What eleven years of independent publishing taught me about connecting with readers, finding patrons, and building a career that lasts.
For three years, I dismissed crowdfunding.
I’d started my independent author career in 2015 with my debut novel, Nethereal.
Like many indie authors of the day, I’d come to believe that Amazon was the only game in town.
If you wanted to find readers, sell books, and build a durable career without a big New York publisher, the only way was through KDP.
That belief wasn’t entirely unreasonable. Amazon had demolished the old barriers to publication, letting indies access a global market without asking permission.
But I’d made one miscalculation:
I’d confused the biggest paradigm shift in the publishing industry for the only opportunity in newpub.
And for three years, that assumption kept me from leveraging one of the most powerful tools for building a sustainable writing career.
📕 First, a chance to read Nethereal yourself:
Space pirates OD on the spice from Dune; wake up on Cthulhu’s couch.
The Sublime Brotherhood of Steersmen holds the Middle Stratum in its iron grip. Jaren Peregrine, last of the Gen, raids across fringe space with Nakvin—her captain’s best pilot and only friend, apprentice steersman Deim, and mercenary Teg Cross.
Hunted by the ruthless Master Malachi, Jaren and his crew join a conspiracy to break the Guild’s monopoly with an experimental ship. But when its maiden voyage goes awry, the Exodus flies farther off course than its crew could have imagined.
The Experiment That Changed My Mind
By 2018, I’d completed publication of my first series, the Soul Cycle.
My debut novel had sold better than I’d thought possible and earned me a Campbell Award nomination. Its sequel, Souldancer, had achieved comparable sales and won the Dragon Award for Best Horror Novel.
I’d proven that I could write books people wanted to read. But I was still thinking about newpub almost exclusively in terms of Amazon.
With the Soul Cycle in the can, I was making ready to launch a new series in a whole new genre. Combat Frame XSeed would give readers a military sci fi adventure to refresh the mech genre by combining the best of Mobile Suit Gundam and Battletech.
Instead of falling back on the old indie playbook of just dumping the first book on Amazon, I broke down and decided to crowdfund it as an experiment.
So I set a modest funding goal of $1,000 and launched the campaign.
Fifteen hours and eight minutes later, it was funded. By the time the campaign ended, 103 backers had pledged $3,465.
I’d raised almost three and a half times my goal.
But the money came second to an even more important result. I’d learned that readers were willing to support my work directly; no need for a middleman to get the books in front of them.
The experiment had disproved an misconception I’d labored under for three years. And it changed my fundamental approach to newpub.
The wait is over! I’m excited to announce that Part 1 of the Nethereal audiobook is now live on YouTube. Watch it free now: