A to Z: Going Indie: Z is for Zag

 Welcome to Blogging A to Z! My theme this year is Going Indie. I hope you enjoy it. Don't forget to check out the other participating blogs. 

 

I always intended to be a writer. My definition of what that means has shifted many times across my life so far. 

As a child, I was pretty sure writers were some kind of zany hermits. The kind of people that Raold Dahl might've made up. They somehow still had money to live in interesting places and just create, though.  

Coming up in academia, I really thought there was one right way to do it, and that involved traditional publishing through established routes, winning awards and building acclaim, and writing literary achievement kinds of things that would earn me gold stars from my teachers. 

Looking back now, that seems kind of silly. Literary fiction is only ONE of the kinds of things I read (I'm a omnnivore when it comes to books)…and if you read a lot of it, there's a sameness to it after a while that gets boring. And the stuff that is innovative is often smug, pretentious, and precious about it. Where's the fun? Where's the joy? Where's the creativity? 

So, each of these zags in my path led me to where I am now, a hybrid author (traditionally and indie published) who writes in several different genres, living her best life and having a great time. 

Thanks for coming on this A to Z ride with me. I hope you found something interesting, entertaining, or educational in all these posts and I wish you the best of luck as you zig and zag on your path to whatever it is that you want most.  

A to Z: Going Indie: Y is for YOLO!

 Welcome to Blogging A to Z! My theme this year is Going Indie. I hope you enjoy it. Don't forget to check out the other participating blogs. 

 If you read my post yesterday, you already know that I just turned 55. This isn't me complaining. It's a privilege to have made it this far and I'm hopeful of having many more years yet to enjoy. But, it also means that I've crossed a sort of meridian in my life and there's for sure fewer years left than I have already lived. 

So, it's time to DO IT. Whatever it is that you've been wanting to do and haven't done. For me: that's making a go of self-publishing, taking my writing life firmly into my hands and making all the decisions, accepting all the blame and any glory that might come from it. To BE A WRITER. 

Lucy had the right of it: 

 

A to Z: Going Indie: X is for Xanthic

Welcome to Blogging A to Z! My theme this year is Going Indie. I hope you enjoy it. Don't forget to check out the other participating blogs. 

Xanthic? I know…but X is hard! If this word was new to you (like it was to me), Merriam Webster tells us that it means: 

So, I'm thinking "yellow" like "you yellow bellied coward!" but I actually have no idea if this word works for the more metaphorical meaning of yellow. But, I'm going with it. 

So, what am I afraid of when it comes to going indie? 

I have two main fears: financial ruin, and that it'll take the fun out of it. 

In terms of financial ruin, I've taken a few steps to protect myself: 

• I waited until the "right" moment in my life, when I had some dollars to spare without sinking the Bryant Family ship
• I didn't invest in all of it all at once, but did a little at a time, spreading it out across months and even years.
• I incorporated as an LLC, because who knows what unknown water lie ahead, and I'd like my family's assets to be safe if I really screw something up and end up in legal or tax trouble of some sort.
• I took some business training and tax advice 

In terms of "taking the fun out of it," I'm still finding out, I think. It has added new types of work to my life (see my post on D is for Decisions for more on that), so I have to be careful to keep some sort of balance and not burn myself out. 

But, I'm not especially afraid of hard work. In fact, it's a joy to focus my efforts on something that is so personally important to me instead of just day job drudgery or dirty dishes!

There's a lot of it I REALLY enjoy, too! I'm giddy sometimes with all the little delights that have been a part of this process: new things I've learned, new connections I've made, that feeling of "I made this!", positive reception of my work, etc. 

So maybe I'm not really all that metaphorically xanthic after all (if that's even a thing). 

____________________________________________

By the way, today's the day! Release day! Book birthday on my actual birthday! (I'm 55 today!)

So, if you've been interested at all by Not Too Late as I've nattered on about it in these posts, do a girl a solid and go buy a copy today! It's available through Ingram, so you can order it at your favorite bookstore, request it at your library, or buy it online at a lot of different venues. 

 

 

 

A to Z: Going Indie: W is for Writing

 

 

Welcome to Blogging A to Z! My theme this year is Going Indie. I hope you enjoy it. Don't forget to check out the other participating blogs. 

Writing is the hardest thing to do while indie publishing, at least for me so far. Every day there are so many business/publishing details to handle, that it's hard to get a good long writing session in. 

Sometimes that's frustrating, but I'm only four months into my adventure, so I'm trusting that over the long haul, some of the business part of things will get easier and I won't have to research every step any more because I'll be able to just do again what I did last time. Muscle memory. 

Here in April, my current ploy to find more time for the creative writing bit is to get up earlier. I'll be 55 this year, so even on a day when my day doesn't require that I wake early, I wake early. Usually 6:30-7:00, when my day-job workday doesn't usually start until 8:30 or 9:00. 

Since my kiddo is now old enough to get themself up and going for their day, my responsibilities are small during that time: dressing, grooming, eating, caffeinating, medicating, doing the dogs' morning routine. I'm a low fuss woman--no makeup, no fancy hair preparation, simple clothes, so the "taking care of me" bit doesn't take me very long. My husband is here, too, so sometimes he takes care of some of the dogs or helps out by making me a breakfast sandwich while he's making his now. 

I don't open my email or go to my to-do list during this morning time, but just write something. This month, that's been a lot of blog posts and interviews rather than time on the work-in-progress novel, but that's still writing and it feels good! Still, I'm looking forward to the day when I can retire, and not give so many hours to the day job. I've got better uses for those hours!

