Indie Author Confidential 8: Indie Author Confidential, #8

By M.L. Ronn

The ground-breaking, behind-the-scenes look at a working writer continues with Vol. 8!

Prolific writer M.L. Ronn (Michael La Ronn) shares his lessons learned on his journey to become a successful writer. You'll discover writing, marketing, business, and other miscellaneous tips that you don't hear every day.

Covered in this volume:

• A mindblowing lesson Michael learned from studying Dean Koontz

• How Michael became supremely organized in all areas of his writing business

• Learning the basics of cryptocurrencies and how they will apply to authors

• Lessons in estate planning for authors

The information in this book is what writers discuss over beers at writing conferences. You may find it useful on your journey to becoming a successful writer. It just might make you more money and help you satisfy your readers, too.

Are you ready to dive into the world of Indie Author Confidential?

 

V1.0

• Language: English
• Publisher: Author Level Up LLC
• Release date: Feb 12, 2022
• ISBN: 9798885510042

M.L. Ronn

Science fiction and fantasy on the wild side! M.L. Ronn (Michael La Ronn) is the author of many science fiction and fantasy novels including the Modern Necromancy, The Last Dragon Lord, and Sword Bear Chronicle series. In 2012, a life-threatening illness made him realize that storytelling was his #1 passion. He’s devoted his life to writing ever since, making up whatever story makes him fall out of his chair laughing the hardest. Every day.

Book preview

Indie Author Confidential 8

INDIE AUTHOR CONFIDENTIAL 8

SECRETS NO ONE WILL TELL YOU ABOUT WRITING

M.L. RONN

Copyright 2022 © M.L. Ronn. All rights reserved.

Published by Author Level Up LLC.

Version 2.0

Cover Design by Pixelstudio.

Cover Art by jasoshulwathon.

Editing by BZ Hercules.

Time Period Covered in This Book: Q1 2022

Special thank you to the following people on Patreon who supported this book: Zhade Barnet, Stephen Frans, Michael Guishard, Jon Howard, Beth Jackson, Mojo Jojo, Lynda Washington, and Etta Welk.

Some links in this book contain affiliate links. If you purchase books and services through these links, I receive a small commission at no cost to you. You are under no obligation to use these links, but thank you if you do!

For more helpful writing tips and advice, subscribe to the Author Level Up YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/authorlevelup.

For avoidance of doubt, Author reserves the rights, and no one has the rights to reproduce and/or otherwise use this work in any manner for purposes of training artificial intelligence technologies to generate text, including without limitation, technologies that are capable of generating works in the same style or genre as the work without the Author’s specific and express permission to do so. Nor does any person or company have the right to sublicense others to reproduce and/or otherwise use this work in any manner for purposes of training artificial intelligence technologies to generate text without Author’s specific and express permission.

CONTENTS

About This Series

Introduction

Become a World-Class Content Creator

Dealing with COVID (Again)

A Reminder That Tables of Contents Are Underrated

Dean Koontz Pattern Interrupts

QR Codes in a Paperback

Overview of My Master Publishing File

The Author Heir Handbook: An Intellectual Swing and Miss?

Lessons From Creating My First Large Print Edition

Maximizing My Portfolio

Correcting a Mistake from the Past

Hospitality Woes

Become a Technology and Data-Driven Writer

Why I Finally Took the Leap on ISBNs

Sudowrite

Lessons in Two-Factor Authentication

Amazon KDP Print Woes

The Three-Minute Challenge

Using AI for Audiobook Proofing

My Writing App Database: A Lesson in Failure

Urban Fantasy Data and Analytics in 2022

My Initial Thoughts on Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain

Decentralized Social Media

Looking Forward

If I Were Starting Again Today

Overwhelmed and Disorganized: How I Climbed Out of a Rut

The Costs of Cover Design Continue to Rise

Lessons in Licensing: Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?

