When we started planning the magazine issues for the first two years, we decided we wanted to tell the stories of different indie authors each month. After meeting so many innovative, smart, and creative people over the past few years, we knew we would never run out of stories to tell.

Foremost, our featured subjects embody the indie spirit — the fearlessness and tenacity of this new breed of writer taking charge of their writing and career. Even if hybrid published, the spirit of independence is key. We love to tell stories of innovation and creativity. How overcoming obstacles and persevering led to success.

How It Started and How It's Going

We planned each issue to have a specific—though not exclusive—theme, like plotting and outlining, first drafts, cover designs, and so on, and we felt that having an author with a complementary story would tie it all up nicely for our readers each month. Our roadmap aligns with the loose path an indie might take from idea to publication and the authors we've chosen so far support that roadmap.

While there was some specific criteria for the people that would represent that issue on the cover, it wasn't a hard and fast checklist, meant to rule out people. It was a list that helped us find who best represented what we felt inspired our community.

It remains crucial that we not present a single prescriptive path to success, because there are many ways up the mountain. And we didn't want to use a single definition of success at all. Some of us are still hanging out at base camp at the bottom of that daunting hill, trying to gain the courage to take the first step. That's cool, too.

At first we thought this section and the cover would belong to a single writer, but as you'll see on October 2021's cover, we've expanded that belief to include couples and teams. No one achieves success alone, and sometimes the stories are inextricably linked, like the story of Dr. Danielle and Dakota Krout.

What We're Looking For in 2022

And now we're ready to plan 2022. With that in mind, here's some clarity as to what we're looking for and an invitation to the indie author community at large to tell us who we should feature. Keep a few things in mind as you think of who should be on the cover — especially if it's you.

• Representation matters. We look for people that other indies see and say to themselves, "I might be able to do that, too." Our community is diverse and we want to be sure that we do our best to represent that diversity.
• Success is Subjective. Some people define success as simply finishing a first draft. Some define it as publishing a book a month. Still others want to see commas between numbers in their bank account. Every one of those definitions is valid, as well as valued within the IAM community.
• We respect every distribution channel. Some of us are finding success in Kindle Unlimited, while others are wide. Some are publishing serial fiction on subscription-based apps, and some are killing it selling from their own websites, adding merchandise, audio versions, planners, apps, and other new media.
• Genre is genre. Thriller, Romance, Mystery. Poetry, spoken word, graphic novel. Spicy, steamy, clean. We respect all of them. Don't disqualify yourself because you write fill in the blank.

Here's How You Can Nominate Yourself or Someone Else

We've made it easy. Don't overthink it. It's a short form and we'll take it from there. Tell us the most compelling reason that your nomination inspires our indie author community.