A to Z: Going Indie: V is for Vellum

 

Welcome to Blogging A to Z! My theme this year is Going Indie. I hope you enjoy it. Don't forget to check out the other participating blogs. 

If you're old like me, you probably saw "Vellum" and thought about that thin, translucent paper you used for school projects back in the day. 

But in this case, I'm talking about software. In particular, software for book layout. (Fair warning: Vellum is a Mac-only software, so you'll have to find another tool is you're a PC user). 

Book layout is something I was kind of stressed about when I thought about Going Indie. It's important to get right, and I assumed it would be difficult. After all, most software I've used related to graphic arts has been complicated and unintuitive (for me at least).  

But Vellum? It was a breeze. 

Now, I'm not trying to be fancy yet. Maybe in the future I'll learn to do things like add custom art as section dividers and all of that. I'm just using the basic settings and options the book itself provides, but it really was as easy as importing my Word file, then playing around with menus until I found a look I liked. 

A few style options from Vellum

Then I went through the document, making sure the import hadn't screwed anything up, like chapter divisions or spacing, fixing the odd little things I found. 

For Acid Reign, I began each chapter with song lyrics from an imaginary song by the imaginary band I created for Abby, so I had to decide how that should look. It took a little finagling, but I settled on putting the lyrics in italics and right justified, with the song attribution in regular text, then adding a little three-star border to indicate where the actual chapter starts. That was as complicated as my layout for these three books got, and it only took me an hour or so to figure out then set up for each chapter. 

 

Page 1 of Acid Reign

Then I use the "Generate" button to create whatever kinds of files I need (in this case, .epub for ebooks and .pdf for print), then uploaded those to my printer/distributor (I went with Ingram for both, then uploaded the ebooks separately to Amazon so I could claim them for ACX and audiobook production). Ba-da-bing-ba-da-boom! It was so easy. 

The paper books and ebooks both seem to be working well. It all looks right on the page, indistinguishable really from books that came from big publishers with their our layout specialists. I was pleased that I could manage this bit myself and not have to hire the work. 

A to Z: Going Indie: U is for Unfinished

  
Welcome to Blogging A to Z! My theme this year is Going Indie. I hope you enjoy it. Don't forget to check out the other participating blogs. 

Last time, I talked about time management and my struggles on that front with taking on Indie publishing alongside everything else I do. One thing I'm having to come to peace with is letting things stay unfinished longer than is my liking. 

My work-in-progress is a Gothic romance called The Architect and the Heir. My goal is to finish writing the book by summer, so I can get it to an editor and perhaps bring it out this fall/winter. And I've made progress…it's just slower than I'd like. 

Draft cover for the Gothic

 

That's kind of ironic since one of the appeals of going indie for me was being in charge of my own timelines, being able to get more work out there faster. But then I remind myself that I'm already bringing out three books in 2026. That's a lot! I'm a greedy girl, though. I want it all!

But for now, this novel remains unfinished while I work on bringing my other three novels out into the world and into the hands of readers. Unfinished isn't a permanent state. 

 

  

A to Z: Going Indie: T is for Time Management

 
Welcome to Blogging A to Z! My theme this year is Going Indie. I hope you enjoy it. Don't forget to check out the other participating blogs. 

I need more than 24 hours a day. 

Maybe this would be a good time to find a vampire to bite me so I could stop needing sleep? Is that how this works? 

Because there is simply not enough time, y'all. 

For context, I have a full time day job and my caregiving responsibilities include two rescue dogs, a disabled newly adult child, and the beginning of elder care. That means that I fit MY WHOLE WRITING LIFE into 2-4 hours a day. That's the most time I can beg, borrow, and steal from all the rest. 

Luckily, I have ADD. I mean that--it's actually good in some ways. It's useful in that it lets me make connections quickly and because when I focus, boy howdy do I focus. A tornado could remove the house around me and I wouldn't look up. 

But you probably didn't pop by my blog to hear me kvetch about not having enough time. So, here's a few thoughts on "making" and managing your time to support an indie writing life.  

1. Decide what you're NOT going to do. Currently, you use your waking hours for a variety of things. So to find hours you'll devote to this, there will have to be things you stop doing. For me, that was cutting most television and videogame time and finding a new day job that actually stays within the working hours most of the time. 

I started by doing a time study, where I literally logged what I did for what hours of the day and then looked for holes I could exploit. I also had a BIG TALK with my family about the time I'd need, because it really requires their cooperation and support. We've also had to renegotiate as a household several times as circumstances and needs of all the household members have shifted and changed. 

2. Prioritize. There are A LOT of decisions that end up in your hands when you go indie (see my post of D is for Decisions for more on that). It's easy to fall into a game of whack-a-mole where you run around trying to do all of it at once and you miss things. I've had to be really intentional with my time to make sure I don't spend my limited hours on the wrong things and end up feeling frustrated and overwhelmed. 

The hard part for me is not letting myself do the thing I'm most excited about if there's something else that really should be handled first. Right now, for example, I'm chomping at the bit to get my audiobook reviewed and uploaded, but I have a few things I have to handle first. I'm trying to hold that more "fun" work out there as a carrot to myself to drag this donkey through the stuff I don't enjoy as much. 

3.  Be realistic. There really are only the 24 hours a day. And even though you want to do it all and do it all now (at least I did), remember it's a marathon not a sprint. You'll burn yourself out if you don't set realistic expectations. 

I almost learned that the hard way in February, March, and early April when I said "yes" to too many things and ended up with author events of various sorts ten weekends in a row. 11/10 do not recommend.  

