Things I Don't Do as an Indie Author

although maybe I should?

Hi, I’m Amber Eve — author of smalltown romantic comedies, and my long-running blog, Forever Amber. If you’d like to know more about me, start here. If you’d like to hear more from me, meanwhile, hit the button below…

Sometimes when you’re starting out as an author, it can feel like there are a lot of ‘rules’ (both written and unwritten) that you must abide by in order to succeed — or to just not be stricken down by impostor syndrome.

Spend a minimum of £5,000 on proofreading and editing. Commission character art before the book is even finished. Be on every social media platform ever. Pluck a single hair from the tail of a unicorn, by the light of the full moon, on midsummer’s eve. That kind of thing.

I’ll be honest: reading all of this well-meaning advice always makes me feel like a giant fraud, because, the fact is, I don’t do any the vast majority of it. Like, how often does the full moon even FALL on midsummer’s eve, anyway? And why are we telling new authors that they can’t release their book unless they’re rich enough to afford all of this … stuff?

That’s not, of course, to say that none of this … stuff … is worth it. I mean, a lot of it IS, let’s be honest. But, just in case you, too, are dealing with a giant dose of impostor syndrome because you don’t have a ‘street team’ — or even know what that actually IS¹ — here are some of the things I don’t do as an self-published author either: just to prove to you that there’s no one ‘right’ way to do this thing…

I definitely do not pretend to be reading my own book in random places. Nuh-uh.

Have a ‘street team’

Honestly, this sounds kind of stressful and complicated, really. How do you even find the people for the ‘team’? What do you ask them to do? Are you supposed to pay them? Or would that stop it being appropriately ‘street’?

Also, why am I imagining the ‘street team’ looking like this?

Is that … not right, then?

Needless to say, I do not know the answers to these questions, because I do not have a street team; and, honestly, I don’t really want one, because having ANY kind of ‘team’, really, feels like a responsibility too far for me. Seriously, I have a hard enough time managing my 7 year old and husband most days; I really don’t want to have to ‘manage’ any other people into the bargain. Maybe that’s why I have yet to make the bestseller list, though?

Write multiple drafts of each book

I recently read a newsletter in which the author mentioned that she was ‘only’ on the 3rd draft of her book, and when I say my flabber was ghasted, people. Like, what are these ‘drafts’ you speak of? How many of them ARE there?

Okay, my flabber wasn’t really ghasted. Or maybe just a little bit. I am obviously aware that real other authors write multiple drafts of their books, but I … don’t. For me, there is just one draft. To rule them all. I’m not saying that draft remains exactly the same at all times, obviously, because that would be equally weird; I go back and change things all the time as I’m writing, and then, of course, there’s the edit to get through, when (some) things will inevitably change again.

Still, though, there is only ever one draft. I don’t, at any point, start over and essentially re-write the book, creating a whole new ‘draft’ in the process. Should I? Is that what you people are doing? Talk to me…

Think of my characters as real people

I often see real other authors making comments about how their characters have been ‘misbehaving’, or have somehow ‘told’ the author something. I do not get this at all. At all. And yes, sure, I’m aware that the authors in question presumably aren’t literally hearing voices when they say these things (Wait: are they?), but I still don’t really get what they do mean when they say the characters ‘won’t behave’ or have taken on lives of their own, because, when I write, I am painfully aware that I’m just making shit up. Inside my own head. Me. Alone. (This is why I’m generally reluctant to speak to people about my books; I always just imagine them secretly thinking, “LOL, Amber just made that all up, bless her!”)

Don’t get me wrong; I can picture my characters clearly — I know what they look like, and sound like; I can imagine how they would behave in different situations, and why they would behave that way. But I’m still very aware that it’s my imagination that’s creating these things, and not the characters themselves. Because, don’t tell them this, but … *whispers*… they’re not real. So if a character in one of my books does something, it’s because I decided I wanted them to do that thing. It’s never because the character suddenly seemed to come to life, and forced me to transcribe their actions. That would be weird and also scary. I mean, wouldn’t it, though?

Pay for editing

This will undoubtedly be controversial, but I don’t pay to have my books professionally edited. Why? Quite simply, because I can’t afford it. I just can’t. No, not even on a payment plan, or whatever it is you’re about to suggest. The fact is, professional editing is, quite rightly, expensive. Sometimes very expensive, depending on the editor, and what kind of edit is required. Is it worth it? Yes, absolutely. Please don’t, in any way, take the fact that I don’t use an editor as an indication that I don’t think it’s necessary: a good editor is worth their weight in gold, and they deserve to be fairly compensated for the work they do.

Right now, though, I just can’t afford to do that. Actually, I can’t afford to do a lot of the things I want to do right now, and our financial situation doesn’t allow for savings either; so, given the choice between self-editing the books and being able to actually release them, or waiting until some mythical time when I might be able to afford an editor, I decided to go with option one. And while I do, of course, wish things were different, I don’t regret that choice, because it’s allowed me to have a career as an author now, rather than in a decade’s time: if that. Sometimes ‘done’ is better than perfect. Or something.

Pay for character art

Okay, this isn’t totally true, because I have paid for the character art which appears on my book covers, but I know a lot of other authors also pay illustrators a lot of money to draw their characters in various scenes from the book, and I have never done that; again, because I just can’t afford it. And, okay, also because I’m not really sure what I’d even do with it if I could?

I mean, I’m admittedly terrible at marketing, so I’m assuming I’m missing something here, but all I can really imagine doing with pictures of my characters is posting them here, or on Instagram, and maybe this is naive of me, but I can’t imagine that making much of a difference to my sales? Like, if the blurb and everything else I have to say about the book doesn’t make you want to read it, I wouldn’t think an illustration of the characters would do it? Would it?

Create detailed character sheets

There’s obviously a certain amount you need to know about a character before you can start writing about them, but although I’ll make a note of things like eye colour (so it doesn’t keep changing throughout the book…) and other things I might need to remember, I don’t sit down and fill out those character questionnaires I sometimes see people recommend, which require you to figure out things like what the character’s star sign is and what they eat for breakfast. Not knocking people who do like to go into that level of detail, obviously (Or, indeed, any of the other things in this list!) — it’s just that I don’t personally feel I need to have that amount of information on the characters before I start writing.

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Just in case I haven’t made it clear enough, I’ll just quickly add here that I’m not, in any way, criticizing authors who do any of these things, or trying to claim that they’re not worth it; on the contrary, I’m quite sure my books would probably do better if I did do them all. But I don’t. And, if you don’t either, you can come and sit next to me, and we’ll have impostor syndrome together…

Until next week,

1. It’s a team of people who promote an author’s books, but in an ‘authentic’ kind of way. Apparently.