Welcome to Indie Author Notes
The honest, unfiltered account of building an indie author business from the inside.
The honest, unfiltered account of building an indie author business from the inside.
Monday Some notable things to point out between Friday and Sunday: * Friday: Revenue - £89.04. 10 ebook & 5 paperback sales. 12,711 KU page reads. * Saturday: Revenue - £79.31. 11 ebook sales. 13,417 KU page reads. * Sunday: Revenue - £75.56. 7 ebook & 6 paperback sales. 12,265
Monday Some notable things to point out between Friday and Sunday: * Friday: Revenue - £53.03. 4 ebook & 4 paperback sales. 9,936 KU page reads. * Saturday: Revenue - £46.35. 6 ebook sales. 7,687 KU page reads. * Sunday: Revenue - £79.95. 14 ebook & 1 paperback sales. 11,526
I had thirteen subscribers. That’s the whole reason why the move was easy, and it’s the only piece of advice in this post that I would push on anyone. Every article you will read about leaving Substack is written by someone with ten thousand subscribers, agonizing over the
At Self-Publishing Show Live (SPS) in London this year (2026), someone in the audience asked a question I've been considering for months. They wanted to know how you juggle it. All of it. The writing, the ads, social media, mailing lists, cover design, the metadata, the accounting,
Week note post for 31 August 2026 through 4 September 2026.
Week note post for 24 August 2026 through 28 August 2026.
Honest notes on writing, publishing, and building an indie author business, for authors who are just starting out or finding their feet.
Week note post for 17 August 2026 through 21 August 2026.
Week note post for 10 August 2026 through 14 August 2026.
The answers were in six months of my own data all along. I just never had time to find them.
From 30 years as a designer to running a publishing business: the four tools doing most of the visual work.
It's not just time. It's the mental load of running two businesses in parallel.
Thirty years of design thinking turned out to be exactly the foundation I needed to write fiction.
The system behind the analysis, and why getting organised first is what makes it work.
It took a global pandemic, a lockdown, and a partner who knew me better than I knew myself.
I spent years not finishing novels. Then I tried something different.
The tooling is the easy part. Everything before and after it is where the real work is.
An honest look at Bookbub and Facebook/Meta ads, the wins, the mistakes, and what I'd do differently.
A starter list with the full breakdown available to paid subscribers.