4. There's ebb and flow: To everything there is a season, right? Because I'm in a book launch phase, I'm spending a lot of time and energy on promotional and sales related activities. Because this is only my fourth month of building processes, I'm still figuring out HOW I do things. 

The fallout of that is that I've stopped making progress on my Work-in-Progress for the time being. It's hard for me to set that aside and accept that I can't work on it right now, but that's what I'm doing because I can't make good progress on the new book with all the other balls I'm juggling right now. But I'm keeping a careful eye on things to make sure I don't let that state of affairs go on too long. 

Sometimes the hard part about this is saying no to myself. I soften the blow by saying things like "not yet" or "now's not the time, but later will be," but I do definitely have to keep my excitement under tight rein sometimes for my own protection. Everything, everywhere, all at once, might be thrilling, but it's not sustainable, and I want to do this for the rest of my life. 

 

A to Z: Going Indie: S is for Self-publishing Stigma

Welcome to Blogging A to Z! My theme this year is Going Indie. I hope you enjoy it. Don't forget to check out the other participating blogs. 

Self-publishing isn't a new thing. I mean, Charles Dickens did it, back in 1843 with A Christmas Carol which is arguably his best known book. 

But success stories in self-publishing have been kind of unusual. While there are Cinderella stories in the 70s-90s like What Color is Your Parachute? by Richard N. Bolles and Bone by Jeff Smith (later republished by Scholastic), mostly self-publishing became associated with vanity. 

In fact, an entire industry of "vanity publishers" began to grow up to bilk would-be writers out of their dollars to produce books with no distribution system behind them and little chance of any measure of success. 

Then, in 2007, Amazon introduced an amazing new device: The Kindle. Producing an ebook is waaaaaaaayyy cheaper than producing a paper book, and readers loved the ease of access that ebooks provide, so it was a hit all around. There were some major successes: Christopher Paolini’s Eragon, E.L. James’s Fifty Shades of Grey, Hugh Howey’s Wool, and William P. Young’s The Shack to name a few. 

That was the beginning of a new era, where individuals could get access to printing and distribution and get their books out there in the world without having to play along with the Big 5 publishing game. 

It didn't mean that self-publishing was considered the same as traditional publishing though. And there is and was quite a variety of quality of work in all those self-published books. 

I remember sharing a table with a man who had started self-publishing in his retirement at one of my first author events and being shocked to see how error-ridden and careless his books were. He admitted that he published his first drafts! To me that was like saying you go outside in just your underwear. 

It's that way in a lot of the arts. Professionalism and high standards for quality come from within, and plenty of folks are willing to "throw something together" but not to truly invest in it with time, energy, and, yes,  money to make it the best it could be. So, that caused the stigma that still comes up from time to time in 2026--where someone assumes that a book is self-published because it's not good enough to have been picked up by a traditional publisher. 

When really, there are a LOT of reasons to go indie, including plain old business sense and a desire to take risks in your work that traditional publishing houses just aren't comfortable with.  

That stigma? It's less and less all the time. 

At one of my recent events, someone came up to my table and said, "So, are you self-published?" I braced myself for impact and offered my short spiel about being hybrid, with some of my books produced by publishers and some of them being books I published myself. I honestly expected something more like interrogation and a demand to prove myself by establishing my credentials. 

I needn't have worried. Turned out, they just wanted to talk shop for bit and learn about what systems I used to make my books. Like many readers, they have aspirations to publish their own books someday. "These look great!" they said, walking away with one of the romances. I just hope they leave a review!

 

A to Z: Going Indie: R is for Reviews

 

Welcome to Blogging A to Z! My theme this year is Going Indie. I hope you enjoy it. Don't forget to check out the other participating blogs.  

In the algorithm games, one of the horses writers are betting on is reviews. Indications seem to be that having reviews for your book increases the likelihood that your book will be surfaced in different kinds of searches, get added to lists, and just generally be more discoverable.  

Is it true? It's hard to know. It's like Amazon would just be straightforward, direct, or honest with either the authors who sell there or the customers they sell to. It's all smoke and mirrors. Google's not really better. 

But I figure it doesn't hurt and might help. So, I set out to get reviews for my GenX romances in the months leading up to release day. I figured ANY reviews were better than none, but I'm hoping for 20 reviews for each book. 

Here's what I tried: 

1. Asking my audience: I put out feelers in some engagement groups I'm in on Instagram, posted sign-up forms for ARCs on social media, and offered ARC access in my newsletter. How'd it go? Well, so far, for Not Too Late, 11 people requested ARCs through those channels, and 2 have posted about it. Of course, I'm writing this on April 13th and release day isn't until April 28th, so they still have time!

2. NetGalley: My entire N post was about NetGalley, so I won't repeat all the details here. But the short version is that I paid for a slot in a NetGalley co-op ($63 for one month, as opposed to $500 for one book directly), and netted 10 public reviews for Not Too Late so far. I also did this for Acid Reign and Ready or Not. 

3. BookSirens: Another ARC service that connects authors and readers. They've had my book available about 3 weeks at this writing, and only 4 people have selected it to read, and 1 person has reviewed. I'm wondering if I should have done this earlier in the process to allow more time. 

 In contrast, for Stories for Shadow Hill I sent a copy to two friends who said they would review and that was all the effort I made in that regard. To date, that book still has zero reviews. 

See, up there next to the title? No stars, no reviews at all. (sad trombone noise)

 

From past experience, I know that reviews do matter. People are reassured, when taking a chance on a new author, if there are reviews. My first Menopausal Superhero novel, Going Through the Change, for example, has 713 reviews on Amazon and I have anecdotal evidence at least that just the number of reviews was enough to convince some folks to give it a try. 

