Fun facts you never knew you needed to know.

Being an indie author doesn’t just mean I’m the one publishing my books up to the resell platforms like Amazon or Kobo (or Apple, or Google Play, or Smashwords…). It also means I’m doing all those little, or not so little, jobs I had no idea needed to be done when it came to writing and selling books.

And I wear all the hats. ALL OF THEM.

My dad was Mr. DIY, so I grew up with the attitude of why yes, I will take care of that and do the thing. I have no idea how old I was when I learned that you could hire people, and most people did hire people, to do the things I just did. Like painting walls or setting up for a big party. That last one I learned when I was a teenager and hired to do childcare for an office party some CEO held at his home, and the hosts hired in every aspect of the party from cleaning their home to bringing in the food.

So, as an indie author I embrace DIY because hiring out is above my paygrade. Also, it’s good for me to learn new things. It’s like professional development on steroids.

I spend my author time between writing and trying to learn everything about marketing I possibly can. I started taking college level marketing courses on Coursera with the intent of having a degree’s worth of learning under my belt, without the actual struggle and subsequent student loan debt. Frankly, I have enough degrees, but I want the info.

Marketing is what gets my books into your hands, where I want them. So lately I’ve been taking courses from all over the place. And they are good ones too.

How do I know they are good? My gauge for a “good” course isn’t necessarily how many notes I take. I take a lot of notes, but how many action items I walk away with.

I recently studied one woman’s Instagram feed like a course. I have pages and pages of notes. But I didn’t really walk away with a big list of takeaways. The biggest takeaway I got was: review my notes and make a list of reels I want to duplicate.

Another course I’m taking from a business “guru,” I’m only halfway through, and not only do I have pages of notes, but my to-do list is huge! And a big to-do list, while it can seem daunting, it’s also very exciting.

Two of the biggies for me this year include providing more blog content and really doubling down on my newsletter. I want both to be sources of information on my books, some get-to-know-me, and some ‘hey you need to read these books.’

Hopefully those changes will be visible in the next few months, and they are good for you too.

Other tasks include the perpetual update of the website. Have you seen the changes? I’m giving you more excerpts, more access to first chapters, and book club questions.

Book Boyfriend of the Month Book Club will be posted on the blog more regularly, moving it away from the socials, because I really want everyone to have more access.

Every little change you see, typically involves hours of learning.

And something else I’ve learned, I need to write more books, and spend less time looking up pictures of Jason Momoa in a tub to post on the socials. It might be fun, but in the end it gets me nowhere.

Jason Momoa in a tub reading a book