I love to write, but it’s draining spending all those hours with the Phantom of the Digest whispering in my ear “Write for me, WRITE!” I’ve just finished the third book in my trilogy, The Undergrounders Series. Those hard-fought Adventures in Chronicles have finally paid off, but it wasn’t easy. Even tougher was the imperial thumbs down from the traditional publishing world.
Thankfully I discovered the incredible community of indie authors out there and got inspired to take my own show on the road. The first book launches on Amazon in December. Whoo-hoo! Here are my three hot tips on becoming an Indie author:
1) Upskill Every Day
Become a student of how to do it right. There is a wealth of information out there nowadays. You are not the pioneer wagon. It can be overwhelming wading through everything so I suggest stopping by the thecreativepenn.com as a starting point. Joanna Penn pretty much links to, references, or interviews, everyone worth knowing in indie publishing, so if you use her site as a jumping off point you can’t go wrong.
2) Declutter Along The Way
Switch to Scrivener for your writing. Scrivener is a powerful tool for simplifying and streamlining all your writing projects, research notes, web links, images and audio. I personally recommend the course at learnscrivenerfast.com by Joseph Michael. It is broken down by topic into small, easy to understand modules, and will have you up to speed in a few hours.
3) Feed The Fire Within
Listen to self-publishing podcasts. Self-published authors are very transparent and generous in sharing everything they have learned. They are also a can-do bunch of optimists and will ignite your belief that you too can be a Phoenix rising from the ashes of the slush pile! There are several terrific podcast options available on iTunes, packed full of valuable information. Here are a few worth checking out:
http://rockingselfpublishing.com/
https://sterlingandstone.net/smarter-artist/publishing-2/spp/ (note: language rating)
http://www.thecreativepenn.com/podcasts/
I like to think of upskill, declutter and feed as a three-legged stool for indie authors to chew the cud on, so to speak. Once you’ve sat on it long enough, it’s time to rock and roll on over to publication!
Got any hot off the press tips on going indie?
.