I don't even get upset about so-called "bad" reviews. After all, what a review is meant to do is tell you whether this particular story worked for a particular reader. You're dreaming if you think there's a book out there that will please EVERYONE and sometimes those "poor" reviews reveal the very thing about the book that would delight a different reader, so they still can help with sales. 

Getting reviews isn't easy, and I won't know for a little while yet if all these effort will help my book find a broader audience or not. Reading reviews is a whole different kind of difficult, and I don't advise spending too much time there. But I also don't advise ignoring reviews all together. They can be useful!

Reviews give me pitch language. Seeing how readers describe my book gives me categories, phrases, and descriptions I can use to hand-sell my book, make social media posts, and use in advertising. It's sort of like sorting through feedback from a focus group, especially if you can distance yourself emotionally from the more harshly worded criticism.  

Reviews also give me food for thought in improving my craft in general. Going Through the Change was my first published novel, so I'm willing to admit it has flaws. For example, most lower star reviews complained that the ending of this first-in-series book was too much of a cliffhanger. 

I could have gotten defensive about that. After all, it's a superhero book and the comic book and pulp material that inspired me in the first place is chock full of cliffhangers. But instead, I took that to heart and as I wrote the rest of the series, I tried to better balance wrapping up one book satisfyingly while still flowing into the sequels. That "cliffhanger" complaint isn't there in the reviews of the other books nearly as often, so I think I found a better balance, at least so far as the evidence reveals. 

So, review what you read, y'all! Especially if it's by someone small potatoes like me. It helps! Even when you didn't like the book that much. 

A to Z: Going Indie: Q is for Questions

 

Welcome to Blogging A to Z! My theme this year is Going Indie. I hope you enjoy it. Don't forget to check out the other participating blogs.  

So, I had (and have!) so many questions about indie publishing. The wonder and the curse of publishing in 2026 is that there are so many options. So many paths you might take, tools. you might use, ways you might go about the whole thing. That's freeing and paralyzing at the same time…because how are you supposed to know what's "right" even when you just mean "right for me"? 

So, I ask questions. I reach out to other writers and ask what they do and why they do it the way they do. Sometimes those answers mean I try what they were doing, sometimes they don't. 

For example, SEVERAL romance writers advised me to go with Kindle Unlimited since so many romance readers are book gobblers and they LOVE those one-fee services. They say I'm shooting myself in the foot by not having my book available in that program. 

But I hear from so many other writers that KU is a worse and worse deal for writers every year. I mean, I know "the house always wins" but do they have to win by such a LARGE margin? Makes it so some of us can't afford to play at all. I'm not willing to let Amazon exploit me for their profits if I'm getting so little in return.

So, I asked a lot of questions, and settled on what they call "going wide" which basically means that I'm not enrolling in KU or any other exclusive agreements, but am making my books available broadly. 

Is it a good idea, going this way? Time will tell, I suppose. All you can do is keep asking questions and making the best decisions you can with what you know at the time.  

 

A to Z: Going Indie: P is for Profitability

 

Welcome to Blogging A to Z! My theme this year is Going Indie. I hope you enjoy it. Don't forget to check out the other participating blogs.  

So now that I'm trying to treat my writing life with a little more respect and be more of a businesswoman about it, I have to pay attention to things like profits. And the big question is how to measure that. 

There's a lot that I've bought for my writing life (see my M post on Money for details), but which things count in my reckoning for whether a book is profitable yet? 

Mostly, I've decided that things I buy that are for author life in general or serve as infrastructure don't go in the reckoning for any single book. So, buying an author banner, getting bookmarks made, paying a table fee at an event, doesn't count. 

But things specific to that book like editing, book cover, buying copies, etc. DO count. 

So for Not Too Late as an example:  I came up with $726.10 as my starting number, my "sunk cost." 

That includes: 

• $62.50 for Vellum (not sure this should actually count, because I'll use it for ALL my future books, but if it does count, that is 1/4 of what the software cost me, since I've used it on 4 books so far)
• $59 for two ISBNs, one for ebook, one for paperback (since I bought in a group of ten--they're cheaper if you buy more at a time)
•  $196.80 editing
• $400 book cover 
• $7.80 for a paper proof copy 

Since then, I've purchased 68 copies of the book for resale. I know that's a weird number, but it's because I shipped to bookstores in weird amounts for consignment arrangements as well as buying for my own in-person re-sale. I've sold 9 copies at full price in person, three at lower price to the cover artist, and one through one of those consignment arrangements. 

When I track how much I spent buying books, I always include the shipping, too. So each book costs me between $4 and $5 on average. So, the copy that sold through consignment paid me $9, but it's really $4 or $5 profit since I had to buy the book in the first place. I hope that makes sense. The copies I sell in person make me $10 or $11 each, for comparison. 

So I've put all that into a spreadsheet and currently, I'm further in the hole than I started, at $834.35. I'm not worried though, because, like I said, this book hasn't actually released yet. This is all PRESALE still.

My *hope* is that the book will be "in the black" within its first six months. So, just in time for Halloween. I'll let you know how it pans out! 

 

A to Z: Indie Publishing: O is for Older Characters

Welcome to Blogging A to Z! My theme this year is Going Indie. I hope you enjoy it. Don't forget to check out the other participating blogs.  

So one of the "different" things about my GenX romances is that the people falling in love are in their 40s and 50s. I've read a fair amount of romance in my life, and if you based your ideas about love on romance novels, you could easily come to believe that it only happens to people between 17 and 25 years old. 

