The Indy Author Podcast

Alan Baxter discusses THE MARTIAL ART OF WRITING. focusing on the lessons we as writers can take from the martial arts, of which Alan is a practitioner. He talks about the danger of reading about how to do something but not doing it, the fact that the journey to mastery will never end but that the only failure is quitting, that the only competition is against ourselves, and the only goal to be a b...

Philippa Werner discusses the key pieces of sales and income data that an indy author should be collecting and tracking; the fact that consolidated sales and earnings reporting is a good reminder of how much of an indy author's income may not (should not) come from Amazon; and how familiarity with this data can make you more nimble and responsive to marketing and promotion opportunities. For a tra...

In this inbetweenisode of The Indy Author Podcast, I pose a question to fellow podcaster Jeff Elkins about what he's getting from The Dialogue Doctor podcast, both for himself and in terms of his goals related to helping other authors, that's different after over 70 episodes than he expected when he did his first episode. As is often the case when I speak with Jeff, he took that question in a trul...

Fantasy author and Content Manager for Kindlepreneur Jason Hamilton discusses Kindle Vella, Amazon's new platform for serialized fiction. We discuss the opportunity Vella provides for authors to earn money, to interact with readers, and to gain input and insights from their readership, with the caveat that material on Vella needs to be as carefully polished as on any other platform. We discuss the...

Erin Wright of Wide for the Win talks about some of the criteria that indy authors should consider when selecting your distribution platforms, using PublishDrive as an example. She talks about the dangers of putting all your eggs in one distribution basket, and the fact that an author can't really claim to be wide if they rely on one distribution platform for their author business. Erin shares som...

L.E. DeLano talks about WHAT AUTHORS CAN LEARN FROM THEATER, including how her theater experience helped her as an introvert in both her writing craft and her publishing voyage … the exercise of "losing the dialogue and finding the beats," including the importance of the quiet moment … the idea of "acting beyond the mask" as a way of exploring what secrets your characters are keeping … and how you...

In this week's episode of The Indy Author Podcast, Tiffany Yates Martin talks about how she was not willing to grant rights to her non-fiction book INTUITIVE EDITING, and how that differed for her fiction work. We talk about aspects of an author career over which you may have more control than you think, and aspects over which you may have less control. We talk about the importance, if you are gra...

This week on The Indy Author Podcast, Jeff Elkins, the Dialogue Doctor, talks about USING ENGINES, ANCHORS, AND HAZARDS TO DEFINE CHARACTER VOICE. He talks about how words like hero and villain, while useful for assessing plot, are less useful for assessing character development, or how the character operates in culture and how he or she negotiates the relationships with the people around them. We...

Sharlene Anders discusses MAKING MEANINGFUL CONNECTIONS THROUGH POWERFUL LANGUAGE. We discuss how writers can use tools like the free Advanced Marketing Institute Headline Analyzer to assess titles or subtitles for emails, events, and even books for Intellectual, Empathetic, and Spiritual potential. She discusses the importance of letting your first ideas rest for a bit before acting on them. And...

M. K. Williams of Author Your Ambition describes some of the retailers that authors, especially in the US, might not think of, and the aggregators you can use to reach them … the importance of having a plan for your distribution strategy … and considerations for balancing the access and opportunities that going direct to the retail platforms provide against the time it takes to learn and optimize...

In this week's episode of The Indy Author Podcast, author Alexandra Amor talks about Writing Non-fiction from the Inside, or how she approached the writing of her two non-fiction books, IT'S NOT ABOUT THE FOOD and CULT, A LOVE STORY, from the perspective of someone experiencing the topic from the inside, not a scientist examining it from the outside. She shares advice for writers who are deeply in...

In this week's episode of The Indy Author Podcast, Orna Ross of the Alliance of Independent Authors joins me to discuss the seventh of the Seven Processes of Publishing: SELECTIVE RIGHTS LICENSING, or how you can make your hard-earned content work for you year after year across multiple markets and in multiple mediums. We discuss contract clauses that rights seekers might include in their boilerpl...

