Indie Authoring: Year One
A retrospective, data overview, & a lot of freaking footnotes.
Author’s Note: This post was inspired by all the authors who are so transparent in their journeys and continue to support every newbie who comes along with a wild dream and access to self-pub. It’s also for Mary Elizabeth Graves who asked if I’d do a write-up of my first year. <3
It has been one year since I debuted as an author.
In that time I’ve learned a lot, regretted a few things, but also been so proud of all that I’ve accomplished! This is my best attempt to distill the year into one long post that I hope can be helpful or encouraging to anyone else out there on this journey. I’ve had to wear a lot of hats, but the payoff has been so much more than anything I could have expected in my wildest dreams.
So please read on! I’ve split everything into categories that hopefully makes the scroll easier, but this newsletter is probably best experienced on desktop.
THE PREP:
I really feel like I cannot in good faith talk about my debut year without sharing everything that went into it, aka the lead up that happened from 2020-2024.1
A brief overview:
In 2020 I got an idea for a novel about isolation (I wonder why).
In 2021, I wrote a lot of fanfiction. (Yes it’s still up on AO3, no I’ve never shared my username.)
In 2022, I revisited the idea for a novel about isolation which ended up being about a librarian running from a murderer who had to stay in a cabin with a lumberjack. I then began writing and finished the first 40k during November.
In 2023, I pushed to finish that book and began querying it to agents for trad pub. I had no idea what I was doing and hoped that my work would speak for itself.2
In 2024, I received 250+ rejections, only a handful of manuscript requests (most I never heard back). So I decided to pivot and write in a genre I loved — omegaverse. I told one person about it, author Allegra Hall, and she told me to publish it. I still get a little choked up with how grateful I am that she told me to just do it.
So that leaves me at the end of 2024 with a manuscript and a half — aka Gold Rush was finished but Gold Mine wasn’t, and then The Felling Cut hanging out on a shelf because all my queries had expired, agents didn’t want it, and I felt like I was putting my heart away for a bit.
And in October of 2024 I decided that my dream of being an author was too big to ignore, so I started teaching myself every single thing I could about self-publishing to debut in 2025.
2025, THE DEBUT YEAR:
Part of my preparation for 2025 came in 2024, when I began reaching out to early readers. (Thank you to Anne-Marie who enthusiastically said yes to a cold DM from me asking if they’d be interested to read my random novel.) I also chose my editor at the end of 2024! Kai was another recommendation from Allegra and I cannot imagine my life or manuscripts without her.
Having a good support system is no joke.
Clearly I’ve already shared a handful of people who helped me take the plunge, but the list is endless. That’s why my acknowledgements at the end of Gold Rush are so damn long — it wasn’t just me who made that book possible, it was a lot of people who consistently cheered me on.
But let’s talk about the stats of it all.
Timelines & Releases
Gold Rush published on March 3, 2025
the manuscript was written in 2024, edited in December/January.
the audiobook released December 30, 2025.
Gold Mine published on March 31, 2025
the manuscript was written in December 2024 & January 2025, edited in February.3
the audiobook released January 27, 2026.
The Felling Cut published on September 26, 2025
the manuscript was written from 2023-2024, heavily revised to cut 40,000 words, then put back together by me in mid-2025 before copy-edits and proofreading took place.
Costs & Finances
Here is a breakdown of costs:
2024:
I spent $500 from my emergency fund on ISBNs (Bowker, as I’m in the US) and formatting software (Vellum)! I already had my writing software (scrivener) from a purchase years ago.
2025:
EDITING - ~$1400 for three books
On the front end I chose not to have my editor proofread the duet and I regretted that so much that I ended up revising and polishing both manuscripts before they were recorded for audio!4
ART - ~$700 for three books
I purchased bust portraits of the pack from Gold Rush and Gold Mine after Linz surprised me with a portrait of June after reading the ARC!5 I also commissioned some art for TFC from an artist I follow on Instagram.