I don't mean to denigrate those stories. I've LOVED lots of them. But, it seems like a pretty narrow band of human experience to explore when it comes to love and relationships. If things go well, there's a lot of life to enjoy after age 25. 

And, I'm not 17 to 25 years old anymore. In fact, one of MY CHILDREN is older than that! And I myself am living a second-chance romance with a man I married when I was 34. So many people in my life are finding love either for the first time, or second or third time, in their 40s and 50s. I've got a friend with a really active dating life in her 60s. 

Writing romance for older characters is the same and different as writing for younger ones. 

You can still get the fun of "he said/she said" chapters, using the alternating points of view to build in some fun for your readers who will know what both characters are thinking and feeling, even when they haven't told each other yet.  

The giddy bits and emotions can be very much the same as they would be for 20 year olds. Swooning still happens after thirty, y'all. 

On the other hand, your characters have history. They've probably loved and lost before. This isn't their first rodeo. So some of the kinds of situations that play well with younger characters make older ones seems TSTL (too stupid to live). 

A lot of time the angst and obstacles are more external than internal. People in their middle age kind of know what they want and what they don't want, and are more willing to communicate it, so what's standing in their way when it comes to love has to be something different. 

For Amanda, in Not Too Late, it's the idea of giving up her wandering life and staying put in one town--her hometown at that. She also has to consider whether she wants to deal with romance while she's in the middle of elder care for her mother. 

For Abby, in Acid Reign, it's realizing that steady and reliable doesn't have to mean boring. Abby's losing her best friend to cancer, too. Is this really the time for love? 

For Becca, in Ready or Not, it's giving another man a chance even though she's been burnt before. Besides, her daughter is leaving for NYC, leaving her to face an empty nest. Isn't that enough? 

I've really enjoyed writing these and my early readers are saying good things, so I'm hoping that romance for older characters is a concept that might really have some legs! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A to Z: Going Indie: N is for NetGalley

 

 

Welcome to Blogging A to Z! My theme this year is Going Indie. I hope you enjoy it. Don't forget to check out the other participating blogs. 

So one of the big struggles for indie writers is getting their work seen. The big publishing houses don't do as much for writers as they used to, but having your work published by one of the Big Five does still come with higher likelihood that it will get seen and reviewed. And having reviews is part of how Amazon and other online vendors judge whether or not to surface your book for people browsing their sites. Oh, the dreaded algorithm!

So, one of the ways I tried to garner some early interest and reviews for my GenX romances was by getting them on NetGalley. NetGalley, if you're not familiar with it, is a well established and popular web destination where readers, booksellers, librarians, and educators can get free access to ebooks to read and review. It can be a great way to get the word out there that your book exists!

But, NetGalley is EXPENSIVE. If you just straight up pay for it, it's $500 for a single book…and I had three I wanted reviews for. But luckily through networking with other writers, I learned about a NetGalley co-op, which I could rent a one-month stint with for $63! Much more in my reach, financially. So I rented three months in all, one for each book. 

As of this writing (I'm writing this on April 10th, though you won't see it until April 16th), here are the numbers: 

Not Too Late: 127 requests, 114 downloads, 16 reviews/feedback on NetGalley, 10 public reviews on Goodreads. Language I pulled from reviews to help me know how to pitch the book when I'm selling it: prodigal daughter, self-care read, second chance, feel-good. 

Acid Reign: 53 requests, 45 downloads, 9 feedback on NetGalley, 7 public reviews on Goodreads. Language I pulled from reviews to help me know how to pitch the book when I'm selling it: fresh perspective, welcome change, leans into intensity and emotional stakes, mature

Ready or Not:  62 requests, 56 downloads, 5 feedback on NetGalley, 2 public reviews on Goodreads. Language I pulled from reviews to help me know how to pitch the book when I'm selling it: super cute, adorable dog, humor and heart, sweet pairing. 

For contrast, I published a collection of short stories last October (Stories from Shadow Hill) in part as a learning book on how to do all this. I didn't do any of this review-seeking for it, and to date (six months later), it has no review and has gotten no traction at all online, even though it sells well in person. It's not quite apples-to-apples since Shadow Hill is a short horror collection and these others are romance novels, but it gives me hope that the reviews will make a difference come official release day. 

 

A to Z: Going Indie: Money

 

Welcome to Blogging A to Z! My theme this year is Going Indie. I hope you enjoy it. Don't forget to check out the other participating blogs. 

So, let's talk about money. I know some people consider that rude, but I think transparency about numbers is useful.  What did it actually cost me (in dollars) to publish Not Too Late and the other Gen X romances? 

So, I broke down my math in the first month recap in my Substack series about Going Indie, but here's the money bits: 

So far, I’ve spent:

• Vellum software for formatting: $249.99 (August 2019--bought when I thought about doing this the first time). I’ve used it for 4 books so far, so that makes Not Too Late‘s share: $62.50

• ISBNs: $295 for 10 from Bowker June 2025 which amounts to $59 for the two I used for ebook and paperback of this book. (These are cheaper per ISBN the more you buy at a time, but I figured 10 would keep me busy enough for a year or two—at this point, I’ve used eight of them).

• Editing: $196.80, July 2025 (I got a friends and family rate from a FANTASTIC editor)

• Bookcover: $400 Pd. July 2025 (I hired a person I met through convention life to do all three covers)

• Proof copy from Ingram: $7.80 (September 2025)

That’s a total of $726.10 by my reckoning, but notice the dates in that list. I didn’t spend all of that at once, but spread it out across several months. And the software purchase is an unlimited license, so the more I use it, the less it costs per book.

