Pain points! > Likes and Comments

Oh my goodness, far to long since I posted here. Bad Riley, bad Riley! I wanted to come on here because I noticed the information on this group is a little... outdated to say the least. I am looking for a list of updated Author pain points for independent authors, as I would like to start trying to address them for others! Feel free to join in on the discussion!

Riley wrote: "Oh my goodness, far to long since I posted here. Bad Riley, bad Riley! I wanted to come on here because I noticed the information on this group is a little... outdated to say the least. I am lookin..."

Riley!

Sometimes I feel like this group has become some sort of ghost town and I'm that lonely old prospector that still lives there twenty years after everyone else moved on.

In all honesty, I think that's Goodreads as a whole - the site is simply outdated in many aspects of its design. Hell, even the phpBB forum system that was used in the early 2000s is miles ahead of GR when it comes to discussions, especially referencing other comments.

If I get what's being said, I do agree that many of the topics are stale. I log in occasionally, hoping to see something new to give my input, but nothing is there. I don't have any questions of my own. I hope this venue can be revitalized. Cheers.

From my own personal experiences and talking with other writers, I compiled this list of major pain points:

Fiction writing:
Character development
Building a plot
Putting it all together

Self-publishing
Mis-information
Developing a plan
Marketing

Book marketing
Social media
Targeting an audience
Sales tactics

Appreciate you all! And I see what you mean Dwayne! Real life got in the way of being able to keep up with this, and it seems abandoned! Bah, that's okay, we built it from the ground up before, how hard can it be to start doing it again, time to start crafting some compelling and interesting posts for authors to start attacking some of those pain points, which thank you very much for the list Hank, greatly appreciated! Stay tuned folks, Riley is getting back in the swing of it!

I’m an indie author writing my third novel - I write older children’s novels in the realm of magic realism

Going back to the OG topic of this thread. Here's my pain point...
the never-ending list of things to do!

I truly LOVE the writing process, but the cover creation, KDP management, ARC management, website updating, marketing, etc... wowza!

Anyway, I've given in and hired a part-time VA at the start of the year. So, hopefully, I can just fully concentrate on the writing.

Hi, if you're still looking for a beta reader, I’d love to help. I enjoy working with indie authors and giving feedback from a reader’s perspective,things like pacing, character development, and emotional impact. I’d be happy to read a few chapters and share my thoughts.

Ava wrote: "Going back to the OG topic of this thread. Here's my pain point...
the never-ending list of things to do!

I truly LOVE the writing process, but the cover creation, KDP management, ARC management, ..."
I can definitely relate to that. Writing the story itself is the part I love most, but everything around it sometimes feels like a second full-time job. Between formatting, keeping track of KDP, maintaining a website, and trying to figure out visibility, the list never really ends.

Lately I’ve been trying to remind myself that the writing has to come first. If the story isn’t strong, none of the rest of it really matters. The other pieces are important, but they’re easy to let them take over the time that should be spent actually creating the book.