A no holds barred Q&A With Barbara Freethy and Bella Andre about writing, self-publishing and being super successful indie authors.
10 Million Sold and Counting: Barbara Freethy & Bella Andre
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Pop-Up Books: The Production Reality Behind Books That Move, Fold, and Function, with Anna Featherstone and Kelli Anderson
Most indie authors know print-on-demand. Pop-up and movable books inhabit a very different world — one of hand-assembly, specialist printers, and minimum print runs that make the economics unlike anything in standard publishing. In this episode, Anna Featherstone talks with Kelli Anderson, paper engineer and author of Alphabet in Motion, about what it actually takes to bring a movable book to life. They cover the manufacturing process, working with printers, using Kickstarter to fund a 25,000-copy print run, and where a curious author might begin if this form is calling to them.
News Summary: Tim Ferriss Warns AI Is Killing Nonfiction Sales; Substack Launches Creator Sponsorship Program
Before I get to Substack, I'll start with another story signposted by Jane Friedman this week. Be patient, it's relevant. Tim Ferriss is one of those "public thinkers" most of us will know from somewhere, whether that's the game-changing and hugely successful book The 4-Hour Workweek (and subsequent "Four Hour" titles) whose wisdoms many of us have spent so many more than four hours a week trying to implement in our lives, or his equally influential productivity and lifestyle podcast. If anyone is going to make a success of self-help writing, it's Tim.
Which Type of Indie Author Are You? (Or Would You Be?)
Which Type of Indie Author Are You? (Or Would You Be?) Adapted from Creative Self-Publishing by Orna Ross, featured in…




Excellent presentation, love your enthusiasm, personal stories, and guidance on making it in the new digital world.
I follow several indie author blogs / forums; Bella and Barbara just conducted a ‘masters class’ that should help all of us on our journey to survive and prosper through talent, perseverance, creativity, and vision.
Thank you both. Hope to run into you at a writers conference in the future. And best of luck as well! Keep writing and share your inspiration with us.
A super presentation! I may watch it again to catch things i missed there was so much good advice packed into your enthusiasm.
Congratulations on your tremendous success! It’s richly deserved. I too was dropped by a Big 5 publisher (Pocket Books) and I think it was the best thing that ever happened to me. I love controlling my own destiny. I have two questions: are either of you doing audio books? It seems like a fair amount of work, and it requires some initial financial outlay, so I’m wondering if the pay-off is there. Question 2: I recently got rights reversion on Books 2 and 3 of the mystery series I did for Pocket. Book 1 is selling well enough (by about 20 books!) to not qualify for reversion under my contract. So I offered to buy back my rights, and the publisher flatly refused. Do you have any advice about this? Would a lawyer be able to negotiate this, or is no, no? It kills me to have the first book in my series available at a higher price than Books 2 & 3 will be.
Thank you so much for taking the time to share your knowledge. I think there was so much gold in the video I’m going to have to watch it again.
Thank you for sharing, Bella. Would you agree that it helped that your name was already known before you indie published. Wish you the best
Heide Katros
Heide,
Hi there! No, I don’t believe that my trad publishing background helped me at all, because honestly, my print runs were teeny tiny back then. I like to joke about the 8 fans I had back when I was with NY publishers…except that I’m not really joking. I literally built my readership from the ground up with indie publishing!
🙂 Bella
Thank you for a really enjoyable presentation. Very incisive and inspiring.