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There are a lot of resources for indie authors, and it would be impossible to list all of my favorites, but I do personally recommend everything on this page.

Who is recommending these to you? My name is Stacy Claflin and I’ve published over 95 books since 2012, and two of them are USA Today bestselling titles. I’ve been a full-time author since February 2015. More about me.

Novel Planning

Use the sheets I created to help you fly through the process of planning your novel. The are the steps I use to write a novel in less than a month. It took me years to develop my process, so it can save you a lot of time!

Ultimate Novel Planning Workbook

Novel Brainstorming Worksheets

Character Sheets

Books for Authors

Indie Inspiration for Self-Publishers – Writing and marketing systems from a very successful author.

Creative Business Books for Authors and Writers – How to become a successful author.

Book Sales Supercharged – How to market your books to a wide audience.

QuitBooks for Authors – What authors should keep and quit.

Reclaim Your Author Career – Use the Enneagram to boost your author career.

7 Figure Fiction – Level up your fiction with universal fantasy.

Let’s Get Publishing Series – Expert advice, even for beginners.

Write Faster, Write Smarter Series – Tips for authors at all levels.

Self Publishing Unboxed Series – Smart advice for authors.

Emotion Thesaurus Series – How to craft emotions.

Stark Publishing Solutions – Success tips for wide authors.

Ultimate Author Guides – Deep dives into success tips.

Self Publishing Guide Series – Advanced tips for authors.

Podcasts to Grow Your Business

I’ve linked to the YouTube channels of these podcasts, but most are also available on other popular podcast platforms such as Apple and Spotify.

The QuitCast (What to quit, what to keep, and what to question.)

The Creative Penn Podcast (Writing and marketing advice)

Sell More Books Show (Self Publishing news and current events)

Wish I’d Known Then (Interviews with successful authors)

Ines Johnson Breakdown (Breaking down story structure used in TV and movies)

Make Your Story Matter (Harness the power of psychology in storytelling)

Shaelin Writes (Craft and story tips)

The Writing Gals (Tips for authors)

Facebook Groups

Sometimes the best help you can get is by asking other authors, which is why I love FB author groups. Note: It can be a mixed bag too, so get several opinions before making a business decision! And be careful to make sure the person dishing out advice knows what they’re talking about. Check out their Amazon author pages.

Newsletter Ninja (How to make the most of your author newsletter)

Wide for the Win (How to market books on non-Amazon platforms)

Indie Inspiration with Elana Johnson (Advanced author tips)

20Booksto50k (Marketing tips for authors of all levels: huge group with plenty of searchable topics.)

YA Author Alliance (For authors who write Young Adult)

Create If Writing (Discussions for professional authors.)

Writing and Marketing Tips

Ultimate Marketing Guide – StoryOrigin

Book Cover Designers and Software – Kindlepreneur

How to Effectively use Promotion Sites – Nicholas Erik

Best Promo Sites – David Gaughran

Hard Sell Continuum – Get Coleman (You’ll smile at this one.)

Biggest Marketing Mistakes – BookBub

Starting Your Email List – StoryOrigin

Posts I’ve written:

How to Self Publish a Book (A quick overview)

Self Care for Authors

How I Wrote 150k Words in one Month

Productivity for Authors

Can’t Write to Music? Try this.

Top 5 Tips & Myths of Self Publishing

Unique Ways to Find Character Names

Why You Aren’t Writing More…And What You Can Do About It

5 Tips for New Authors

5 Lessons Learned from NaNoWriMo

Dismayed as a Writer?

How I Wrote 1/2-Million Words with a Day Job

Using Pinterest to Find Readers

My Beta Reader Questionnaire

I Finished my Novel, Now What?

Discipline or Creativity?

Newsletter

You’ll need a newsletter list to keep in contact with your readers, especially when you release your new book! I use and recommend MailerLite.

Cover Design

Didi Wahyudi has created many of my covers. And I always get so many compliments on them, not only from readers but authors ask me who made them.

My friend Cody is starting his digital art company. Check out his work and see if it’ll be a good fit for your book and business.

Professional Editing

Staci Troilo has edited most of my books. She’s very professional, quick, and easy to work with. If you’re looking for a professional editor, you won’t regret picking her.

Planning for Success

My favorite resource for planning — everything from my publishing schedule to the daily to-do lists — is definitely the Erin Condren Planner! I have too many to count and I love them all! You can customize them to your own preferences. They’re really versatile and you can do a lot with them! Give one a try for yourself:

My Writing Interviews

My interviews on writing and publishing, including how I went full-time.

Author Interviews

How to Plan Your Quarter

If there’s one thing that will kill any writer’s chance of success, it’s distraction. Losing focus of the important goals can cost a lot of time and money. And it’s all too easy in this digital age. And as I like to say, I put the pro in procrastination.

That’s why I’m so grateful for Sara Cannon’s HB90 Bootcamp! Every quarter, she leads us through the process of planning our next quarter with a plan to avoid those “squirrel moments” we all have!

Starting From Zero

While I haven’t taken this course personally, David Gaughran knows his stuff. If you’re new to this, you have nothing to lose!

*This page contains some affiliate links. That just means I’ll get a small commission if you purchase through my link (you won’t be charged any extra), and I thank you for the support! Please note that I only promote products I use and believe in.