Estate Planning Consultations with Attorneys

Estate Planning Lessons

Web 3.0 Trends

Cybersecurity for Authors is the Future

Some Thoughts on the Pace of Technology

Q1 2022 Progress Report

Content Created While Writing This Book

Read the Next Volume

Meet M.L. Ronn

More Books by M.L. Ronn

ABOUT THIS SERIES

This isn't your typical writing self-help book. This series is a compilation of lessons learned from an indie author trying to walk the path to success. Follow author M.L. Ronn (Michael La Ronn) as he navigates what it means to master the craft of writing, marketing, and running a profitable publishing business. Learn from his successes and failures, and learn about things that most successful authors only talk about behind the scenes.

To read all the collected volumes of this series in an anthology, visit www.authorlevelup.com/confidential.

INTRODUCTION

I always love starting a new year. The first quarter is always a power quarter for me. I often get more done in the first quarter than other quarters combined. There's something about the winter that inspires me to work faster. It's probably my go-to combination of tea and moody jazz, which is always a more effective combo when it's cold and depressing outside. They help me think deeper. Winter is often my most intellectually creative season for this reason.

2022 promises to be just as crazy of a year as 2020 and 2021. There's still so much uncertainty about the COVID-19 pandemic and how it is going to end, but there are some positive signs that the virus is weakening. Hopefully, that's true for all of our sakes. This disease is driving people nuts, literally and figuratively.

2022 also represents a clean slate for my writing business because I've streamlined my strategy to three strategic pillars instead of five. As a result, I have fewer goals to achieve, which gives me more clarity and focus as I target the most important tactical objectives.

My Core Strategic Priorities

As a refresher, my mission is to create content that entertains and/or educates my audience, preferably both, and to remain nimble in an ever-changing industry. I do this by focusing on three strategic priorities:

Become a world-class content creator

Become a technology and data-driven writer

Become the writer of the future (looking forward)

I believe these three priorities are most important for me to have a long-term, sustainable career.

I have updated the format of this book moving forward. There will only be three sections—one for each strategic pillar—and you can expect approximately 10 chapters in each (down from 12).

By streamlining future volumes of Indie Author Confidential, I will free up more time to write fiction, which has always been my focus. But you can still expect the same quality of content in this series.

What's in This Volume

This volume is the most diverse volume I have written yet.

In the World-Class Content Creator section, I discuss lessons learned from getting COVID a second time, an important lesson I learned from studying Dean Koontz this quarter, and a new approach I took to managing my intellectual property that is already paying off massive dividends. I also talk about my exploration into creating my first large print edition.

In the Technology and Data-Driven Writer section, I discuss why I finally made the leap to purchase 1000 ISBNs. This was a big deal for me, and it opens up so many capabilities that I didn't have before. I also talk about experiments with AI-assisted software for writing my books and why it's a cornerstone of my production process moving forward. I also discuss a colossal success in Q3 2021 that turned out to be a colossal failure. Funny how things change in just six months.

In the Looking Forward (formerly Become the Writer of the Future) section, I talk about the dizzying number of technologies that will be coming in the near future, how I dealt with a recent bout of overwhelm, the continued rise of cover design costs, and what I would do if I were starting my writing business again today in 2022. I am calling this section Looking Forward because I will use it to discuss the future of writing, but also other topics that don't neatly fit into the other categories.

Like I said, I cover a lot of ground in this volume, and I hope it makes for intriguing reading.

Enjoy this volume.

M.L. Ronn

February 1, 2022

Des Moines, Iowa

BECOME A WORLD-CLASS CONTENT CREATOR

DEALING WITH COVID (AGAIN)

In January 2022, I tested positive for COVID-19. I’m fairly certain it was the Omicron strain.

At the time, I was fully vaccinated and boosted. I had cold-like symptoms and a sore throat for several days. Fortunately, I was fine with no long-lasting symptoms or long COVID.

The illness took me away from writing for a week because my entire family caught it.

My then manuscript-in-progress went untouched. My emails piled up. I had to postpone a speaking event. I missed a week of work.

Yet, something miraculous happened.

My books kept selling.

I landed a