Learning Curves…

One At A Time…

Way back when indie publishing first started, I did everything for myself. So did Kris Rusch. I did covers with Power Point (stop laughing, it worked), loaded word docs into what each place called a “grinder” and somehow managed to get over two hundred titles up for the major Kindle Christmas.

Then, for the next 12 years, I did some stuff on my own, but mostly knew how to do it from a distance. Turns out trusting others was a very bad idea, but that is another topic not worth talking about.

So now, Rusch and I are on our own once again. We have the wonderful long-time friend, Chris York, retired professional accountant and fantastic fiction writer, helping us clean up a ton of disorganization, some of which we knew about, other areas surprised us. But Rusch and I are doing all our own books, or working toward it, detail-by-detail, learning curve by learning curve.

I get a lot of writers, looking at the massive world of indie publishing and asking me how they should do it, how they should get started. Impossible question, of course. But I tend to tell them to focus on learning how to be a storyteller first, then learn the publishing side slowly.

So when Rusch and I got back to doing all the publishing ourselves, to keep going we needed help (Thanks Chris York) and to learn some things quickly, while we could learn the others as we went along.

So I developed a list of major learning curves I had to get up to speed on, plus dozens of little ones.

Here are the major ones…

1… Organization of my writing. (Almost got that. Monster task. Got it enough to join into the Kris’s Motivation Challenge starting on Monday. Spots still open. Information in previous blogs.)

2… InDesign for covers. Got back up to speed on that quickly. Working on getting all our covers to a brand look.

3… Book Layout. I used to use InDesign, but Vellum is great for most books, so learning that now. Rusch is ahead of me on this and she walked me through one book today. (Thank you, that was wonderful.) I should be up to speed in a week on that.

4… Loading books to all the sites. Not really a major learning curve once I have all the pieces ready to go for each book. Part of the organization we are all working on, me with my fiction mostly since it was such a mess.)

5… Shopify stores. I had this learning curve higher on my list but moved it down because Chris York is ahead of both me and Rusch on this, so I felt I have time. But I am picking up bits here and there already. And Chris York is creating procedures to help me when I focus at it.

I am an expert on Kickstarters and what it takes, and have even helped a few people get their first one off and funded with my Kickstarter Mentorship. (A few spots open if interested.)

I am an expert on sales copy and story telling and structure to hold readers, so okay there. (I have a sales mentorship on that as well if anyone interested, write me.)

So facing forward and really, really enjoying the learning. I used to do it all, but wow is all this better in 2026 than it was 12-14 years ago.

And weirdly enough, those major learning areas sort of form a structure for someone coming in and wondering how to get started indie publishing. It is just learning, and if you keep it fun, just as keeping the writing fun, this is the best profession on the planet.