Author name: Tracy

Working Harder Starts with Time Off: Why Downtime Isn’t a Luxury (It’s a Strategy)

/ Indie Health, Longevity & Wellness / 4 minutes of reading

We all know downtime matters — but most of us don’t actually build it into our week. After a weekend of enforced “no work, just play,” I relearned the surprising truth: downtime isn’t a luxury, it’s a creative strategy. Even ten-minute breaks can reboot your energy and make you want to work harder. Here’s why you need micro-downtime — and how to make it part of your indie life without guilt.

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AI Just Went Mainstream. Here’s What That Means for Indie Authors

/ Technology, Tools & AI / 3 minutes of reading

AI has officially gone mainstream—and that matters more than you think. This week on the blog, we’re looking at what the AI tipping point means for indie authors (hint: it’s not time to panic, but it is time to get your author platform AI-friendly). If your site doesn’t tell a chatbot what kind of stories you write, you’re already losing visibility.

Let’s fix that.

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Your Personal Weasel Word List (and Why You Should Actually Use It)

/ Publishing & Production, Work Processes / 3 minutes of reading

Before you dump your draft on an editor—or on your future self—you should be doing a ruthless cleanup pass. That starts with your own personal Weasel Word List: those sneaky, repetitive words and phrases that dull your prose and clutter your scenes. You’ve got ‘em. Everyone does. The trick is to catch them before your editor does. Bonus: clean manuscripts make ebook compilers very, very happy (and don’t randomly explode on Kindle).

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The Mid-Holiday Writing Retreat: Claim Your Time, Writer

/ Indie Health, Longevity & Wellness, Planning / 4 minutes of reading

Feeling like your writing time keeps getting chipped away by the holiday chaos? This post explores how to reclaim your creative space with a personalized mid-holiday writing retreat. Between Christmas and New Year is the perfect window to refocus, recharge, and write your heart out—without leaving home.

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The Two Survival Strategies Every Indie Author Needs Now

/ Marketing, Planning / 4 minutes of reading

The indie publishing world has fractured into a thousand niche markets, and the old one-size-fits-all advice just doesn’t cut it anymore. To thrive now, you need two things: a platform that keeps your readers close, and an experimental mindset that helps you navigate the mountain of conflicting advice. These aren’t just tactics—they’re survival strategies for the modern indie author.

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No, It’s Not Your Imagination. Publishing Is Tough Now.

/ Attitude, INDIE PUBLISHING, Marketing, Planning / 4 minutes of reading

If it feels like publishing is tougher than ever — it’s not your imagination. The market is saturated, algorithms are pay-to-play, and readers are trained to expect endless content for pennies. But that doesn’t mean you’re doomed. It means the game has changed. And smart indie authors are adapting by building direct reader platforms, redefining success on their own terms, and learning to market without selling their souls. The old paths are gone — time to blaze your own.

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Too Late for Holiday Promos? Not Even Close: 9 Smart Ways to Make the Most of Q4 Sales

/ Marketing, Planning / 4 minutes of reading / 1 Comment

October might be here, but it’s not too late to jump into holiday book promotions. If you’re short on time but still want to take advantage of the busiest buying season of the year, here are nine creative, effective ways to promote your books—and get them into readers’ hands before the new year.

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Let’s Bury “Fast = Crap” Once and for All

/ Attitude, Prolificacy / 4 minutes of reading

The “fast = crap” myth is creeping back into author circles—and it’s time to shut it down. Whether you write fast, slow, or somewhere in between, what matters is craft, not the clock. This post unpacks why speed doesn’t equal sloppiness, how believing otherwise can harm your writing, and what the Artisan Author mindset really means. Spoiler: it’s not “write slow or else.”

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The Perfect Life for an Author? It Looks Boring as Hell.

/ Attitude, INDIE PUBLISHING, Planning / 2 minutes of reading / 2 Comments

If you’re serious about writing — I mean serious-serious — then at some point you’re going to have to give things up. And not just a Netflix show or two. I mean real, soul-wrenching, this-or-that decisions.

I’ve made them. I gave up socializing. I gave up making clothes and jewelry. I took lower-paid jobs so I’d have the energy to write.

Writing takes time. And if your life is already full, then something else has to go. That’s the reality. You can’t wedge a writing career into the margins of a life that’s already packed.

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