Orna Ross of the Alliance of Independent Authors joins me to discuss the sixth of the Seven Processes of Publishing: PROMOTION. ALLi defines promotion as specific activities designed to sell a particular book during a particular time period, as distinct from marketing, which we discussed in episode 105 and which comprises ongoing positioning of your work in the world. In our discussion of promotio...

Orna Ross of the Alliance of Independent Authors joins me for the fifth of a series of seven episodes devoted to the Seven Processes of Publishing. This week the topic is marketing. We talk about the difference between marketing, which is your welcoming handshake to a potential reader, and promotion, which we'll address in the next episode. We talk about the "post-natal mania" that authors suffer...

Orna Ross of the Alliance of Independent Authors joins me for the fourth of a series of seven episodes devoted to the Seven Processes of Publishing. This week the topic is distribution. As with the previous episodes in this series, we discuss ebook, print, and audio, including how to reach the most outlets in a way that is aligned with your business goals and that takes into account every indy aut...

Orna Ross of the Alliance of Independent Authors joins me for the third of a series of seven episodes devoted to the Seven Processes of Publishing: Production. We talk about the production process for ebooks, print books, and audiobooks, including how the requirements for text-centric books is becoming increasingly easy for indy authors to meet; the expanding options for print, including easy-to-p...

Orna Ross of the Alliance of Independent Authors joins me for the second of a series of seven episodes devoted to the Seven Processes of Publishing. This week the focus is on Design. We talk about cover design, and how it needs to be not a work of art but a billboard that will appeal to your target readers. We discuss the importance of a professional cover designer who will understand the tropes o...

Orna Ross of the Alliance of Independent Authors joins me for the first of a series of seven episodes devoted to the Seven Processes of Publishing. This week the focus is on Editorial. We talk about the different stages of editing, and the importance of distinguishing the deepening and development process from the correction and clarification process. We discuss how you can gain distance from your...

Mark Lefebvre talks about the importance of being a relaxed author, a topic he and co-author Joanna Penn explore in depth in their book THE RELAXED AUTHOR. We discuss relaxed writing (including writing at your own pace and fitting your writing process to your lifestyle); relaxed publishing (including the advice to publish wide … or not : ) and how to deal with cancel culture and bad reviews); rela...

A.L. (Amy) Jackson discusses CONNECTING WITH FANS THROUGH MERCHANDISING. She talks about considerations for using merch to strengthen ties with existing fans and to connect with new fans; what merch has worked best for her (including her fabulous book launch boxes); the logistics of design, sales, and distribution; and the factors that impact whether merch can be an income-earning as well as reade...

Ran Walker discusses what made him move from long-form fiction to short fiction, and specifically to drabbles, short stories of exactly 100 words; what platforms he uses to get his short fiction into readers' hands; the benefits he has gained by building relationships with libraries; and his accidental success in France. For a transcript of this interview and links to more information, go to https...

Author JK Ellem shares why he chose to start indy and go exclusive on Amazon, and his strategy for pursuing traditional publishing deals and wider distribution. He discusses how he found the sweet spot in his release schedule and his pricing model. And he emphasizes why it should be your readers who should be driving the direction of your writing, including whether or not a standalone novel become...

Michael La Ronn discusses how to maximize the value of the author tools that are already on your computer; what writing apps of the future will (and should) look like; how artificial intelligence will impact authors; and the importance of thinking of our books as data, the currency of the future.   For a transcript of this interview and links to more information, go to https://www.theindyauthor.co...

Rob Archangel and Mikal Keefer talk about FINDING AND BEING A GHOSTWRITER. Rob, the principal at author services provider Archangel Ink, discusses the different circumstances that lead a person to look for a ghostwriter, how ghostwriting varies based on the client's needs and skills, and the variables that influence the cost of a ghostwriting service. Mikal, one of the ghostwriters at Archangel In...

Author Kristina Adams examines writing myths and questions the common wisdom of writing and publishing that perhaps shouldn't be so common. She shares her thoughts on what it means to be a productive and successful author, and debunks some of the myths of a writer's life, including the belief that writing is a talent, not a skill; the admonition to write what you know; how writing short stories is...