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 #4 for 2012:
Be an inspired artist. But study what people are reading.
Okay. Straight up, this is a big, fat compromise. Live with it. If your goal as an Indie is to make money, penny-roll money, the shiny stuff, then you simply have to be a student of the market. What does this mean?
Being a student of what people are reading means more than reading a lot. It means more than browsing bookstores aimlessly while drinking a latte (although this can help). My favorite way to study the market includes a few blogs I follow combined with scouring the top 100 lists on the Amazon/Kindle store.