I study how to promote and read about the craft of writing. A good 4 hours of my workweek is devoted to training. One of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is “Sharpening the Saw.”
Success is 1% inspiration and 99% work. I don’t give up easily, sometimes, even when I should.
I’ve learned how to say no to good things so I can say yes to better things. I’m consistent. I blog 4x week, send a newsletter 2x a month, am active in a few Facebook groups, and I run a book blog where there’s a daily post for other authors. I schedule 2-3 hours a day to write.
How do I get all that done? I’m organized, and I have an assistant who handles some of the nitty gritty for me. But most of the work is my own.
If I could say it was any one thing, I would say it’s that I am consistent. I show up, even when I don’t want to. Easy? No. But when a reader connects and tells me how much they love a character or a book and it makes all that work worthwhile.
When I stopped and asked myself what it was that I wanted most, it was reader reaction. To get that, I have to go where the readers are.
What I do is stop and ask myself what I want to get out of what I write. Then I look at ways to attain that goal, and take steps every day to reach it.

Hi Kayelle. Yes. The Indie route indeed. I chose that way myself, even after a dozen traditionally published books and a career as a publishing professional, both book editor and literary agent. Maybe especially because that career and my close-up look at the inside of legacy publishing sent me flying to the indie track. I was attending a writers’ conference in Texas and in the van on the way from the airport to the conference hotel, a writer I knew and respected regaled me with the joys of her own experience turning indie. It happened that there was an entire presentation track at that very conference devoted entirely to indie publishing. I went to every session, deeply resenting my own presentation which prevented me from also attending the indie workshop in my presenter time slot. I returned home hooked and began my own indie publishing experience. Everything about it was wonderful, except for the aspent in which you,Kayelle, excel so powerfully – marketing and sales. I never really got the hang of how to promote my work and make it sell. Skilled editing didn’t help. Professional-level book production didn’t help. Enthusiastic reviews didn’t help. Blogging didn’t help. Public appearances didn’t help. I was never able to crack the online code and its algorithms. I have sound reason to believe many other indie authors share my story. I don’t know what the answer might be. I’ve been told that the magic window for achieving indie success is long since closed, yet you began your meteoric rise after that period (way back somewhere around 2011). Perhaos the key is simply that you, and others like you, know what you are doing and the rest of us, not so much. I’m thinking about putting out a post around these two indie stories, mine and yours. Maybe we can chat about how I should approach that. In the meantime, as always, I am grateful for your input and that you are you. Bless you Kayelle. Alice