This post is part of the Publishing Resources Guide. Read more about Pre-Publication.

There is a learning curve for self publishing – sometimes a steep one. You can get ahead of that curve by starting to learn the process as early as possible. Trust me, you don’t want to type The End on your manuscript and eagerly start looking around for your next step, only to realize there’s a mountain to climb ahead of getting published.

The thing is, once you publish you’ll forever be balancing your creative time with your business time. That will never go away. There will always be bookkeeping and taxes to keep up with, ongoing marketing, and the occasional big project (book launches, website makeovers, refreshing your old series with new covers and descriptions, and so on). Learning to balance that right from the beginning will make it less of a shock when you move from the ‘writing my first book’ phase to the ‘writing and running a business at the same time’ phase.

Start the learning process a little bit at a time. Spend an hour a week getting things set up in preparation for your launch, and researching things that are new to you. You can check out my Overall Guides and Courses post for some great resources.

I also recommend you start following blogs or podcasts that cover a lot of general and beginner info and slowly working your way through them. If you come across a phrase or a tool you’re not familiar with, Google it until you’ve figured it out. Listen to other authors tell their stories and pay attention to how they got where they are. They will all have unique paths, and some wildly so. You’ll never duplicate another author’s career exactly so don’t try. Instead, find the common elements of all the stories – those are your basics that you need to build on. Then figure out how to do something that’s uniquely you to make you stand out from the crowd.

It’s just like with writing: you can’t break the rules until you first understand them.

Try not to get overwhelmed with the breadth of info listed below. Pick one and start exploring. Add another when you can, drop any that you don’t like. You can’t listen to or read everything, so don’t drive yourself crazy trying to. Just find a way to keep yourself informed.

Top Resources

These are the places I think every new author should start, but there’s also a lot here for more seasoned authors.

The Creative Penn – Joanna Penn is a pillar of the self publishing community, for good reason. She’s been self publishing since the Kindle first came on the scene, and she’s been blogging and podcasting about it for almost as long. Her site contains a wealth of information on publishing, including a podcast, blog, courses, and many books on writing and publishing. She interviews authors at the beginning of their careers, and those who are more advanced. She also covers general self publishing news. There’s something for everyone there. Joanna publishes wide, so she’s a great resource for that path.

The Self Publishing Formula – Mark Dawson is another big name in the self publishing community. He’s the creator of two of the biggest courses out there for authors: Self Publishing Launchpad and Advertising for Authors. He has lots of smaller courses as well, including a free one on using Facebook ads to grow your mailing list. You’ll also find a blog and podcast at that website. A lot of the content is aimed at new authors, but Mark has been publishing for a long time so he also includes more advanced conversations as well. Mark’s personal publishing focuses on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited so his content sometimes leans in that direction.

Alliance of Independent Authors – The Alliance of Independent Authors is a non-profit professional association for authors who self-publish. Their mission is ethics and excellence in self-publishing. They have excellent resources for beginners, including a Best and Worst Self Publishing Services page, Partner Member Directory (a vetted list of service providers), the Watchdog Desk that reports on troubling issues or service providers, and the monthly Self Publishing Salon which is aimed at more experienced authors. You’ll find books, a blog, and podcast episodes full of information here – including a podcast dedicated to publishing poetry, which is an area that’s underrepresented in the indie publishing sphere.

KrisWrites.com – This is the business and author blog of Kristine Kathryn Rusch, a professional writer for the last forty years. She writes almost every genre, but most importantly for this audience she writes about her experience in the publishing field, both as a traditionally and indie published author. She has a weekly business blog (called Business Musings) where she gives a lot of insight into traditional publishing, the future of indie publishing, best business practices, and how to best use your intellectual property. She has a number of excellent blog series on business and publishing topics under the Business Resources menu tab. She also writes and creates non-fiction books and courses on all aspects of writing and publishing. She’s got strong opinions, which not everyone agrees with, but I highly value her views.

The next two are Facebook groups for indie publishing. They are large communities of authors talking about publishing paths and tools, and offering support to fellow authors. Exactly what you need when you first start. You’ll find a lot of gold in the comments in both of these groups, and they’re so large that almost every publishing niche is represented. I recommend joining both in the beginning and following along until (or if) you decide a group or publishing path isn’t for you.

Wide for the Win – This is a Facebook group focused on publishing wide, and helping wide authors succeed. They also have reps from the various retailers in the group and occasionally help an author out who’s having difficulty. Make sure you read through the Tree of Wisdom, which you can find in the “Announcements” tab at the top of the group. Click the picture you want, then find helpful links in the comments.

20Books to 50K – This Facebook is open to everyone, with lots of good general info. The focus is strongly on KindleUnlimited and rapid releasing, so take all the marketing advice from it with a grain of salt if you aren’t in KU or aren’t a fast writer. Click on the Guides tab at the top of the group for welcome info and helpful advice for new authors.

Next Level

These will help you round out your knowledge once you’ve got the basics down, and help get you selling.

6 Figure Author – Here we have authors Lindsay Buroker, Joseph R. Lallo, and Andrea Pearson putting on a weekly self publishing podcast. All earn six figures from their writing, and they aim to help you do the same through their podcast and Facebook group. They offer the kind of wisdom you only get through years of experience.

Sell More Books Show – The Sell More Books Show is a weekly podcast focusing on helping new and experienced authors stay up-to-date with the latest self-publishing and indie news, tools and book selling/marketing strategies. It has a quick format focusing on several stories a week, covering them usually in under a half hour. It’s a great way to keep up on new trends and issues.

David Gaughran – David runs a blog and email list full of marketing information. He does a yearly Best Promo Sites post for newsletter promos that’s excellent (here’s the one for 2022). He has a free course on getting started with indie publishing, and he’s got a number of excellent books on building a passionate fanbase for your books. He’s very numbers and detail oriented, and often shares the results of his testing. His mailing list is a gem, where he often will do a deep dive into topics of interest to authors (like the whole series he did on Apple’s Email Privacy Update over the summer of 2021). I highly recommend you sign up, and then check out his email archive for tons of excellent info. He started blogging as an author trying to sort things out for himself, and wound up creating a site with a lot of value for the rest of us.

So there you have it: a starting place to learn everything you need to know about indie publishing. I kind of struggled with the list because there are so many excellent resources out there for publishing now. It’s light on YouTube content because I tend not to get my publishing news and info from YouTube, but I know there have to be some great channels out there. Do you know of a great YouTube channel, or anything else I missed that you feel is super important? Hit reply and let me know in the comments!

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