if you can sell books afterward. Someone asks for a donation? Propose sponsoring copies for all attendees instead. You’re not just being helpful — you’re building your author business through service by making proposals that include what you want (fees, book sales, networking access) alongside what they need. Service marketing creates sustainable income through genuine problem-solving, not through hoping someone eventually buys your book from heavy-handed sales pressure but through generosity that serves others while serving your business.
Talent Curation. Deliberately get to know people doing bigger things that interest you — authors with bigger deals, publishers with bigger visions, entrepreneurs with bigger thinking. Your author business only grows as big as the people you’re learning from. If you’re only talking to authors at your current level, you’ll stay at your current level. Talent curation isn’t transactional networking or collecting contacts — it’s reaching out to people whose work genuinely fascinates you and proposing coffee to learn from them. “I admire your work on [specific thing]. I’d love to buy you coffee and hear about [specific aspect]. Are you open to meeting for 30 minutes?” Most people doing interesting work are happy to talk to someone genuinely interested in what they’re doing. Curating talent expands your awareness of what’s possible and builds relationships with people operating at the level you’re growing toward.
The IRL Marketing Advantage
Everyone else may still be shouting into the void of bot-filled feeds, but get a jump on the IRL competitive marketing advantages of showing up in person:
- Real places create stronger memories and loyalties.
- You’re not competing with algorithms; you’re showing up, being yourself, and delivering value directly.
- IRL marketing can’t be faked; it’s you, yourself, authentically interacting with real people in 3-D space, 4-D time.
- Bots can’t attend events; algorithms can’t buy books (they wish). When someone joins your event or makes a purchase from you, that’s a real person who made a real decision to support you.
- Metrics may be smaller, but the conversions count for something.
- Local partnerships lead to sustained visibility compared to feeds that zoom by too fast and posts that disappear or get relegated to never never land.
- Physical spaces, contacts, engagements all become more valuable as digital becomes more artificial.
What to Do Online
This isn’t to say we should quit our online presence or abandon digital efforts entirely. It means we should more watchful, intentional, and strategic about where our energy and resources are invested.
- Focus on platforms and situations you control — email lists, Substack subscribers, author newsletters, website blogs.
- Use online to drive offline. Make your digital efforts about directing eyeballs on screens to become people showing up in real-world places.
- No more optimizing for fake metrics. Followers, likes, and shares can increasingly represent bot activity rather than follower interest. Besides, then and now these numbers never correlated well with book sales and author income.
- Let your online presence be what it is…and that can be smaller than you think. At a bare minimum have a complete author website that is regularly updated, a growing email list you can use as needed to contact others, and occasional posts on the site/s you prefer.
- Evaluate everything ruthlessly. Does an online activity produce real results (sales, event attendance, email signups) or just the appearance of activity?
- Accept that less is strategic, not lazy. Spending minimal time online so you can invest energy in IRL marketing is working smarter not harder, recognizing what real results are and where they come from.
The Bottom Line
Dead Internet Theory — whether literal truth or useful metaphor — gives all of us permission to stop trying so hard online and start showing up where it actually matters: in front of real people, in real places, building real relationships.
The internet promised democratized access to readers and customers. Instead it’s becoming a bot-filled, algorithm-driven cesspool where authors perform for diminishing returns. Meanwhile, authors who show up at local bookstores, build partnerships with neighborhood businesses, host events in their community, and focus on direct reader connection are building something sustainable.
So, no need to ditch the digital, but you can stop treating it as your primary strategy and start treating it as just one aspect of a business model that needs to earn its keep.
Tell Us in the Comments
Have you been feeling the diminishing returns of online marketing? What IRL marketing strategies have worked for you? What would change if you gave yourself permission to de-emphasize social media and focus on real-world connection?
Build an Author Business Where Every Element Earns Its Keep
If you’re ready to stop doing things because you’re “supposed to” and start building a business model where every element actually produces results, my Author’s Business Accelerator is designed just for that strategic work. This 1:1 intensive is for published authors who want to ruthlessly evaluate what’s working, eliminate what’s not, and build around the tactics and platforms that generate income, readers, and sales for your specific books and audience. In 8 sessions (with a flexible schedule to work around your life), we’ll audit your current efforts against actual results, identify where you’re creating activity versus building business, and develop your customized plan that prioritizes what earns its keep — whether that’s events, partnerships, online platforms, outreach, or a strategic combination. Not group coaching or generic advice — it’s a strategic partnership to build the author business that works for your books, your readers, and your life. Learn more about the Business Accelerator.
Sharon Woodhouse is a publisher, author coach, partnership architect, and book-business strategist with 30+ years helping authors and publishers build sustainable, profitable businesses they love. Through Conspire Creative, she provides strategic coaching, consulting, and project management for authors and publishers. Her award-winning book is *The Profitable Author: 1,001 Ways to Build a Business You Love Around Your Books*.
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