More Lessons from an Indie Author

My novel is now over 92,000 words.

I completed my last out of state trip for work last week, so I’m hoping that now I can settle back into a normal writing routine. Driving is exhausting, especially when it’s for 3 hours one way once a week for six weeks. The toll it takes…I was not prepared for that. But the traveling should be over for now, and that means I can get myself back on track with my debut novel.

One thing I’ve been doing is researching what indie authors can do to help themselves be more successful, and the primary thing — outside of the writing process itself — is marketing. I’ve written on this before, but it bears repeating that marketing really does make or break the release of a novel. Based on what I’ve read, there are a few different reasons for that. One is that the traditional publishing industry is going through an enormous shift right now. That means that a lot more writers are choosing to either publish with a smaller press, or they independently publish their work. In either case, this puts a lot more responsibility on the writer to market and publicize the release of their work.

This also means that the writer is responsible for creating the content that they will be using to market their work, and this takes up a lot of time and energy. You might have noticed that the release date on the side of my blog has changed several times, and this is due to the fact that I’ve realized I will need more time to market my book than I was originally giving myself. The harsh truth is that is doesn’t really matter how well written my novel is, if it’s not getting seen by the people who read the same genre as I’m writing in, then I won’t sell any copies. Building up anticipation for the release of my book will ensure that when it’s published, there will be people already waiting to buy it.

This also means that I have to brainstorm how to market this book. Twitter, TikTok, Facebook, newsletters…these are the things I’ve seen that can boost the potential sales of a book. Especially as one who is choosing to independently publish, all of this responsibility falls to me. Some writers can afford to pay a publicist to create content for them, but I can’t. A harsh truth about independently publishing is that it costs money. Paying for ads, paying for a cover to be designed, paying a professional editor, paying for concept art, paying for the internal design of the book once it’s ready to go to press…these are all costs that independent writers take on. It, quite literally, is a business on its own.

So, I’m giving myself more time and space to figure these things out before I attempt to release my book. I’m only a few chapters away from finishing my fourth draft, and once it’s complete, I’ll need to revise it once or twice more before proofreading. The manuscript isn’t quite where it needs to be yet, so the extra time will be helpful for that, as well as for getting myself out there to market it.

I’ll keep you updated as the weeks go by.