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Me and Blueberry on an adventure! (to the dog park, his favorite place in the whole world)

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There’s a problem with advice in the indie author community, and I say this as someone who regularly gives advice.

The problem is this: not all advice is relevant to you.

Just like any industry, you have your normal good advice and bad advice, given by both qualified and unqualified (and medium-qualified) people.

But what I’ve noticed is that often there is a certain amount of nuance lacking, based on where the receiver of the advice is in their career path.

Let me give you an example: one of the areas where authors have a lot of feelings is related to money. And many of the suggestions offered by experienced authors are about where to spend money. But how much money to spend is a really personal decision, and much of it depends on where an author is in their career.

I once listened to an author who recommended publishing all formats of a book on launch day. Each launch, he had an ebook, a paperback, a hardcover, a large print edition, and an audiobook available on day 1. Those of you who have dabbled in audiobooks know that this is no small expense. When the interviewer asked him what his budget was per book, he answered: $25,000.

Even for many experienced authors who are making $100k or more per year on book royalties, $25k for each launch is still quite steep.

Other authors recommend spending $400 on book covers, and I’ve heard literal gasps from newer authors when they hear that number. And when you add up the costs of editing and design, the cost of publishing a book can run up towards two or three thousand dollars pretty quickly. To a newer author facing these costs for the first time, the idea of spending one or two hundred on marketing can seem intimidating. But to an author who has a business plan, a budget, and is generating significant income on their books, a few hundred dollars for marketing is paltry.

Another example is reviews. Many marketing platforms require a minimum number of reviews on a book before allowing an author to promote through them. I may have 500 reviews on a book, but a brand-new author may still be struggling to get to 5. Which means, any advice that requires a book to have more than a few reviews is not applicable.

I bring this up because this applies to all authors and all advice. Some advice is simply not relevant to you.

Figuring out which advice is relevant and which isn’t may take some time, but I think it’s worth remembering and worth repeating that if some advice feels wrong, even if you can’t quite put your finger on why, it’s at least worth noticing the feeling.

As individual business owners, we can’t do all of the things all of the time, so I usually recommend focusing your time and energy on the things you want to be doing, as much as you can. Just because someone says something, doesn’t mean it’s true; and just because someone offers advice, doesn’t mean it’s good advice for you.