I made all my own covers, including the audiobook covers. This significantly cut costs on my end, as I didn’t have much to pull out of my savings/emergency fund.6
SUBSCRIPTIONS - ~
I pay monthly for a piracy service to comb the internet for illegal copies of all my books. This is a non-negotiable for me! It’s $7 per book and I use Muso.7
Bookfunnel is a $100 per year fee to handle my ARC and epub distributions. Please make sure you distribute your work securely.
I have a handful of other subscriptions that range from book boxes (for research on comps, artists, and what’s popular in the current market) to KU (also research!), but the two above are my main ones.
Kindle (KDP & KENP) & IngramSpark (wide paperbacks)
Let’s talk Kindle Unlimited for a moment, because there has been a huge dip in both discovery and consistent readership there.
I was lucky enough to debut with extremely good numbers, but I also wrote and rapid-released two books in the span of thirty days with push to niche Facebook reader groups. I don’t think I would have had the same reception without the genre (omegaverse) being so close-knit and hungry for more books.
The three-month cliff hit me in June, and since then my statistics have stayed around 50k page reads per month. The Felling Cut, since it’s release in September has had less than 10k pages read overall. I still, however, make most of my “money” from KU and KENP, as the subscription payout and pages read from the duet continue to be enough for me to funnel funds to my next projects.
Why did the numbers numbers sink?
There are a lot of answers to this question, partially being that KENP is fickle on a good day and without word of mouth, books will not sell.
The Felling Cut, despite being shared to multiple groups similar to Gold Rush, did not have any kind of unique draw and was not as niche of a genre. Amazon also delisted it from the Small Town and Bisexual categories and claimed it didn’t fit the genres. I fought, but they only reinstated it in the Bisexual category. This, coinciding with a poor first day review metric on Amazon, heavily reduced my reach.
A lot is published to the Kindle Unlimited catalog daily. Unfortunately with the rise of AI, some readers are choosing to pick up “series” that have 50+ installments generated off stolen work from other authors. I can’t fight against that, but I can choose to keep my head up and work consistently on the ideas that I know are good and are made with a human brain.
IngramSpark:
Occasionally I get a $1 to $10 payout every three months from wide paperback sales. The chunk of printing costs and cut that Ingram takes is quite high, but I do still make a small amount.
Other Avenues:
As my books are on Kindle Unlimited, I signed an ebook exclusivity clause. The only way to read my work via library is by requesting the audiobooks! If you have somehow read my work any other way, I’m sorry to say you’ve read a pirated copy and I have not seen payout from the read or download.
Publishing deals
I was lucky enough to make a deal for audio rights in 2025!8
I did sign an NDA. I sold the rights for the Golden Omegaverse series. I received an advance on manuscript delivery and both books are out now.
The audiobook for Gold Rush went wide in early 2026!
Marketing
There are three tiers to marketing, in my opinion: paid, word of mouth, and social media. I have never paid for ads on any platform, so I’ll be focusing on word of mouth and social media in this section.
Word of Mouth is the best way for books to gain readers, as recommendations from trusted friends, family, or people on social media absolutely skyrocket sales. There is only so much you can do yourself to get your book in front of people, because today’s world is full of advertisements. Most users will automatically scroll past anything that feels too much like you’re trying to sell something.
I find that my best sales were from word-of-mouth recommendations. Even a story share is enough to make some readers click through and download a copy, or earmark it to read later.
Social Media is unfortunately a Catch-22 because on one hand, you have to have at least a mild presence as an author so readers can hopefully discover more of your work, but on the other it can become not only a time suck, but also a place where you may see negative reviews or opinions about yourself, your work, or your peers.
In this case, I heavily recommend scheduling posts in advance, writing captions all at once, and then attempting to lock it for the rest of the week. I have good days and bad days on socials, but I now no longer answer DMs (they became overwhelming, and I had a few occurrences of unpleasant messages). I also schedule my posts up to a month in advance.
Trial reels work in some regards, but are heavily dependant on your ability to show up online with your face while speaking directly to the camera.
