Meet the Writing Wives Making Marketing Accessible to Indie Authors

As the Writing Wives, Malorie and Jill Cooper Make Marketing Success Accessible to Indie Authors When asked about the advice they would offer indie authors heading into a new year, Malorie and Jill Cooper start their answers at the same time. “You go first, Mal,” Jill tells her wife with a laugh. “I figure we’re […]

Editor’s Letter: Endings and Beginnings

Although you’re reading this in January—or maybe even later into the new year—I’m writing this letter in December 2023. My family’s Christmas tree is still halfway decorated. I still have packages to ship, letters to mail, and several deadlines to meet for our staff before I sign out for the holidays. I may be clinging […]

Editor’s Letter: Your Career, Your Way

Another year is nearly complete, and I feel confident saying it’s been a busy one for most of us. It’s one of the side effects of being an indie author, after all. Generally, the word “leisurely” is not in our vocabulary. If you’re anything like me, at this point, your schedule is probably filled with […]

Letter from the Editor – November 2023

I once had a college professor remind me that, in some professions, doing everything right means most people won’t see the work you did. I can’t remember now if the advice came as part of a journalism or editing course, but after several years of working in both fields, I’ll admit it seems to apply […]

Looking Ahead at … Transmedia

A theme park that immerses fans in the world of a favorite movie. A board game or video game adapted from an existing story world. A fictional character’s favorite T-shirt made in real life for fans to purchase. Although the term “transmedia storytelling” may be unfamiliar to some, the concept is nothing new. Transmedia narratives […]

Letter From the Editor : October 2023

Why did you pursue independent publishing?  We could surely all answer differently. In my case, I knew traditional publishing could be a long and taxing process. I knew the book I wanted to write was in a niche genre and therefore would be harder to sell to an agent, even if I also knew it […]

Looking Ahead at … Community

For a career that is often portrayed as a lonely endeavor—one in which the author sits at their desk late into the night, a cup of coffee (or something stronger) beside them as they feverishly tap away at a keyboard or scratch pen against paper—writing rarely seems to be a solo act. Author coaches, editors, […]

Looking Ahead at … AI

Authors understand the power of a strong launch, but describing OpenAI’s launch of ChatGPT simply as “strong” feels like an understatement.  In the first five days after an early demo of the generative AI chatbot released in late November 2022, the site had already amassed more than one million users, according to Forbes. That surge […]

Looking Ahead at … Direct

When Fantasy author Brandon Sanderson smashed Kickstarter records in March 2022—earning more than $41 million over the course of his campaign, almost half of that in the first seventy-two hours—he sparked a shift in the indie author world.  Sanderson was not the first to discover the potential for crowdfunding as part of an author’s launch […]

The Future of Publishing Is … Wide

Since Amazon launched the earliest version of Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) in 2007, the business giant—which controls an estimated 50 percent or more of the online retail market in the US already—has maintained an unwavering influence over the self-publishing industry.  Sixteen years later, Amazon boasts 85 percent of the book market share, with Apple Books […]