The gift of knowledge

 This week I've got going in researching all the things I'll need to do to run an indie author business.  In some ways I have an advantage over other authors because I have a legal background.  I know what the difference is between being a sole trader and an incorporated company.  And I know why authors might opt for incorporation.

Setting up a business has never really been the problem for me.  The problems for me in becoming a successful indie published author have been two-fold.  First, not believing in myself as a bestselling indie author, and second, not believing that I have the skills needed for success.

Like many other writers, I believed that I didn't like marketing and couldn't do it.  That was until I started reading last week.  I joined the Alliance of Independent Authors, and they have a wealth of advice available for free to members.  I downloaded around a dozen ebooks to my Kindle and started reading.

Already I've learned so much.  The first decision an indie author has to make is whether to sell exclusively through Amazon or to "go wide" as Alli calls it.  Going wide means distributing your ebooks to as many distributors is as you can.  Apple, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, and several others.

The big surprise for me was learning that Amazon isn't dominant around the world.  The company is strongest in the US and UK.  But there are a lot of other countries where people read books in English.  Reading those guides, I got a sense of being able to reach a global audience.  And the beauty of distributing ebooks is that it costs little to produce them.

The other big surprise was learning that the marketing tasks which most drive sales are mostly not things I'd thought of as marketing.  And the bonus is that most of them are under my control.  The double bonus is that most of the things which sell books long term don't require me to bare my soul on social media.

The surest way to be a success?  Write a great book.  Yes, that seems obvious, but it means things like rewrites and edits until the book is the best it can be.  Then I need to marry that great book with a great cover.   Having a cover designer will probably be my biggest expense, but every guide stresses how essential a great cover is for making sales.

Then there's pricing the book right, and doing price promotions.

I'm beginning to see how the whole thing fits together.  And more importantly it now feels doable.