Six Things About Indie Publishing

1. Indie publishing is a business. You need a business plan, a marketing plan, and a production schedule to succeed. Unless, of course, you’re one of the few out there whose stars are perfectly aligned. If you want to be a writer and a writer only, then this is not the path for you.
2. You must learn to wear many hats. Writer, editor, marketer, blogger/social media director (not too different from a typical writer’s work so far), publicist, legal consultant, graphic designer, business manager, accountant, IT specialist (although, hubby does this one for me), and custodian. I’m sure as I get further into the Indie experience, I’ll discover even more. If your Indie budget is limited, then you may find yourself doing many of these alone at the beginning.
3. Keep producing new work. Unless you are one of those lucky ones I mentioned in #1, then you need to continue to put books out there for readers to read. It is the key to keeping readers and creating a name and a brand for yourself.
4. Make sure your work it at its very best. Self-published books have the misfortune of an automatic sub-par label. That’s because anyone can publish a book—and many who shouldn’t do. But it takes a lot of dedication and hard work to put out a good book. And this is what will make an Indie-published writer stand out among the throngs of self-published people already out there.
5. Don’t be your only editor. If you cannot afford to pay an editor at the start, make sure you have knowledgeable people read and edit your book for you. This could be critique partners or beta readers. Always get specific feedback. Have people edit for different things: story line, plot problems, believable characters, as well as grammar and usage. Then make changes. Finally, read, reread, and reread your manuscript again until you are absolutely sick of it. Even after ten read-throughs, I still found errors in my manuscripts.
6. Indie publishing is a rewarding experience. It doesn’t (typically) make you an overnight success. But when you begin to witness the rewards of all your hard work (a good review, some sales, word-of-mouth), then you know it has all been worth the effort.