At this present time, I don’t consider myself an “active Indie Author”. To clarify any confusion, let me explain. Yes, I do have two books out in the world. Yes, you can find them on Amazon. Yes, you can purchase them on Amazon. Please do. Sometimes, you may have the vampire novel, due to KDP land, for free.
And I had planned on independently publishing more books, but life didn’t only happen– it Dragon Punched me in such a way that I wouldn’t wish these circumstances on my worst enemy.
So, for now, I won’t be putting money (that I don’t have) into marketing these books. Why? Please read what’s within the parentheses above. For example, my oldest son will be going to college soon, driving, and continuing to make my husband and I proud.
Needless to say, my answer to the question “can you afford to be indie author?” is No. Not Yet.
And the not yet is a much better response than no, not ever.
Now, with that said, I simply had to share this post from Angela J. Ford, an Indie author who has the right stuff.
Can you afford to be an indie author? As independent authors, we have to be aware of the way cost plays into self-publishing. Cost can mean the difference between turning book publishing into a business versus having a very expensive hobby. The question is, how much is too much? When do you know if your books are bringing in a positive return on investment?
Truth be told, some authors make back the investment they made into their books, while the percentage of authors who don’t make back their money is larger. As I enter my 4th year of writing and publishing, I’m taking a hard look at the cost of book publishing versus what I can recoup back. While I certainly don’t have all the answers, I do want to break down expenses a bit and help you figure out when too much is too much.
You can enjoy the remainder of this thought-provoking post here.
Monique L. Desir 
Yeah, it’s cost that’s kept me from marketing, because I don’t want to try to get people to buy my book until I’m able to deliver the next one, so why push now if I’m going to have to push later. Thankfully, I’ve got some tech skills, so I can format my own ebooks and print internals. I also did my own book covers, which is generally frowned upon, but based on the feedback I’ve gotten, I think I’ve managed to hit the quality sweet spot. That just leaves the editing, and boy does that add up. Ouch.
We need to swap emails! I need help with book covers and more! 🙂