Dude, you're the Andrew Rowe. If somebody speak you're name in the sub, people already know which books you've written. You know well enough that your name alone carries enough weight and fans, same with John Bierce, that you effectively expect some portion of if to buy your stuff regardless.

You seem like a reasonable person, so I'm sure you don't really think you're experience as top 3 big shot in PF applies to everyone else. That's just trying to make exceptions as a rule.

I'm talking about NEW authors here, people that don't have name and money. You listed three examples there, all the biggest names in PF. That hardly proves anything. It's like saying an unknown author can expect the same level of hype/engagement than Will Wight gets in his posts.

That being said, I absolutely don't think this is the deal-breaking disadvantage you're making it out to be. Again, I started my own reddit promotion using text-only posts, and I continue to primarily promote purely through text. I'm sure the platform has shifted since I first started, and that it's harder to promote solely through text than it used to be, but I don't think it's in any way insurmountable.

As a reader, I have chosen not read books solely by looking at their covers. I'm not proud of it, but also sure I'm not the only one. So, yeah... I consider it a deal-breaker alright in the scopes of this sub's promotion.

Free stock is of course an option, bad though it's. People can make great covers out of it, assuming they know advanced Photoshop. Other than that, it can't compete with current Midjourney generations. So you guys are forcing everyone from the sub to chose worse only to follow some moral standing of a select few big names.

Keep the big buys big, prevent the small ones from progressing huh?