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Indie Author Life: The glamour, the chaos, the 47 hats ...

Writer: Leanne Shea Langdown
Leanne Shea Langdown
Sep 20
2 min read

Indie Author Life is wildly fantastic. You get freedom, creative control, the ability to publish whatever your heart desires, whenever your caffeine levels allow. You get to build worlds, craft characters, and make readers feel things — all without waiting for a gatekeeper to give you permission.


But let’s be honest: that freedom comes with a price. A hat collection so large it needs its

own walk‑in wardrobe.


Because being an Indie Author isn’t just “writing books”. Writing is the easy bit ... the fun bit ... the bit we fantasise about when we’re stuck in our full‑time day job pretending we don’t have 38 open mental tabs labelled URGENT.


The rest? Well… the rest is a circus. And guess who’s the ringmaster?


Welcome to Indie Author Life, where you are:

  • The writer

  • The editor

  • The proofreader

  • The cover designer

  • The typesetter

  • The marketing department

  • The PR team

  • The advertising strategist

  • The social media manager

  • The customer service rep

  • The warehouse (even if it’s your hallway cupboard)

  • The fulfilment centre

  • The accountant

  • The tech support

  • The entire bloody board of directors


All while also being a full‑time employee for someone else during core business hours, smiling professionally while your brain is screaming: “I HAVE A BOOK LAUNCH IN THREE DAYS AND NOTHING IS READY.”


People ask, “When do you sleep?” And honestly? I sleep like the god damn dead — from pure exhaustion.   Not peacefully. Not gracefully. I collapse like a puppet whose strings have been cut.


But we keep doing it. Because we love it. Because we’re stubborn. Because we’re dreamers. Because we’re building something that matters.


The Indie Author Checklist

(aka: Why we’re tired)

  • Writing — the fun part, the easy part, the part we wish was the only part.

  • Editing — multiple rounds, multiple tears, multiple existential crises.

  • Beta Testing — wrangling feedback, deciphering feedback, ignoring feedback.

  • Proofreading — catching the typos that somehow breed overnight.

  • Cover Design — fonts, vibes, colours, crying.

  • Interior Formatting — margins, bleed, trim size, more crying.

  • Shop Setup — websites, product pages, shipping rules, tax settings.

  • POD Testing — ordering samples, adjusting files, re‑uploading files, swearing at files.

  • Publishing — metadata, ISBNs, categories, keywords, launch dates.

  • Marketing — social media, newsletters, reels, posts, giveaways.

  • PR — interviews, podcasts, media kits, pretending you’re not awkward.

  • Advertising — Facebook ads, Amazon ads, budget spreadsheets.

  • Sales & Fulfilment — packing orders, printing labels, running to the post office.

  • Accounting — tracking royalties, expenses, taxes, receipts.

  • Customer Service — answering emails, fixing issues, soothing panicked readers.

  • Tech Support — troubleshooting your website at 11pm because something broke again.

And that’s not even all of them ... that’s just the “core collection”.


But here’s the magic…

Despite the chaos, the exhaustion, the mental tabs, the hats, the juggling, the “I haven’t slept since 2019” energy — we wouldn’t trade it.


Indie Author Life is messy, magnificent, and ours.


We get to build empires from our laptops. We get to create stories that didn’t exist before we imagined them. We get to run businesses powered by passion, caffeine, and sheer determination.


We get to be everything — even when it feels like too much.


And honestly? That’s kind of badass.



 
 
 

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