Last updated on June 10, 2023
This post will always be in a state of incompleteness. I’ll do my best to keep it updated. It is so incomplete that today, June 9th, 2023, I thought I had posted this two years ago and found it sitting in my “drafts” section of my blog admin panel. I was thinking about it because I’m in the process of planning to take my books “wide” and figured I would do an update… only to find I hadn’t released the first version of this. lol
I am an Indie Author and most of what’s contained within is more relevant to Indie’s vs traditionally published authors. The stuff that’s the same is: writing a good book.
After that, for us Indie’s we have A LOT of work ahead of us… we’re not just author’s but project/business managers and that’s not for everyone.
As a project manager for our books, in addition to writing it we have to:
- figure out the best path for a quality cover
- hire one or more editors
- worry about ISBNs
- format the interior (or multiple interiors for different versions)
- pre-market
- be an expert on pricing and distribution
- market, market, market
- market some more
- write the next book (while marketing the first one)
Since beginning my journey as an Indie author, starting with the pre-marketing phase where I tried hard to engage in social media in advance of the release of “Crazy Foolish Robots” (Book 1 in The Robot Galaxy Series), I’d noticed that a lot of writers tended to develop a platform around helping other writers with their craft and all aspects of being an Indie Author.
While I want to help, too, I don’t think I know enough or have the—something—to make a whole platform of it. Instead, I’m dolling out my advice within a few blog posts.
I’m more than happy to provide insight into my process and tools, and describe what worked and what didn’t, hoping this information is helpful to someone else. Please leave notes in the comments and let me know what you think!
I’m started drafting this post in mid/late May 2021. It’s while “Crazy Foolish Robots” (CFR) was in the final stages of editing with a planned release of late June 2021. While CFR was with my editor, I was working on drafting book 2 in the series “Robots, Robots Everywhere!” While I also write short stories, my focus for these posts are the novels that I’ve planned, are in work, and want to write.
Many people who are starting out on their writing journey might be inclined to ask questions that begin: “Can I…?” or “Should I…?” Let me tell you right now that WWFMMNWFY and most answers do these questions will be found within your own journey. You probably can *try* anything. And whether or not you *should* will often come down to your own financial situation (i.e., “should I buy X?” “should I pay for this class?” etc).
I find that most of the “Can I?” or “Should I?” questions are born of people looking for the quickest path to success. Just remember: TANSTAAFL
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General Writing:
Studying the craft
I think the best way to learn the craft of writing is to write. And read. And let others read your writing and absorb feedback. Over the years I’ve taken a couple of writer’s critique classes at my local community college and I take part in a local writing group where we take turns critiquing each other’s work.
Besides that, I’ve read a lot of books on the craft of writing. This is a list of some of my favorites.
- The Emotional Thesaurus.
- It was the Best of Sentences; It was the Worst of Sentences
- Several of the writing books by Chuck Wendig
- Writing books by James Scott Bell
Science Fiction Genre Specific
I study science fiction by reading a lot of science fiction authors I like. Early on, I read “How to Write Science Fiction” by Orson Scott Card.
More about the craft of writing in this post: You Can Write, Too! (Adeena’s Tips, Advice, and Fave Books on the Writing Craft)
Tools I Use:
For Writing and Drafting.
(Note: I’m a PC, not a Mac, so I don’t have any Mac-specific software and some of my tools could be PC-specific. Sorry, not sorry. I am what I am.)
For a very long time, I simply used Microsoft Word. When Google Docs became a thing, I started using that too. (And I still use that as one way to share my work with critique partners and some of my most trusted beta readers, although I have ONLY used it to share with people I know in real life.)
Two problems:
#1) What do I use when I’m away from my computer?
#2) And how do I keep track of longer works?
Google docs sort of answers the mail for #1, but it eh – something about it always bothered me.
Enter Evernote. I’ve been using Evernote for more than a decade and these days, it’s where I start all my drafts for short stories, blogs, and take notes. (Even on my desktop – I drafted this blog post in Evernote) I’ve tried a lot of other apps, but Evernote has consistently worked the best for me to have seemless integration between my mobile devices and my PC. (I use Evernote for a lot of things besides writing… I use it for many notes, for my recipes, etc.)
For the longest time, I was only interested in writing short stories, so Word was sufficient. Once I got serious about writing novels and novellas—well, it just wasn’t working for me anymore. So, I joined the Scrivener community and am pretty happy I did. I love having my outline handy, I sort-of love the corkboard, I love having metadata per scene, including custom metadata. For my current works, I created the following custom metadata tags that I can see in the outline view and it’s very helpful to keep track of what I’m writing:
Who: who is in the scene
Where: where is the scene taking place
POV: POV character of the scene
I also like how Scrivener breaks down my word count per everything, plus keeps track of my writing history.
I haven’t fully explored all the features of Scrivener — and lately I’ve been struggling with the compile options. All in good time…
Yes, I pay for Evernote, and yes I pay for Scrivener. And it’s not lost on me that the way I use Scrivener, I could use Evernote. (I could make a notebook for the book, and each note could be a scene, and I can have tags that represent my metadata… I could also create a note that is the outline note lined to the other notes.)
Everything above was from 2021. It’s 2023. EverNote is still one of my top key and fave tools, especially for organizing my notes (although I have also been experimenting and using Obsidian). I still use Scrivener, although something about it bothers me… I think it’s because it’s not entirely seemless between devices. I’ve also purchased Plottr, but haven’t used it as much as I plan to use it for future works. Plottr is meant for outlines, and as an imperfect outliner, in theory, it’s more than I need, but might be exactly what I should use.
For Worldbuilding.
Again, when I was working on short stories, I wasn’t overly concerned with this.