Buying paper copies of my book (I get them from Ingram) costs me roughly $4-$5 per book depending on  how many I order at a time. I sell them for $15 at in-person events and the pricing will be similar online come release day. That pricing seems to be pretty standard. No one balks at the number if they were thinking of buying it. 

There are other expenses not there in my production costs, but that still matter. To be able to sell at in-person events, I've collected a bunch of things: 

• bins for books storage/hauling: I use a 19 qt from Container Store that is easy for me to manage alone. Roughly $14 per tub and each holds 15-30 books depending on size of the books. 
• 6 foot folding table: $50-70 (I happened to already have one I bought as "the cookie mom" some years ago)
• 4 foot folding table $60 (I happened to already have one I bought in support of gaming parties at my house)
• wagon for hauling stuff around: $60-$200. I have a $60ish dollar one I bought when my kids were doing soccer, but I covet a more expensive one that I can push as well as pull and with better wheels. 
• canopy tent for outdoor events: $120 or so. I bought one years ago, the first time I had an opportunity for an outdoor event and recently upgraded to one that's easier to put my by myself. They can be cheaper if you buy them off season. 
• Tent weights: gotta keep that tent from flying away! $40 bought my the first time a venue required them.  
• standing banner: I've had a couple of retractable ones from Vistaprint. $100-ish. But after the last one broke, I haven't replaced it and haven't decided if I'm going to or not. You can't use them everywhere and they're fussy. 
• table runner: $80 or so. I LOVE mine because it "brands" my table and looks nice, but folds into a tote bag and is machine washable. 
• bookmarks: cheaper the more you buy at a time. My most recent set was $70 for 500 booksmarks. 
• postcards: cheaper the more you buy at a time. My most recent batch was $50 for 100. I used them to create cards that let people buy ebooks from me at in-person events. 
• stickers: again, cheaper the more you buy at a time. My last batch was $117 for 300. 

Me under my canopy with my table runner

You don't *have* to have all that, but some infrastructure definitely helps! There's also stuff I subscribe to not for just one book but for my general writing life: 

• Canva for making graphics: $120 a year
• Mailerlite for newsletter management: how much depends on number of subscribers. Mine is $40 a month. 
• Bookbub websites for my website (not this free one, just for blogging--my other one for branding/selling). $5 a month. 
• Bookfunnel: where I provide download opportunities for readers and can connect with bundle opportunities. $250 a year
• Duotrope: where I find publication opportunties and track my submissions: $5 a month.   

Do you HAVE to do all this? No, not at all. There are a lot of ways you can do this, and you have to balance your goals and desires against financial feasibility and your skillset. 

For example, if you're going Amazon only, you can just use their free ASINs and not buy ISBNs at all. I bought them because I wanted to go wide and not be beholden to the Big River Overlords. Ingram and Amazon also have online formatting options you can use for free. I wanted more flexibility and something easier for me to use. So I bought Vellum. You can also hire people to do layout for you, usually not that expensively. 

There are cheaper cover options, using ready-mades for example. But I'm anti-AI for creative works and it was important to me to work with an artist.  

Each of us has to make our choices about how we invest in our writing lives. These are just the choices I've made. We'll see which ones I later regret and which ones were worth the investment as time goes by!  

A to Z: Going Indie: Launch

 

Welcome to Blogging A to Z! My theme this year is Going Indie. I hope you enjoy it. Don't forget to check out the other participating blogs. 

People talk a lot about "launching" a book…and I've had mixed results. My first novel, I had all the hoopla, including an awesome and well-attended in-person event at a local book store.

Me, my daughter, and my dad in 2015 at the launch event for Going Through the Change. 

 

Other times, the book came out at an awkward moment and I could barely find time to acknowledge my own book release on social media, let alone do any events or promotion. 

That's part of what I've been excited about in Going Indie: I chose my launch dates. The first book has been ready since December, but I've held it's release date until the other two were ready, since I've heard from several people that quick release is a good strategy for romance. 

So, I've scheduled to release one a month for April, May, and June: 

 

 

That's given me a good amount of time to seek early reviews, engage in promotions, and do a little pre-release research by hand-selling the paper copies early at my in-person events. I'm hoping that all of that will lead to better reception and sales on release day and some follow through to the next book and the one after that. 

 

Will it work? I DON'T KNOW! But I'm excited to find out, and I didn't have to negotiate with anyone but me to choose this approach. 

 

So start the countdown! Launching on April 28! (for my birthday) 

  

A to Z: Going Indie: Knowledge

 

Welcome to Blogging A to Z! My theme this year is Going Indie. I hope you enjoy it. Don't forget to check out the other participating blogs. 

Knowledge is power, right? At least that's what Schoolhouse Rocky taught me, back in the day. 

It's definitely been true in my pursuit of indie publishing. One reason I didn't do it the first time I thought about it was because I was daunted by how much there was to learn. I thought writing the books was hard! But, learning how to manage all the systems to make this dream a reality? Not *that's* hard!

Luckily, there are a lot of ways to learn these days. I already posted a couple of books I found helpful back on my B is for Books post, but I also learned a lot from actually taking classes and training opportunities. 

A big one for me was a Business Boot Camp from Women in Publishing. Making that shift into thinking of my writing life as a business and making sound business decisions regarding it was a tough one for me, so I really appreciated this kind and supportive group of women willing to share their experience and take questions. 

That community was so valuable that I ended up buying a full membership, and I continue to learn from them all the time. 

