10 Things I Hate, 10 Things I Love About Being an Indie

~ ChanAtkins

The other day I was putting a blog post together and frantically searching the internet for suitable images for laughter inspiring memes. I like to try and make my own in case I get into any trouble, but I’m really not that good at it. I kind of have an idea in my head which never seems to  work out! Anyway, it was tedious and it annoyed me, just like Facebook annoys me every time it limits my post reach to a tiny amount of people. So I decided to write a list of the things that annoy me about being an indie author. And of course, to counteract the negative list, I had to come up with a positive one as well. Please feel free to add yours in the comments!

10 Things I Hate

  1. Creating amusing memes to add to blog posts, because it is time-consuming and I am crap at it.
  2. Finding or creating ‘fun’ images to help boost my Facebook reach every time I update my page because I am also crap at it
  3. Asking for reviews. Tedious, repetitive and pretty ineffective
  4. Having to be good at tech stuff ie formatting, because I am not
  5. Facebook showing only 3 people my exciting update, despite the addition of a funny meme/image
  6. Indie writers who do nothing to promote their books or build a platform, and then moan about never selling any books
  7. Indies who do not support other indies in any way, but constantly ask for support
  8. How much everything costs (I’m talking paid promotions and paid reviews)
  9. Having to write the synopsis
  10. People thinking your books must be crap because ‘anyone’ can self-publish

 

10 Things That Are Actually Quite Cool

  1. Designing front covers, and working with very cool people (and Canva!) to get your ideas out of your head and onto your book
  2. Connecting with other indies, who totally understand what you’re going through
  3. Connecting with readers, who message you about your book, article or blog to say what it meant to them
  4. Being the master of your own destiny!
  5. Learning how to run a business
  6. Embracing social media. Hated it to start with, sort of love it now
  7. Thinking up new and inventive ways to promote your books
  8. Breaking the rules
  9. Knowing you are getting better at all of it
  10. Perpetual hope that some kind of success is on its way!

 

Over to you guys! What do you love and what do you hate about being an indie author?

Do you ever think about how far you have come? Or if you are at the beginning of your journey, what are your biggest fears? What are you most excited about? To those further along, what would you do differently? What lessons have you learned?

14 thoughts on “10 Things I Hate, 10 Things I Love About Being an Indie”

  1. I enjoy the memes part. Probably far more than I should as I tend to go a little ‘meme happy’ and forget I actually have to write a blog post too! I do need to start creating more of my own now *slinks slowly away just in case someone reading this dobs me in*.

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  2. I’m an indie author, who’s mostly published blog posts and short stories. I love it. It’s been a great experience.

    I also work with other indie writers looking to grow exposure and increase their marketing reach and readership base. If you’re interested in hiring professional help, do reach out and let me know. 🙂

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  5. Even more than ‘Indie writers who do nothing to promote their books or build a platform…’ are indie authors who over-promote and spam every page going in groups that are meant for interactions and discussion! And also those authors who friend you on Facebook and immediately ask you to like their page. That’s the fastest way to get unfriended.
    Great blog as always, Chantelle 🙂

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