🖋️ What inspired you to become an indie author?
This is kind of a 2-part question, because I was inspired to become an author long before I even considered the indie route. And I can’t really point to one thing that inspired me to become an author because, for almost as long as I can remember, I was drawn to creative writing, creating stories. I even began writing a novel when I was 9 years old. It had no structure and I didn’t have a plan for where it was going or how it was supposed to turn out so, unsurprisingly, I lost interest in it before I finished it. Plus, at 9, who has the attention span to write a novel? Throughout my life, though, I always enjoyed writing and eventually started freelancing for print and online magazines, all the while keeping notes on ideas I had for different fiction stories. Then, when I got the chance, I wrote one of them, start to finish, and that’s where the indie part comes in. After college and before freelancing, I’d written a novella and tried to get an agent or a publisher interested in it. I got so many rejections, I quit writing for awhile, but during that time and while I was building success as a freelancer, Amazon came along and made self-publishing a thing. I started taking courses and attending webinars on self-publishing, and through those avenues I connected with book cover designers and editors. So, when my book was ready, I knew I was going to publish as an indie author and didn’t even try going the “traditional” route.
⚔️ What’s the biggest challenge you’ve faced in self-publishing?
Doing it all myself, and learning as I go. Hindsight is 20/20, so maybe it wouldn’t have been such a bumpy ride if I’d learned everything and then applied it to self-published. But I was impatient and felt like I’d waited so long to write a book and have it published, so I jumped in without knowing everything. The plan was to use my first book as kind of a “class project” with a self-publishing course I was taking. I don’t regret that, though. And just having a published book felt like a success. A success that brings me back to that first challenge: doing it all myself. It’s hard to find time for everything marketing entails and still have the energy and creativity to write the next book. From what I’ve learned through many writer’s conferences and webinars, though, the big publishing houses are putting more and more marketing responsibilities on the authors, so I still don’t regret self-publishing.
💰⏳ How do you manage the costs and time involved in the publishing process?
It’s all hit and miss. Some weeks I feel more drawn to spending time on publishing/marketing duties, and some weeks I focus on writing. It’s not a perfect system and I’m still feeling my way through it. It might always be evolving. Recently, I started working with a VA to help me with my social media stuff, and that has helped a ton. And as for costs, I just do what I can. When I was working on my first book, I was still freelance writing, so I budgeted money as needed to pay for editors, proofreaders, and book cover designers. I bought software so I could record my own audio books (though I pay an engineer to produce them) and a separate piece of software that allows me to format my own books. Since I plan on publishing many, many books, I look at the software as an investment. I once heard someone say that writing is an expensive hobby, and until I have a bigger back catalogue of titles, I guess that’s what it is. But, hobby or not, I can’t imagine not doing it.
🎯 What strategies do you use to market and promote your books?
Social media plays a big part–word of mouth is always the best publicity. I also do cross-promotions and giveaways with other authors. I’ve been on a few podcasts and occasionally I’ll buy ads on Amazon. I do fewer paid promotions than anything. They can be effective, but the money (or lack of it!) dictates how much paid advertising I do.
🙅🏻♀️ Have you encountered any misconceptions about being an indie author?
The #1 misconception is that you’ll be an instant success once you publish your book. I did not kid myself about that, but I’ve heard it from so many people. Even my husband expected me to be bringing in six or more figures once my book was launched and available on Amazon. What people don’t take into consideration is that there are well over 2 MILLION books on Amazon, and new books are publishing every day, so that number continually grows. It’s tough to get noticed in a space that big, and that’s why marketing is everything. I still ghostwrite, too, and I never guarantee my clients a #1 bestseller because even if I did write them a masterpiece that was literally the Great American Novel, if they don’t market it optimally, it will never break out of the lowest spots on Amazon or with any other book retailer.
And there’s another misconception that’s tied to the marketing piece of the indie author puzzle, and it’s that if you promote your book on Facebook, it will be an instant success. That can happen, but just announcing on your FB page that you’ve published a book doesn’t guarantee sales, and it’s for a similar reason that just publishing on Amazon doesn’t guarantee anything, either: bajillions of people are posting to Facebook all day long and within minutes (if not seconds!) of you posting the announcement about your book, hundreds of other people post pictures of their cat, or an article, or just random posts filled with TMI, and your post gets lost in the crowd. Sure, FB now offers paid ads that they force into the feeds of people who might be inclined to buy your book, but that’s just another marketing cost that carries no guarantee of book sales.
🧐❤️ What advice would you give to aspiring indie authors?
Only do this if you truly love to write, and be prepared for a long game. I hope that doesn’t sound discouraging because it’s not meant to be. It comes from the experience I have had with indie publishing as well as watching other authors go through it, too. I’ve seen so many good writers start off with such enthusiasm and great expectations, and when their writing isn’t paying for itself within a year, they get discouraged and their enterprise slowly gets pushed to the back burner, and eventually dies. Some authors have the resources and the drive to at least break even within that amount of time, but that’s not the story for the majority of us. Early on, a friend told me that any business usually takes about 5 years to get going well enough to be considered successful. She encouraged me to keep that in mind, and I have. When my husband pushed me to give him a date when my books would be bringing in money, I asked him, “What if they never do?” because I’d decided I was going to do this no matter what. Just having my stories out there is such a huge win for me, as is all the positive feedback I get from readers. When I start seeing 6 figures, that will be delightful icing on the cake.
And one more piece of advice I can give is you do you. There are so many webinars and courses and even basic blog posts out there that advise you how to write to market, or tell you to chase what’s trending, but the people who succeed do it when they’re being true to themselves and writing authentically, authoring the stories inside them without trying to mold them into what “should” work. It’s the same thing with spending time trying to do all the marketing “right.” Yes, Instagram and TikTok and whatever else is the flavor of the month can work for someone who enjoys posting things on those platforms. It can even work for someone who wouldn’t be doing the social media thing anyway, but they’ll have to work at it. But in the end, anything that takes the enjoyment out of creating just defeats the purpose, so you’ll need to weigh it all up and decide what’s “worth it” and what’s right for you. 💋
