The Behind The Scenes Work of An Indie Writer

The process of writing by itself is tricky, time cosuming and thrilling. But allllll of the outside tasks of being an independent author is what can be extremely challenging. Taking ownership and shipping our books from our personal website is very liberating and challenging.

Up-keeping the website, paying the website/domain fees, buying shipping supplies, returning customer's emails, eating the cost when products go missing or get damaged upon arrival, filing taxes.........the list goes on and on. It's all A LOT.

I've tried my hand recently at creating my own book cover, promotional materials while using Kindle Previewer to make sure my book is properly formatted while creating custom separators; who knew that was a thing? It has been a lot! Working full time, cleaning, cooking, running errands, socializing......the list continues to go on and on.

Now....once the foundation is set, daily tasks flow with more ease. Once your website is up and running and you've gotten everything figured out, our workflow (hopefully) becomes more manageable.

I've been thinking, what's the solution for this? How do we make our days as indie writers more manageable? Easier? Is it possible?

Do we get an assistant? (Which most of us can't afford, and there is a trust factor as well. We don't want just anyone handling our business).

Do we stop shipping our own products? Shut down our own website? I would never want to willingly do this :(

After some thought.....I think the best way to approach our capacity is to make sure we don't overextend ourselves; do too much too soon you know?

Maybe instead of actively operating all of our social media profiles simultaneously, maybe we focus on 2 main profiles at a time (EX. Tik Tok & Instagram) instead of Tik Tok, Instagram, Threads, Substack, X, Youtube and everything else.

Running multiple profiles can be overwhelming but it's neccessary for marketing purposes. There is really no way to get around that. But focusing on two platforms OR just one may be beneficial.

I'm curious what tactics you use to make your life easier as a writer? The goal is longevity without the harsh reality of possible burnout.

Chat soon,

Mahagony