I’ve tried several tools, but the two that are working for me right now are Aeon for timelines; Mindmaping tools for the rest of the world. Specifically, I’m using miMind, because I can save to Google docs and see/edit on my mobile device – although I rarely do. For my PC, I actually like Freemind better.
That was 2021. In 2023, Mindmapping was getting cumbersome. I’m now using a wiki-like tool called Confluence by Atlassian. I don’t necessarily recommend it to everyone. The reason I chose this is more because I also use it for wiki-like content at work, so I was already VERY familiar with the ins and outs and limitations. I looked into a few different wikis-for-personal-use tools and there are a lot out there.
For Editing.
Books, advice from other authors, these steps, and ProWritingAid.
Under a pen name, I had self-published some works. At the time, spending as little as possible was the goal, so I made my own covers, and did as much editing as I could myself with some help from friends who have the right skills and were willing to take a run through.
I am currently working with a copy editor who I’m paying and will likely only do that in the future. Especially this one. She brings a lot of skill to the table and gets my work. Totally worth it.
I wrote the above in 2021. It’s 2023 and I’m still using a combo of ProWritingAid and the same editor who continues to be super awesome.
For Self-Publishing.
For “Crazy Foolish Robots” I’ve chosen to focus on Amazon’s KDP Select. I plan on putting out a Kindle eBook and paperback.
Originally, I was going to make my own cover, but eventually convinced myself that hiring a professional was best.
As of right now, I am planning on doing all the book formatting on my own and I’ll be doing it in Word. I feel comfortable enough following KDPs guidelines and feel like I understand what I’m doing, why, and how.
That was 2021. It’s 2023 and all 4 books of The Robot Galaxy Series are on Amazon in both paperback and Kindle versions. I used ebooklaunch.com for all the covers and plan to continue to use them since I’m super happy with their work.
But I’m also planning to take my books “wide.” Meaning, they’ll eventually be on more platforms that just Amazon. The background and decision making here might be worthy of its own post once I’m further along that process.
Social Media, Marketing, and Advertising
I’ve done the social media thing for a while, but more for personal stuff. At this point, I’ve mostly commandeered my social media-ing for connecting to readers and to do things that will help market me as a writer.
I’m on Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, and this blog.
While I’ve had an Instagram account, I only started using it for this purpose this past week. I don’t think I’m really ready for this. While I know a lot of folks think Twitter is currently a pretty toxic place, I’ve been able to ignore that and focus on the other like-minded people who treat others respectfully and are just there to get their books out, their science out, etc.
Twitter to me is like if you have text you want to write, and maybe include a picture. Instagram to me is like if you have a picture you want to share, and maybe include some text. I think those of us with analytical leanings (like myself) are more comfortable with Twitter.
Oh, and there’s LinkedIn. It’s related but different. Ideally, I want my professional worlds to collide, so they do a little. In fact, I just posted a roll-up post on this blog of all my current LinkedIn articles.
I’ve read/watched other writers who know more about marketing than I say you need to have a YouTube channel, and that you need Instagram and you need to be using Pinterest. I don’t think that’s true. If it’s so overwhelming that it’s sucking the joy out of my life, then I don’t need it and right now, I have all the social media I can handle. Now, also know that my primary income is a 9-5 office day-job, so I’m not earning my full living as a writer. If I was, I might have a different opinion on doing more on more social media platforms – I’d be more motivated.
I created a low-volume email newsletter using MailChimp. Low-volume means that I only send one or two out a month. At most.
I am looking for ARC reviews of “Crazy Foolish Robot.” I plan to use StoryOrigin to deliver ebook versions to anyone who wants to ARC review.
I’ll have more to say about advertising at a later time…
That was all 2021 and it’s now later… 2023… and I have a few things to say.
First, we all know the hubabaloo that happened with Twitter this last year. I’m still on it, though. Is it helping me with book sales? Probably not. But it’s helping me engage with people, and that’s cool.
I switched from MailChimp to MailerLite and am happy with that decision. Growing the email newsletter has been my focus and while I went into this not excited about email newsletters… it’s one of my fave things to write every other week! (BTW, you can sign up for that newsletter here and get some FREE short fiction for doing so: https://adeenamignogna.com/signup/ )
One of the pieces of advice that I’ve taken to heart is to focus on 2 SM platforms (3 at most). Get good at those. So for me that’s Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. I just can’t get the hang of Instagram. I’m on more places, (like Mastadon), but I don’t have the mental bandwidth to deal with more.
I’m also running ads on FB and Amazon and have done promos with BarginBooksey, Goodreads Giveaways and more. Again, maybe worthy of its own post.
Other:
I’d like to give a shout out to coffee and all the other beverages I enjoy while writing. But mostly coffee. Dark, black, coffee.
Specific Projects:
- Ruby & Robots Series (I don’t have an official title for the series… yet!)
- “Crazy Foolish Robots” – novel 1 of 4
- “Robots, Robots Everywhere” (working title) – novel 2 of 4
- Title TBD – novel 3 of 4
- Title TBD – novel 4 of 4
- “With the Moon as My Witness” – a novel
Wow. I wrote that list in 2021, too. It’s before I even knew all about what is now my existing series! Here’s what the current list looks like:
- COMPLETE:
- The Robot Galaxy Series
- Book 1 – Crazy Foolish Robots
- Book 2 – Robots, Robots Everywhere!
- Book 3 – Silly Insane Humans
- Book 4 – Eleven Little Robots
- The Robot Galaxy Series
- WIPS
- Lunar Logic
- 4 more books in the Robot Galaxy Universe (not a series, per se…)
- a series of 4 books in The Robot Galaxy Universe
- an independent series where The Office meets Utopia Planetia (not the real name of the location in my books)
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