Dealing With Information Overload as an Indie Author

What does it feel like being an indie author? Drowning. Yep, it feels like water is rushing into your lungs, pushing out all of the oxygen, and suffocating you as you thrash around trying to get your head above water. But whenever you do break to the surface, you’re pulled back beneath the waterline, and your vision blurs as panic rushes through you as water encases you entirely.

Why is that? It’s because you, as a new author, don’t know what you’re doing (which is the fun part), and you have to search on the Internet to answer whatever questions you have because you are lost at sea trying to find land. This inevitably leads to information overload.

You read one article that says “Ten Things You ABSOLUTELY Need to Do as an Indie Author,” and you know you have to read that because “absolutely” is in capital letters. Or you listen to a YouTube video that argues as an indie, you NEED to market your books on social media. Or you hear that you need a newsletter, but you don’t know how to set one up or what to write in it, so you buy a book and your to-do list, which already feels like a list of Herculean labors, expands more and more and more along with your stress levels and blood pressure, of course.

It’s information overload, and it exists on top of all the information that is in the current book and series that you are working on. Your brain might have already been stretched to its limits with writing a book, but now, because you want people to read your book, which means marketing, it needs to stretch further.

If you don’t do something, you’re going to burn out. So, what can you do?

Write.

It will be easy because it’s what you’re already doing. If you spend all day wondering, worrying, and planning about what you are going to do to get your book into the hands of readers, reading craft books on writing, listening to podcasts to hopefully get some semblance of an idea of what to do next as an author, or listening to a few videos about the recent change that Amazon made to its policy. Then you’re going to be paralyzed. What you won’t be doing is writing.

So, turn off your Internet connection, or only open your own browser if you write in Google Docs, Scrivener, or another online word processor, and write. Chip away at that current book that you’re working on, or that email that you’ll send out to your newsletter, or that blog post you need to get done.

Don’t worry about whether you should be exclusive to Amazon or go wide. Don’t worry about getting book reviews. Don’t worry about editing and revising other work. Don’t worry about trends on TikTok. Don’t worry about ideas for your cover. Don’t worry about what your first step is to market the book. Don’t worry about beta readers, how to find them, or whether you need them in the first place. Don’t worry about posting a social media post. Don’t worry about how you can write faster and publish books more quickly,

Don’t worry about which book influencers and reviewers you’ll send your book to, finding them, or figuring out whether or not you need them. Don’t worry about figuring out whether Substack is a good fit for you as a writer or if you need to use MailerLite or another strictly newsletter service. Don’t spend time researching and debating whether it’s worth it to release your book for free. Don’t concern yourself with what a reader magnet is, how to write one, or whether it’s even worth it for you to take the time to make one. Don’t worry about finding an agent, querying a traditional publisher, or figuring out whether trad pub is the right fit for you. Don’t worry about whether you need an author website or if you should wait until you have more books.

Write.

Yes, all those things are important, but they will take time and experimentation to figure out. Or as Julius Caesar said, “Ut est rerum omnium magister usus.” Experience is the teacher of all things. Everything, and more, that I’ve mentioned in this post are bridges that you’ll probably have to cross as an author. It’s going to be time-consuming, overwhelming, and frustrating, but you’ll get there. But whenever you do find yourself suffering from information overload and paralysis, sit down and write. You have plenty of time to figure out how to do everything else, so put it on the back burner and get lost in the story that you’re writing.

Speaking of stories, if you found this blog post and don’t know who I am, then you can hit the “Novels” or “Children’s Books” tabs and check out my books. Thanks for reading!