On Being Indie: Wearing All The Hats
As an indie author, writer is just one of the many so called ‘hats’ you need to wear. While it is possible to hire professionals to do some of those things for you, you still have to manage them. Today’s post lays out just some of the hats we indies wear, and how it effects me. If you’re a writer, read on to know you’re not alone. If you’re a reader who’s curious about what we writer’s go through just to create one book, I hope you enjoy.
I have ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyper activity Disorder). It manifests itself as being distracted when I should be focused, and hyper focused when I should be moving on to the next task. It also makes it difficult to prioritize my tasks. Should I film a video or write a blog post? There’s also a lot of other symptoms like getting overwhelmed easily, and emotional dysregulation. My point is, although I love writing and becoming an author, I sometimes feel like it’s an impossible goal.
As an independent author, a few of the things I’m responsible for are:
Writing and editing my book (of course, you say. But for me, that’s an entire job in itself).
Finding the right critique partners and beta readers to give me quality feedback.
Hiring an editor, cover designer, and interior formatter.
Obtaining an ISBN if I want to be listed as the book’s publisher.
Creating advertising copy.
Printing and approving proof copies of my book.
Securing ARC reviews so my newly published book will have honest reviews.
Uploading my book to point of sales platforms.
And more. Much, much more.
And let’s not forget some of the modern-day author responsibilities like:
Maintaining a social media presence.
Creating extra content for readers like short stories, blog posts, YouTube videos, and so on.
Coordinating a blog tour to promote my book’s release.
Creating and organizing Street Teams to help promote my book’s release.
And even more!
All of this without a college degree or team of employees to assist me. It’s no wonder I get overwhelmed sometimes.
The worst part is, as indies, we’re constantly being bombarded by people and companies offering to “help” us. Some of them are legit. Others are just evil, taking advantage of inexperienced authors by charging outrageous amounts and returning little value. Often for things they don’t even need to pay for at all. It really is “Indie author beware!”
And yet, I still love it.
Every day I can choose something new to work on. Every day there’s something new to learn. Each success and failure are mine to claim, and mine alone. Most people will never truly understand how much I’ve done to get my book published. But that’s ok, I will know. And no matter if it sells a single copy or a million, I will know that I accomplished something amazing.
Something to be proud of.
I published a book.
