Author name: Tracy

Writing Through Disfluency: How to Embrace the Grind and Keep Moving Forward

/ Creativity, Discipline & Motivation, Habits / 6 minutes of reading / Leave a Comment

Writing is hard. Some days, it’s staring at a blank page until your soul starts to shrivel. Other days, it’s forcing words onto the page that feel as clunky as a toddler’s first steps. This difficulty, though, isn’t a bug in the system—it’s a feature. What you’re experiencing is disfluency, the grinding friction that comes when creativity refuses to flow like a perfect algorithm. But here’s the kicker: disfluency isn’t just a hurdle to clear; it’s the point of the creative process.

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Don’t Let This Happen to You: My Tale of Credit Card Checker Chaos

/ Disaster Planning, Technology, Tools & AI / 4 minutes of reading / Leave a Comment

A couple of weeks ago, my online store turned into a digital battleground. One minute, I was running a cozy little shop for my indie author business; the next, I was fending off a tsunami of fraudulent transactions orchestrated by credit card checkers. Let me walk you through the nightmare, so you can avoid the

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Writers’ Digest 101 Best Websites for Writers

/ Housekeeping, INDIE PUBLISHING / 3 minutes of reading / Leave a Comment

Why It Matters and How You Can Help For over two decades, Writers’ Digest has celebrated the best resources available to writers with its 101 Best Websites for Writers award. This annual list highlights exceptional websites that support writers on their creative journey, whether they’re looking to improve their craft, market their work, or navigate

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Why Being “Prolific” in Indie Publishing Might Not Mean What You Think

/ Prolificacy / 4 minutes of reading / Leave a Comment

If you’ve been in indie publishing for a while, you’ve probably felt it: the slow, creeping decline in book sales. You’re writing as fast as you can, launching books regularly, marketing like mad… and yet, it feels like you’re running uphill in quicksand. Here’s some perspective: According to ALLi’s Dan Holloway, 2.6 million indie titles

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Why Indie Authors Need Downtime (And How to Actually Get It)

/ Creativity, Indie Health, Longevity & Wellness, INDIE PUBLISHING, Scheduling & Tracking / 5 minutes of reading

As an indie author, you’re not just a writer. You’re a marketing department, an editor, a publisher, a social media manager, and possibly the person who has to remember to water the plants. All this juggling means burnout is more than a risk—it’s almost a guarantee if you’re not actively carving out downtime. And yet, downtime isn’t laziness or time wasted. It’s the fuel that keeps the creative engine running and prevents that ugly beast called burnout from knocking on your door.

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What the WWM 2024 Indie Author Survey Got Right (and What It Missed)

/ INDIE PUBLISHING, Planning, Technology, Tools & AI / 2 minutes of reading

The 2024 Indie Author Survey by Written Word Media offers some interesting insights—albeit not without its blind spots. While the survey highlights obvious trends like the link between publishing more books and higher earnings, there are nuances that the survey didn’t fully capture, especially for those who’ve found success outside digital norms. Key FindingsThe survey

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Discipline: The Secret Sauce to Indie Author Success

/ Discipline & Motivation, Stoicism & Perspective / 4 minutes of reading

When we say that, “discipline is destiny,” this is what we mean—that discipline is both predictive and deterministic. It predetermined that Marcus would not only be a great emperor, but a great man too. Just as it assured that the final chapters for the cautionary tales of history—Napoleon, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, King George

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Unlocking Hidden Value: How Credit Card Rewards Can Offset Your Indie Author Business Expenses

/ Finance, Money Management & Frugality / 4 minutes of reading

When it comes to running an indie author business, every dollar counts. Between Facebook ads, travel for events, and software subscriptions, those costs add up fast. But here’s a little secret—if you’re not leveraging credit card rewards, you could be leaving money (or points!) on the table. While most of us think of credit card

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Leveling Up Your Literary Citizenship: Mentorship, Craft, and Making It Work for You

/ INDIE PUBLISHING, Marketing, Networking / 6 minutes of reading / 1 Comment

Welcome back! If you’ve been following along, you already know that Literary Citizenship is a way to boost the entire writing community—indie authors included—while connecting with fellow writers and readers. But it’s more than just signing up for newsletters and hitting the like button on Instagram (though, keep doing that too!). In this post, we’ll

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