Kris Rusch on ‘The Stages of an Indie Writer’

This one’s for writers, and anyone interested in the publishing industry.

Over at The Business Rush Kris has written a great essay on the different stages she’s seen traditionally published authors go through on their journey from ‘how it used to be’ to the brave new world of indie publishing. It’s fascinating stuff, though I can’t personally comment on the accuracy: I jumped straight in at stage twelve!

“The emotions are actually predictable, although we all go through these stages at our own speed, and in our own ways. Some people get stuck in one of the stages and might never emerge from it. Others blow through a few of the stages and wonder why friends can’t do the same. We all find something that stops us for a while, though, and we all have to find our own way through them….

8. Fear (Indie Publishing Version 1)

They don’t know how to indie publish anything. Designing a book is hard, finding a cover is hard, uploading to e-book services is hard. Or, at least, it all looks hard.

Then the writer tries a few things. Yeah, there’s a learning curve, but she has had learning curves in the past. That’s what she did with her writing. She learned. She’s done this before. She can do it again.

She decides to try.”