There's also the in-person route. My public library was a great source for "how to" information. In fact, that's how I met James Maxey, now a good friend, and the guy who introduced me to superhero novels, so is indirectly responsible for my entire Menopausal Superheroes series. 

Every time I spend time with other writers, I learn something. As a group, we're a generous lot. If you've got questions, ask them! Most writers will do their best to help you. 
 

A to Z: Going Indie: J is for Joy!

 

Welcome to Blogging A to Z! My theme this year is Going Indie. I hope you enjoy it. Don't forget to check out the other participating blogs. 

So, here's something I didn't know about Going Indie until I did it--the joy! 

I've been proud of every book I've ever written, and it definitely thrilled my little heart to see my work accepted for publication and made real into a paper book I could hold in my hands!

Me holding my first book, back in 2015

 

But there's something EXTRA EXTRA special about holding that book when you made every decision in it. It's *mine* in a whole different way than those other books were. The credit (or blame) is well and fully mine. And there's really no other word for it. It's a JOY! 

A to Z: Going Indie: I is for In-person events

 

Welcome to Blogging A to Z! My theme this year is Going Indie. I hope you enjoy it. Don't forget to check out the other participating blogs. 

When I started my professional writing life, I wasn't thinking about the non-writing parts of the job. Things like selling my books from tables at book fairs, doing interview on podcasts, networking, publicity…wowzers. There's so much! 

But it didn't take me long to learn that in-person events are an important way a writer can build a relationship with an audience and start to develop a following. So, I embraced it. 

Now, I have accumulated a bunch of gear (a tent, several folding tables, banners, signs, bookstands, etc.) in support of "getting out there" and I use it regularly. Introvert that I am, these events do tire me out, but I've come to look forward to them all the same. 

Me selling my books at Geek and Grub

 

Talking directly to my readers helps me learn how to sell my books. Every book fair is an opportunity to hone the pitch and figure out what part of your book is the hook that will get someone to pick it up and read the back, and maybe even buy it. 

Seeing what other writers do gives me ideas about what I might like to try, too. Sometimes that's getting a better tent that's easier to put up and take down myself just like the one Brittany had. Or learning what specific kind of storage tub is both the right size to hold most books and light enough that I can still carry it (Thansk, Patrick!). Other times, it's learning about individual download codes on Bookfunnel and how I can use those to sell eBook versions of my books at in-person events (Yay! Cassie, you're a genius)!  

A few days ago, I shared my tent at an in-person event with a new author who had never done an event before. She was getting a bit "fluttery" about whether she had all the right things or not, but I reminded her that at the heart, this is very simple. If you bring yourself, your books, and a way to take payment for your books, then you're golden. The rest just makes it better and you can gather it a little at a time.  

Honestly, at this point, I really really enjoy in-person events. A little taste of fame, and an opportunity to connect directly with readers and other writers. It's wonderful.  

A to Z: Going Indie: H is for Hobby to Career

 

Welcome to Blogging A to Z! My theme this year is Going Indie. I hope you enjoy it. Don't forget to check out the other participating blogs. 

One reason I've gone indie in my writing life is that I'm looking to up my game--to move from a sometimes-profitable hobby to a full-blown career. 

I've been working with small publishers for a decade now, and I have seen some good income and career building opportunities during this time, but—what was it Carrie Fisher said? Instant gratification takes too long? — yeah, I'm impatient. 

See, I'm full of ideas. Bursting actually. And trad publishing is sloooooooooow. The distance between "I finished my book!" and "Readers can get my book!" can be one to five years, depending on the circumstances, and whether you already have a publisher relationship or if you're in the submission trenches.  

Part of the power going indie gives me is control over my timelines. I can go as fast as I can go! So, that gives me a better chance of getting more of my imaginary friends out there in the world where you can meet them. 

I'm also in charge of marketing, pricing, distribution choices, etc. And I get the data from everything I try faster. 

So, going indie is definitely putting more work on my plate, but the payoffs are already worth it.  

A to Z: Going Indie: G is for GenX

 

Welcome to Blogging A to Z! My theme this year is Going Indie. I hope you enjoy it. Don't forget to check out the other participating blogs. 

GenX is the famously invisible generation between Boomers and Millennials. We were born between 1965 and 1980 and currently most of us are in our 50s. The women among us are going through menopause. Sometimes we get called the "sandwich generation" too because our parents are old enough to need our care while our children (mostly GenZ) are still young enough to need our support, too, leaving us squished in the middle.

Just kidding! I don't actually hate any of you. 

 

I identify strongly with my generation, enjoying all the memes and jokes about our invisibility, resourcefulness, and independence and when I started thinking about writing romances, I love the idea of writing them for readers my age. I know a lot of people in their 40s and 50s finding love for the first time, or finding it again, and the challenges and obstacles are very different than they were when we were 20. 

In a similar vein to my Menopausal Superheroes series, which gave superpowers to fully adult women with partners, careers, and mortgages to worry about alongside dealing with their new abilities, my heroines in these GenX romances all find love while they're "going through something."  

 

• In Not Too Late, Amanda comes back to her hometown of Bellevue, Kentucky to care for her mother after a hip surgery. Who knew she'd find a second chance romance with a boy she'd known in high school while she's there! And Chris has changed A LOT since she knew him as Turbo, a skinny pimply track star. 
• Abby, the songwriter for the all-girl 80s punk band Acid Reign, was really only looking for a one-night stand to distract her from the fact that her best friend is losing her fight with cancer. But Gavin and her heart had other ideas. If only he wasn't a politician…
• Becca wasn't looking for love. This single mom had enough on her mind, with her now-grown daughter leaving for a new life in NYC, leaving her with an empty nest. David, widowed five years now, didn't really believe love would find him again. Luckily a rescue dog with muddy paws brought them together despite all their reservations, Ready or Not. 

