So You Want to Be an Indie Author?

When I started writing my first book,

I was focused on exactly that.

Writing the book.

Getting the story out of my head

and into the page.

That alone was a process.

Writing.

Changing things.

Going back and reading it again.

Deleting something I thought I loved.

Putting something else in.

Reading the same paragraph

so many times I couldn’t

Even tell anymore if it sounded right.

At some point, I added my husband

to my Google Docs so he

could help me proofread.

And let me tell you…

Sometimes you need another set of eyes.

When you’ve been staring

at your own manuscript for so long.

You already know what

the sentence is supposed to say.

So your mind reads it that way.

Meanwhile, there’s a missing word sitting

right there looking at you.

My husband would read through it, but I still

caught mistakes even after publishing my book.

And I am okay with that.

Could I have hired someone to proofread

my entire manuscript and

fix everything for me?

Absolutely.

And there is nothing wrong with that.

But for my first book,

I wanted the full experience.

I wanted to learn

I wanted to catch things, fix them,

figure out what I did wrong,

and learn how to fix that too.

Sounds crazy, right?

But that’s how I learn.

I didn’t want to hand my manuscript

over and get it back polished without

understanding what happened in between.

For me, that wouldn’t have felt as personal.

That’s just my opinion and the

experience I wanted for myself.

And trust me, there were

pros and cons to doing it that way.

The pro?

I learned a lot.

The con?

I had to learn a lot. 🤣

When something was wrong,

guess who had to figure it out?

Me.

When the formatting wasn’t right?

Me.

When something looked different after uploading?

Back to the laptop.

When I found something in the proof that

I could’ve sworn I already fixed?

Here we go again.

But that’s exactly the experience I wanted.

I wanted to know what it felt like to take

my own manuscript and work through

the process myself.

I wanted my first experience

to teach me something.

The good.

The frustrating.

The mistakes.

The little wins.

The “finally, I figured it out” moments.

All of it.

Eventually, I had a manuscript.

But having a manuscript and having a book ready

for somebody to hold in their hands?

Two completely different things.

That’s when formatting entered the picture.

Margins.

Spacing.

Page numbers.

Chapter placement.

Trim size.

Things I never really paid attention to

when I picked up someone else’s book.

Now I’m looking at books completely different.

Where does the chapter start?

How much space is here?

Why does this page look like that?

How wide should my margins be?

All these little things I never thought about before

suddenly mattered because now it was my book.

Then came figuring out the different versions.

Paperback.

Hardcover.

ebook.

And no…

One file doesn’t magically work for everything.

I learned that too.

Different requirements.

Different files.

Different things to pay attention to.

Then there was the cover.

Now that was important to me.

I knew what I wanted Unseen Scars to feel like

before somebody ever opened it.

It had to feel connected to the story.

So I searched for different artists.

Some of the artwork was beautiful.

But beautiful wasn’t enough.

I needed something that felt like

Unseen Scars.

I also made a personal decision that I didn’t

want AI-generated artwork for my book cover.

That’s not me telling another indie author

What they should or shouldn’t do.

Every author has to make the choices

that feel right for their own book,

budget, and creative vision.

For me though, the cover was more

than simply an image to put on

the front of the book. It was part of

the creativity process.

I wanted the artwork to

feel connected to the story.

And once I found the right person,

I still wasn’t done.

Because artwork and

a finished book cover

are not the same thing.

Now we’re talking about the font.

The back.

The spine.

Paperback specifications.

Hardcover specifications.

The ebook cover.

Here we go again. 🤣

Then came ISBNs.

Pricing.

Uploading files.

Proof copies.

Corrections.

Distributions.

Learning what retailers needed.

Search.

Read.

Figured it out.

Go back.

Try again.

That became part of the routine.

And somewhere in all of this,

something else started happening.

I realize I wasn’t only publishing a book.

I was building something of my own.

That’s when the business side came in.

Creating an LLC wasn’t completing new to me.

I had businesses when I lived in New York,

and I’ve even helped other people

create their LLCs here in Georgia

But this time?

I was doing it for me.

My own LLC.

Connected to my book and something

I wanted to continue building.

So I created my LLC, got my EIN,

and started putting the business side together too.

And I think that’s what made this

whole experience different.

I wasn’t just writing a book and

putting it out to the world.

I was learning the publishing side while building

something around my own work at the same time.

My book.

My business.

My experience.

My new self-publishing book

for indie authors is coming soon.

And all the information they don’t tell you

about becoming an indie author.

Yeah… it’s going in the book.

I’m not a gatekeeper.

If I learned something that can make

the process a little easier for somebody,

why wouldn’t I share it?

Especially with people like you and me who

are figuring things out for ourselves.

I don’t need to keep what I learned

a secret just because I had to figure it out.

There’s room for all of us.

Your story is yours.

Mine is mine.

And if something I learned along the way

can help you get yours out into the world…

I’m going to share it.

— Abi Brooklyn