When I indie-published my debut in late 2023, I had zero expectations. I had no platform, no presence on socials, no publishing history, and this was my first novel, which I was describing as cozy gothic. Today, the five-book series that began with Wormwood Abbey is providing me with a full-time income on part-time hours. This post shares how I got here, and what I’ve learned that I hope will help other indie authors.
At first, my goal for this book was more of a hope. Our large family was on a small budget and I really, really wanted to make back the fee I had paid my cover illustrator, mostly because my husband paid for it as a surprise. I remember asking an author friend if she thought maybe I’d make enough to pay for my cover and buy something nice, maybe a dinner with my husband.
She said, “I have no idea.” Given how hit-and-miss indie publishing is, this was a fair response.
Fast-forward six months to June 2024, and my husband and I were using book proceeds to pay for our first night away. It was also the night my first-ever BookBub Featured Deal would go live. I went to bed in Australia wondering if readers on the other side of the world would really go for a free deal on this odd little book.
When I woke up the next morning, I checked my sales dashboard, and I could not believe what I saw. Over 20,000 downloads of Wormwood Abbey, my cozy gothic fantasy debut.
I remember panicking. What if all the wrong people were downloading my book? What if they hated it? WHO WERE THEY?! What if I saturated the market and no one else bought it ever again?
Instead, reviews started coming in, mostly four and five stars. And the sales kept increasing. The following month, my sales were over $14,000 AUD on Amazon alone.
Definitely enough to pay for something nice for my husband.
After the dust settled, I had given away 40,000 ebooks across all retailers. And I got something amazing in return: an author career.
I’ve spent a lot of time coming to grips with how my indie author career took off so quickly and what I can learn from it that might be helpful to others. Of course there’s a lot of serendipity involved, but I can confidently identify five major factors that went into my debut success that I believe are solid strategies for all authors.
1. A Cover that Connects with Your Ideal Reader
Readers who loved my book also said the cover was an auto-buy. Remember, as an author-publisher, you don’t just want an appealing cover that represents your book — you want a cover that appeals to your book’s ideal reader.
My human-illustrated cover captured the feel of the story: cozy gothic, with a mix of comfort, mystery, and fantasy in a Victorian setting. It looked whimsical and innocent but also a little bit darkly wondrous — all things my readers are looking for in these uncertain times.
It also looked like cozy fantasy without looking like every other cozy fantasy cover. This is another reason I believe authors need to collaborate with other human artists. They can hit the visual tropes you need while also bringing something fresh.
2. A Hungry Market
I’m very much of the opinion that you have to write what you feel passionate about, but at the same time, if you want to make a living out of writing, it’s good to be aware of what readers are looking for so you can market appropriately.
Cozy fantasy was a very hungry market in 2023. Readers wanted low-stakes fantasy faster than it was being written, and my first book’s cover had a baby dragon on it. I tried to be both genre-aware while also writing the exact books I wanted to write. Though I ended up pushing the boundaries of what might be considered cozy/low-stakes as my series developed more serious themes, I always made sure to bring in cozy elements (food, platonic friendships, and supportive family members) throughout, because I knew what spoke to my readers. Those elements also spoke to me, so it was a win-win situation.
I don’t think I could write to market entirely, but a Venn diagram where the market overlaps with my passions as an author? That I can do.
3. Short Reads, Rapid(ish) Release with Sequel Hooks and Preorder Links
A lot of fantasy novels these days are very long. Traditional publishers typically won’t look at an adult fantasy manuscript under 80k words. But I’ve found that many readers want shorter reads. They certainly make those online reading challenges more achievable! What’s more, they will happily trade a higher page count for shorter wait times between books from the authors they love.
My debut was a bit over 50k words, which is not much more than the length of a novella, so I wrapped up the story, then teased with a gentle sequel hook, and put a substantial excerpt from book two in the back matter. This was nostalgic for me because I remembered it from books I’d loved as a kid in the ’90s.
A few people complained (as I expected), but most readers were excited to get a taste of how the series would develop, and kept reading. Some of the reviewers who complained kept reading, too!
At the time of my BookBub Featured Deal, I’d released three books in my series, with a preorder up for the fourth book, City of Serpents. My Featured Deal ran on June 24th, and over the following weeks, readers who grabbed a free copy of Wormwood Abbey worked their way through the series and preordered book four. That huge bump you see in the chart below is all the preorders from the readers I reached through my Featured Deal.
You can see my growth in readers with this screenshot of my preorders:
Including an excerpt from the next book and a preorder link in the back matter really propelled read-through and kept excitement high. It’s about reducing friction for my readers — life is hard, and I want the experience of buying and reading my books to be delightful and easy. When they finished reading each book, they knew something more was coming soon.
I know that rapid release can burn out authors, but keep in mind I had drafted the first four books in rough form before I started publishing. I was only editing and formatting each sequel while releasing the book before (which was plenty of work!).
Again, the shorter length of these novels worked in my favor here. My releases were in October, January, April, July, and then November. You’ll notice the fifth and final book took an extra month before I was ready to release it, because it was the only one I had not predrafted, and I had four books’ worth of story threads to wrap up!
If you can take the time to front-load a series, I highly recommend predrafting multiple shorter books for rapid release. It really helped my series keep momentum and build reader confidence in me as an author.
4. Community Building
When I say I had zero author platform going in, it’s true. I really had no publishing history at all, but it turns out I had something else that worked in my favour: a positive reputation with indie authors.
For years, I had followed, reviewed, and hyped my favourite indie authors. I did this simply because I enjoyed their books. I wasn’t expecting anything in return, but when I reached out for newsletter swaps to established authors in my genre, it turned out I had a good reputation with them already!
Several of them featured my debut and my BookBub Featured Deal in their author newsletters. Because of this, the “also-boughts” algorithm on my books has always been spot-on.
In addition, I was a beta reader for several years for my best friend, a historical fantasy author, which also contributed to my reputation as a giver, not just a taker.
If you haven’t already, invest in the author community and your reputation. As I was telling a young writer on my socials recently, if you are a debut author, scrub your Goodreads account of snarky reviews. It’s ok to be honest and even critical if you can do it kindly, but don’t make a reputation for snark — at the very least, make it a rule not to go after other authors working near your genre, especially fellow debuts.
5. A Boost of Visibility (and Confidence)
I’ve told you about how my free Featured Deal on my debut novel helped jump-start my career. Now I’m going to tell you about the two best things it did for me.
You see, having a cute cover, a hungry market, and intriguing back matter with preorder links don’t work if you haven’t tackled the 2020s debut author’s biggest challenge: visibility.
Being on a curated list as respected as BookBub helped my debut stand out in a crowded market. I believe that this will become even more important in an age of AI slop.
Looking back, I can see it gave me something even better than visibility — it gave me confidence in the potential of my own work.
In the aftermath of my free deal, curious about the potential of my books in translation, I sent screenshots of my ebook sales to an agent in London who I’d heard specialized in foreign rights deals. Within hours, she was in my inbox. She has been an amazing advocate for my books to European publishers, pitching them at the London and Frankfurt Book Fairs, and has sold translation rights in three languages so far — something I never dreamed of back in 2023! I’d needed the confidence to reach out, and I can trace that confidence in my work as an author-publisher to that morning six months in, when I looked at my dashboard and saw units in five figures.
So here I am, less than three years after my debut, with an author business that took in six figures in Australian dollars in one financial year. And more importantly, I have the confidence and financial resources to pursue the stories and values I’m passionate about as an author.
The views and opinions expressed in this guest post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of BookBub.