Love finds you when it does, you know? And sometimes you're not twenty and you're already dealing with elder care, losing a friend, or facing empty nest.  

 

A to Z: Going Indie: Fact vs. Fiction

 

Welcome to Blogging A to Z! My theme this year is Going Indie. I hope you enjoy it. Don't forget to check out the other participating blogs. 

 I've been taking my writing life seriously and really being a writer for about 12 years now. And one of the questions that continues to throw me is when readers ask if something in a book is "real." Generally they mean, is that factual? Did that actually happen? In particular to *you* the author? 

First off, um, nosy! LOL. Especially in my romance work, is it really any of your business? 

But secondly, the answer is often "Yes, but no." 

Your life and experiences are definitely fodder for your fiction, but most of us are not simply recreating our lives with the serial numbers scratched off and calling it fiction. The way I look at it is the emotional truth of a moment often pulls from my life: I've been in love, been afraid, tried new things, had to deal with unexpected dangers, faced losses, etc. But, the details don't. 

My characters are different people than I am (even if *some* of who and what they are pulls from me and people I know), so they make different choices than I would have. Plus, a lot of my work is speculative fiction, so obviously, I, a middle-aged woman limited by real-world physics, have never flown with just the power of my own body, deflected bullets, or wielded fire, even though my Menopausal Superheroes absolutely have!

 

So for Not Too Late, the first of my GenX romances (the one that officially releases on April 28! Pre-order now!), here are a few "facts" that made it into my fiction: 

• Bellevue, KY is a real place and is in fact where I grew up. The Bellevue in the book is 90% accurate to how Bellevue is in the real world (at least in my POV)
• Like Amanda, the main character, I left for college and never really came back other than for visits
• Like Amanda, I love roller skating and it was a big part of my youth
• Bellevue really has changed a lot since I lived there and does have a Thai restaurant now, which I'm very impressed by
• Bellevue also has stayed the same with my favorite candy/ice cream shop (Schneider's) and sub shop (Fessler's) still rocking the Avenue
• My fella is also a fella that I met in my youth and re-met when I was older…so Amanda and I have that second chance vibe in common. My husband is also three years younger than me, just like Chris and Amanda. 

So, I got to use a lot of my feelings and experiences, but Not Too Late is not just a retelling of my own life through a fictional lens. Writing is weird alchemy that way. 

A to Z: Going Indie: E is for Experience

 Welcome to Blogging A to Z! My theme this year is Going Indie. I hope you enjoy it. Don't forget to check out the other participating blogs. 

When you decide to go Indie, it's easy to fall into feeling like you don't know anything. It can make the whole thing so daunting that it's paralyzing!

But the truth is that we all have experiences that can feed a creative life and skills that transfer when it comes to publishing. And I keep reminding myself that I've learned many other things over the years. This is just more new things to learn. 

So, non-publishing experience that has helped me in going indie: 

1. Graphic design: as a teacher, girl-scout cookie mom, book club leader, and so many other things, I've needed to advertise. So, I've learned to make a perfectly passable flyer, postcard, webpage, etc.  Honestly, I even think it's kind of fun. 

2. Repurposing: as a public school teacher for many years, I never had extra money, so as I've needed storage and various pieces of gear, I've gone shopping in my own house for the things I need. Turns out I already had photography lighting shoved into a closet from that year my now-grown daughter was a teenager who wanted to be a photographer. Turns out the wagon I bought for soccer practice also works great for hauling books. I guess being a packrat in some ways isn't all bad! 

3. Planning birthday parties: I'm a mom, so I've planned a few birthday parties over the years. From simple at-home parties, to venue parties, to full on destination parties. Turns out those event planning skills transfer very well to author events. And authors are easier to wrangle than children! 

 

A to Z: Going Indie: D is for Decisions

 Welcome to Blogging A to Z! My theme this year is Going Indie. I hope you enjoy it. Don't forget to check out the other participating blogs. 

 Decisions. Decisions. Decisions. 

I knew, but I didn't know, you know? 

Going in, I anticipated that going indie would put a lot more decisions in my hands that had previously been decided by my publisher: 
 

• editions to be created: paperback? hardback? audiobook? 
• release date: as fast or as slow as I'm capable of and want
• editor selection: who do I want to work with and can afford? 
• cover art: who do I want to work with and can afford? what should my cover look like? 
• layout/formatting decisions: more here than I expected: size, type of paper, font, drop caps, header style, section breaks (I'm using Vellum and going pretty basic so far)
• blurb language: I usually did write this myself, but now I have the final say
• price: this part is cool--especially if I want to discount to participate in a promotion. It's totally up to me!
• printing and distribution options: going wide? focusing on Amazon? using Ingram? Trying out other printers? 
• review copies and distribution: who gets an early peek? Do we do NetGalley or other paid services? 
• corrections/revisions to the text: getting those fixed is one my timeline now
• imprint/branding 
• author pages: website, Amazon, Goodreads, BookBub, etc.  

There is a bit of decision fatigue…and it is difficult to balance time for handling all these decisions alongside actually writing and creating new work.  

Mostly, I've been pretty excited to decide on all these things. Of course, that means there's no one but myself to blame for the decisions that turn out to be bad ones, but then I get all the credit for good ones, too.