Facebook groups often have a long list of individualized rules and I only post if I am currently publishing something or making a major announcement (audiobooks or cover reveals!). I will occasionally self-recommend if I happen to see a relevant post.
I would recommend a marketing subscription to keep your feed as visually pleasant as possible. The one I have used since November is linked below.
I’m including this small caveat: many authors do in-person events to introduce themselves to readers. If that is an avenue you can participate in, you may see a boost in sales or interest! I just do not have experience in this and can’t speak on it as of now.
Resources
Elizabeth Stephen’s 6 Figure Case Study | Elizabeth’s substack: Elizabeth Stephens
Elle M. Drew’s Authoring Chaos blogposts | these were what helped guide me during my initial launch!
The Word Weavership | My marketing subscription that allows me to make graphics 10x faster than before!
Bugging the shit out of mutual author friends who were kind enough to answer DMs. I wish there was a better way to say this, but it is 100% okay to be annoying, and I promise you aren’t coming off as weird by asking for help!
REFLECTIONS:
As I’ve worked on this special edition newsletter for the last five months, I’ve gone through my own highs and lows already this year. I’m so proud of myself for pushing forward in many ways to publish, but I do think that there are massive changes that can be made to turn this into a stable career in the long-term.
I am also coming at this from the perspective of someone who is chronically ill. My writing days do not resemble how they did a year ago, or even two years ago. My energy for marketing and conversing is limited, at best, and I find myself becoming frustrated that I can’t push through as I did in my first year. I won’t lie, seeing the drastic number drop was very demoralizing my first year of publishing, especially when The Felling Cut didn’t perform well. I had hope that I could continue with the same trajectory as my first few months, but that pace was far, far too intense.
LOOKING AHEAD:
As this newsletter goes out, I’ll have had one release this year, with a second coming in July. I’m currently working on the second duet in the Golden Omegaverse series, with plans to publish it and the final two books by the end of 2027.
The publishing landscape has changed a lot. A large portion of the books that reach the top ten of niche releases are oftentimes AI generated, or have massive publishing arms behind them. Indie books, however, are still being swept up and published wide! (like Daggermouth!! The explosion for that book made me so happy).
I remain firm in my determination to write what I want to, even if that means my growth is slow compared to others. I know my work is good and I would much rather tell the stories that resonate with me and hope they find their readers, than invest in get-rich-quick schemes that harm the planet or are oftentimes a fleeting fad.
Onto year two!
That was my debut year as an author!
I hope this newsletter was at least mildly helpful if you’re an author looking to debut, or if you’re a reader who likes to know the behind the scenes machinations of this work! It’s hard, but rewarding and done out of sheer love.
Also, this newsletter comes out a week after my 30th birthday. :) I can’t wait to see what the next decade brings for my career.
xx
R.L. Randolph
I don’t think this needs a section for this specific newsletter, but I come from a background of writing, including having a degree in Journalism, Electronic Media, Film, Scriptwriting, and Creative Writing. I have had a lot of background education to even reach this point.
I think it’s worth mentioning here that TFC was at 119k when I queried it, which is above the guidelines for most agents and probably got me a lot of auto-rejections. I self-published the manuscript at 98k after revisions, which is still above trad pub guidelines. I don’t care because I love that book, do what I say, not what I do.
These timelines were too fucking short, don’t do this. Give yourself space to breathe and time to look over your manuscripts!
Once again, Kai to the rescue!!!
Reader, I cried. My one off-the-wall bucket list item for my debut year was to see someone make fanart and Linz swept into my DMs before the book was even out to show me June. It was like she was plucked straight from my brain and I’ve never been more grateful!
If I can give advice here; please know you can always update your covers later! You can also buy premade covers from a lot of talented artists and individuals across social media (IG is a great place to look, as well as Facebook!)
They’ve found and removed almost 200 illegal copies from Google/search engines for me since purchasing. I feel like that is well worth the cost as an early indie author, but as I scale, I plan on finding a more robust service in the future.
I did, however, think the email was fake at first. I am so sorry, Podium.
Yesss thank you I can’t wait to read