A theme park that immerses fans in the world of a favorite movie. A board game or video game adapted from an existing story world. A fictional character’s favorite T-shirt made in real life for fans to purchase. Although the term “transmedia storytelling” may be unfamiliar to some, the concept is nothing new. Transmedia narratives […]
Indie Author Magazine: How will the strategy of publishing wide play a part in the future of the industry? Paddy Finn: I don’t subscribe to the idea of exclusive versus wide. It focusses too much on such a narrow sliver of your intellectual property’s potential. The question should be: How do I make my IP […]
Indie Author Magazine: On an individual level, direct publishing can equate to greater control over titles, greater royalties, and a closer relationship with readers. What will the trend of authors publishing direct mean for the industry as a whole? Oriana Leckert: I think we’re in a thrilling moment of creative autonomy, where authors and content […]
Having coached more than six thousand individual authors, I see burnout on a daily basis. The biggest cause of burnout in this industry is not overwork. It’s unrealistic expectations. Let’s look at the mental math involved. One work equals one outcome in our brains—sort of like how if I plant, water, and weed one plot […]
You’re not doing marketing wrong; you’re doing the wrong marketing. If there’s one thing we’ve learned over our combined twenty-five-plus years of helping authors, it’s that most people don’t hate marketing; they hate the marketing they are forced to do. Whether that means putting your books in Kindle Unlimited, being on every social media platform, […]
Dear Indie Annie, It seems like as soon as I have a handle on my career, something about the industry changes drastically—the rise of AI, changes in marketing strategies, a new program everyone’s suddenly using. How do I keep up with it all … and keep from drowning? Trying to Tread Water Dear Trying to […]
In the hushed solitude of the writer’s room, the clatter of keys is the only sound. The author weaves worlds from nothing but creativity and caffeinated determination, crafting tales that possess the power to transport readers to distant realms. Yet a specter lurks, threatening to shatter this tranquil image. Its name? Marketing. Often a daunting […]
When the two of us started the Writer MBA, a company built to train authors on the ins and outs of the publishing industry, we knew we wanted to share the news with as many authors as we could. Our launch for the business was big and bold, as we were trying to drum up […]
For a career that is often portrayed as a lonely endeavor—one in which the author sits at their desk late into the night, a cup of coffee (or something stronger) beside them as they feverishly tap away at a keyboard or scratch pen against paper—writing rarely seems to be a solo act. Author coaches, editors, […]
Authors understand the power of a strong launch, but describing OpenAI’s launch of ChatGPT simply as “strong” feels like an understatement. In the first five days after an early demo of the generative AI chatbot released in late November 2022, the site had already amassed more than one million users, according to Forbes. That surge […]
Since Amazon launched the earliest version of Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) in 2007, the business giant—which controls an estimated 50 percent or more of the online retail market in the US already—has maintained an unwavering influence over the self-publishing industry. Sixteen years later, Amazon boasts 85 percent of the book market share, with Apple Books […]
When Fantasy author Brandon Sanderson smashed Kickstarter records in March 2022—earning more than $41 million over the course of his campaign, almost half of that in the first seventy-two hours—he sparked a shift in the indie author world. Sanderson was not the first to discover the potential for crowdfunding as part of an author’s launch […]
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