What It Really Takes to Succeed as an Indie Author

Welcome to You Should Totally Write That, the unfiltered truth about DIY publishing. In today’s episode, we ask the basic questions:Do you wake up thinking about your stories? Are you okay with juggling ten balls in the air while learning on the fly? Are you willing to let yourself be wrong and keep going?In our first full episode, award-winning authors LL Kirchner and Tara Lush dive into the biggest question every aspiring indie author needs to answer: do you have what it takes to DIY publish?Forget the fantasy of uploading to Amazon and watching the sales roll in—those days are long gone. LL and Tara get brutally honest about the mindset shift required to go from writer to small business owner, sharing their own spectacular mistakes (like accidentally uploading the wrong book to the wrong listing) and why having your own back is more important than perfection. From former journalists who’ve published everything from witchy cozies to historical noir, this conversation strips away the gatekeeping and gives you the unfiltered truth.Listen now by clicking the photo above, and leave any comments here. Or, if you have any questions for us, we’re happy to take requests!Thanks for reading YOU SHOULD TOTALLY WRITE THAT! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.SHOW NOTES:Buy our books!Find Tara’s books on AmazonLL’s website has links to all the platforms for her Queenpin Chronicles trilogy and memoirsServices mentioned:Publishing Platforms Referenced:* Wattpad - Serial fiction platform (Tara mentions using for romance)* KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) - Amazon’s self-publishing platform* Kindle Unlimited (KU) - Amazon’s subscription serviceConcepts:* NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month, an annual November writing challenge where participants attempt to write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days (though they say “whose name we shall not mention”)* ABSR - Amazon Best Seller Rank, a metric on your book’s page that shows how well a book is selling in its categories; updated hourly (lower numbers = better sales) This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit youshouldtotallywritethat.substack.com