Indie Writers Club 049 - Your First Two Years as an Indie Author
Aug 8, 2025
The podcast explores the essential steps new authors must take in self-publishing, including navigating genre clarity and strategic marketing. It discusses the importance of building an author platform, particularly through social media like TikTok, to engage readers by sharing personal narratives. Self-doubt and anticipation-building for book launches are addressed, along with insights into organizing indie author conferences. Listeners gain valuable tips for overcoming challenges in their first two years of indie publishing.
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Pick A Clearly Defined Genre
- Define your book as a clear, marketable genre while you write to make marketing simple and consistent.
- James Blatch warns that vague genre answers hurt discoverability and reader expectations.
Study Top Authors In Your Genre
- Read top-performing books in your target subgenre to learn tropes, voice, and reader expectations.
- James Blatch recommends studying successful authors like Freida McFadden for pattern recognition.
Write A Series Before Launching
- Consider writing multiple books in a series before releasing the first to enable rapid-release marketing momentum.
- Cara Clare and James say having several books ready makes launches and reader buy-in much easier.
