What Does It Take to Be An Indie Author

People often wonder what’s so hard about writing and being self published. I get asked all the time, “How hard can it really be?”

Let me tell you how hard it is.

Most Indie authors don’t make enough to give up their day job. So let’s guest take into consideration that many are trying to live “double lives”.

They are perhaps any one, or more, of the following:

A full-time employee
A full-time student
A parent
A caregiver
Disabled (and trying to make a living)
A soldier
A police officer
A clergyman
A teacher

And the list goes on…

Working a full-time job (40+ hours a week), then coming home and clearing your head to re-engage a story line, and perhaps having to split that time between family or school makes the job that much more difficult.

If you do not have a publisher and want to make it in the industry, now you get to add the time of research and marketing. I’m here to tell you, that’s a full-time + overtime job, alone.

Let’s get into actually publishing the book. Is it common knowledge to know how create a book cover, book trailer, format interior pages, bleed margins, etc.?

No? Well, Heck! Let’s find some hours to learn all that, too. How about throwing some money at stock art, purchasing editing, proof copies, and actual ads?

I’m pretty exhausted just typing all this out.

The end result is countless hours spent on a minimal budget. However, purchasing Indie had tremendous impact on your community. Buying local is the way to go.

Yes, you’ll run into rough reads. Yes, you’ll wonder why someone bothered to even put effort into hitting “publish”. Who has ever enjoyed every single book they’ve picked up? Even from traditional publishers? I don’t care how you dress up a boring read, boring is boring.

It’s not easy doing what Indie authors do. And they don’t all do it for the fame. Most know what they’re getting into but cannot see themselves doing anything else. So don’t feel sorry for them. Just offer to read their book, maybe a nice review to go along with it if you liked it, and telling your peers about that great new author you discovered!