Alliance of Independent Authors

Is there a psychology of success for indie authors? Recently I found myself, as I often do, at a writers' conference. It was a mixed event, with about half of attendees aspiring to publication and the other half evenly divided between trade-published and self-published authors You can always tell which is which at these get-togethers. The indies are animatedly swapping tips and tools, ideas and insights. The trade-published authors are swapping stories of the latest problem with their agent or publisher.