Publisher’s Letter: The Power of Personality
Back in the olden days of indie publishing, when the earth’s crust was cooling and it was a wild west of new information for self-publishers, I was fortunate enough to attend a conference in Austin, Texas, with this month’s featured subject, Tammi Labrecque. It’s hard to remember back that far. So much has changed since […]
The Secret to Sustaining New Year\’s Resolutions: Values-Based Alignment
After years of failing to keep my New Year’s resolutions, I gave up. But that’s not to say that I gave up on making life changes. I stopped with the grand declarations followed by the inevitable failure, and instead, I thought about the reasons those changes were significant to me. Those underlying reasons became a […]
Stop and Look Around Once in a While
Recently I had the pleasure of interviewing potential new contributors for Indie Author Magazine. Thirty-four brave souls stepped forward for consideration and a thirty-minute Zoom interview. Rather than feeling like thirty-four business meetings, it was instead a delight to meet some of the smartest, most interesting writers in our field. It was a personal reminder […]
The Thrill of a Plan Coming Together
In the September 2022 issue, I wrote an article about transmedia and how indie authors have the opportunity to capitalize on its facets. Transmedia, at its core, focuses on ways to deepen the relationship you have with your current readers and form new ones. As Jim Wilbourne explains, “Transmedia is taking a core story or […]
To Change or Not to Change
I’ve been a bit of a process improvement nerd since my days with a company that was chasing the illustrious Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. The award is the nation\’s highest presidential honor for performance excellence. Our strategy for winning included looking at every department of a large travel management company with a fine tooth […]
If You\’re Going Through Hell Keep Going
There’s an old saying that goes, “If you’re going through Hell—keep going. That’s no place to stop.” The same can be said about first drafts, editing, and most of the business tasks associated with being a self-published author. Many of the tasks aren’t in our wheelhouse as creatives, or we do them so infrequently that […]
That dog won’t hunt.
When I moved to Texas from California what feels like a million years ago, it sometimes felt as if I’d moved to a far more exotic locale than just a new state in the same country. The food was different. The BBQ meat looked burnt and inedible but tasted delicious, and everything was always covered […]
Upgrade Your Brain’s Operating System
I have a new analogy I’d like to share this month. Indulge me as I rock this newborn while her exhausted parents try to get a nap. When you become a grandparent, the universe upgrades your operating system with a new app called “Been There Done That.” It pulls the most obscure memories out of […]
And Just Like That … We’re ONE.
I realize that time ceased to have meaning when the world went topsy-turvy. What used to be a minute started to feel like seven hours. And what used to feel like a month sometimes felt like a single minute. It’s like we all collectively jumped in a Tardis and started cranking the knobs. With that […]
The Evolving Indie Author Resources
I have always seen IAM as an extension of the larger indie author community, born out of a group of international writers who met daily via Zoom and shared what they were doing to climb the mountain of success. Beyond the business chat between sprints, we also became bonded friends. There would not be a […]