Five different creative brains an indie author needs

An independent, self-published author has to be a jack of all trades. The more I’m learning about all the indie authors need to master, the more I’m amazed and sometimes even overwhelmed. Especially after I’ve realized, the various parts of the self-publishing journey need very distinct skill sets and feel as if one had to use different parts of the brain to master them.

The writer’s brain is the one I tap into while drafting. It’s the creative well overflowing with inspiration. Here, the characters live, breathe, learn and change as if they were real people. Here, the story develops, the plot twists happen, the foreshadowings and reveals take place. It’s the state of mind the most authors live for—the birth place of a story that wants to be shared with the world. It’s why we write in the first place.

Then there’s the developmental editor’s brain. One needs a different skill set and state of mind to make the story work: to find and fix the plot holes, to improve the character voices, to enhance their arcs, to tidy up the scenes—delete the redundant ones and enhance those that move the story forward. When I revise, I look at the story from outside. I turn into a data-planer. I draw data-flow diagrams, mind-maps and tables (who would have known the course on data management I took at the University would come in handy…). I track changes, move things around, delete or rewrite what doesn’t work. It is still a creative process, but it feels different from the flow of drafting.

The line editor’s brain has its distinct feel as well. While editing on the line level, the writing itself comes into focus. Word choices, grammar, and style are the center of the author’s  pursuit. Polishing the prose requires diving into the complexity of the language. In the drafting phase, the writer has concentrated on developing the story and the characters. Now, in the line editing phase, it’s time to step away from the (hopefully) well crafted story and concentrate on constructing beautiful sentences  while keeping the story flowing. This is an art in itself and requires yet again a new way of looking at the manuscript.

Of course there are professional developmental and line editors that help the author with these stages. But as their services are not cheep, it’s recommended to do as much of the self-editing as possible, before approaching these professionals. You wouldn’t want to spend money on correcting mistakes you could have spotted yourself.

If you’ve thought that’s enough diverse stages the indie author needs to go through, you are mistaken. If a writer wants to self-publish their book, they have to develop a business brain as well. With traditional publishing, the publishing house takes care of the business side. But as a self-published author, the whole administration is in your hands. It gives an indie author the independence and creative freedom to choose their book covers, formatting, character artists, platforms to publish their work on and so on; but the whole responsibility and costs are also on their shoulders.

And then there is the marketing brain. The publishing houses do some of the marketing for the authors under their wings, but even a traditionally published author is still required to do a lot of marketing by themselves nowadays. An indie author must take care of the marketing alone (unless they can afford to pay someone). Making connections on the social media, creating a web-site, sending newsletters… marketing often starts while the book is still in the first stages of being written. It requires lots of creativity to come up with captions, photos, videos, interactive posts and blogs to engage the potential reader and make them interested in the story the author desperately wants to share with the world. No-one wants to invest their time, energy and often a substantial sum of money into publishing a book that will be forgotten under the pile of other books that are being published daily. The authors want to share their story with the world, so they have to make sure the world sees it.

Juggling these five creative skill sets is challenging. You need to switch on the correct part of the brain and switch off the others. It’s a learning curve. But the freedom of being a self-published author may well be worth it.