evolution of an indie Archives - Page 4 of 5

Evolution of an Indie: Competitoring

March 21, 2012March 29, 2012 by David Mark Brown

Evolution of an Indie Entering my third year as an indie, it is my responsibility to impart sage wisdom to the world. (Don’t blink, or you might miss it.) See the series introduction post for more on my saga. But for now, lesson #3 for 2012:

You are not competing with other indies. You are competing with the big six.

Here is another mantra for you as you work. Repeat it, live it, remember it. Launching an indie career in the current Wild West of publishing is a double-edged sword.

The pluses include speed and flexibility of product to market. The distance and intermediaries between reader and writer are greatly reduced. So, as an indie novelist I can not only squirt out a new baby every four months (from outline to Kindle), but I can also incorporate reader feedback and adapt on the fly (sometimes as quickly as 24 hours).

Evolution of an Indie: Assume You Suck

March 15, 2012March 22, 2012 by David Mark Brown

In the beginning, assume you can’t do anything well.

A depressing bit of realism, I know. But I’m going somewhere with this. Indie publishing requires skills not just in writing, but in art, formatting, design, marketing, sales and social media. The fact might be that you are pretty dang good at most everything you do. If you are expressing indie art, then it’s a garunteed certainty you think you are. And that is exactly the problem.

Artists are renown for lofty passions detached from a cruel reality. We think everything we do is art, while everything else is cunning drivel at best. Unfortunately, we are wrong, most of the time. (Or at least this is often true in the beginning.)

Evolution of an Indie: Write Novels, Sell Units

March 13, 2012March 12, 2012 by David Mark Brown

Evolution of an Indie Entering my third year as an Indie, it is my responsibility to impart sage wisdom to the world. (Don’t blink, or you might miss it.) See the series introduction post for more on my saga. But for now, lesson #1 for 2012:

Write Novels, Sell Units

You are running a small business. Have a business plan and execute it. I always start with this one. If you want to make money as a writer (*see disclaimer at bottom), you cannot shirk this truth! To an extent your art must become “units” and “product.”

Now, I’m a liberal arts major, like the majority of you flaky writerly types. I don’t have much of a clue on how to create a business plan, other than it involves some sort of plan for doing business. But I do know any legitimate business plan involves “crunching numbers.” So let’s start crunching.