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Cara Clare and James Blatch host a weekly light-hearted chat about all things self publishing.
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76 Episodes
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In this episode of the Indie Writers Club, Cara talks us through her launch strategy for a standalone book (a Chatterly retelling with vampires and spice!). This is one of the toughest challenges for indies. Our process generally relies on series and readthrough, but with the many options emerging for exploiting your book (translations, special editions etc) might this be a future strategy we can all follow? **** WARNING - NSFW - WE DO DISCUSS SPICE SCENES **** USEFUL LINKS: Join the AI Trans...
James Blatch returns after an 18-month hiatus to relaunch the Self-Publishing Show and outline its new direction. In this solo episode, he reflects on why the show paused, what changed during that time with the Indie Writers Club, and how the podcast will evolve going forward with a new co-host. James also shares his clear, pragmatic stance on AI in publishing, discusses AI translations for authors, and previews upcoming projects, courses, and live events for the indie publishing community. ...
In this heartfelt exit interview, Cara Clare reflects on her journey as a co-host of the Indie Writers Club alongside James Blatch. They discuss the significance of the podcast in their personal and professional growth, the exciting announcement of the Novel Beginnings contest aimed at supporting new writers, and the transition to the Self-Publishing Show. The conversation also delves into the nuances of writing spice, the complexity of emotions in storytelling, and the challenges of explorin...
In this episode of the Indie Writers Club podcast, James Blatch and Cara Claire discuss the transition of Cara's writing project, 'The Chatterley Affair', into the marketing phase. And delve into a detailed critique of the film adaptation of 'Hamlet', comparing it to the original book. The conversation highlights the importance of character development, emotional engagement, and the role of directors and authors in film adaptations, culminating in a discussion about audience reactions a...
In this third-to-last episode of the IWC Podcast, we will look at the Anthropic (Claude AI) settlement on offer to some authors. We'll explain what needs to happen by you if your name is on the official list and what your options are. This is the link I refer to in the show: https://www.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/ - this is the only official settlement website. USEFUL LINKS: Get 15% of annual plans at our sponsor ProWritingAid by using code IWC15 https://www.prowritingaid.com Join...
This week Cara and I review the current happenings in the world of indie and we briefly discuss our own plans for 2026. And at 43.47 (if you want to skip ahead) Cara makes a sad announcement :( We both wish you a Happy New Year and here's to an enjoyable, fun 2026! James. USEFUL LINKS: Get 15% of annual plans at our sponsor ProWritingAid by using code IWC15 https://www.prowritingaid.com Join our Patreon for exclusive access including Live Q&As with James & Cara and your chance t...
In this festive episode of the Indie Writers Club, James Blatch and Cara Clare discuss the challenges of taking downtime during the holiday season while managing their writing businesses. They reflect on sales trends during Christmas, share personal experiences with marketing strategies, and delve into the impact of TikTok's algorithm changes on book promotion. The conversation also highlights success stories in indie publishing, the implications of AI in translations, and innovative book lau...
In this week's episode Cara and James are joined by Robin Bennett-Freebairn whose non-fiction gift books are flying off the virtual Etsy shelves. This has big implications for special editions and box sets, especially at this time of year. USEFUL LINKS: Get 15% of annual plans at our sponsor ProWritingAid by using code IWC15 https://www.prowritingaid.com Join our Patreon for exclusive access including Live Q&As with James & Cara and your chance to discuss your writing career. https:...
In part two of a look back at 2025, Cara and James discuss where we are with AI acceptance (spoiler, a dwindling band of holdouts very much exist). We also discuss direct selling as one of the big expansion areas for indies. USEFUL LINKS: Get 15% of annual plans at our sponsor ProWritingAid by using code IWC15 https://www.prowritingaid.com Join our Patreon for exclusive access including Live Q&As with James & Cara and your chance to discuss your writing career. https://www.indie...
In this episode Jame & Cara start to look back on a fast moving year for indie publishing. They touch on AI Translations, one of the big breakthrough areas, the mythical A10 Amazon Algorithm and plenty of other chat! USEFUL LINKS: Get 15% of annual plans at our sponsor ProWritingAid by using code IWC15 https://www.prowritingaid.com Join our Patreon for exclusive access including Live Q&As with James & Cara and your chance to discuss your writing career. https://www.indiewrit...
We are joined by the multi-talented Adam Beswick (AP Beswick) to talk empire building. Adam has used TikTok to build a loyal following of readers and he now focuses on selling direct to them, using TikTok Shop and TikTok Lives. He's an evangelist for the platform and he has a fantastic mindset. It's a great chat! USEFUL LINKS: Get 15% of annual plans at our sponsor ProWritingAid by using code IWC15 https://www.prowritingaid.com Join our Patreon for exclusive access including Live...
This week Cara & James touch on the subject of influencers and how to use them. James also talks about the coming AI storm for ads, he reports on AuthorNation and rants about the cost of living! USEFUL LINKS: Get 15% of annual plans at our sponsor ProWritingAid by using code IWC15 https://www.prowritingaid.com Join our Patreon for exclusive access including Live Q&As with James & Cara and your chance to discuss your writing career. https://www.indiewritersclub.com/support
In this week's episode, James reports from AuthorNation, indie publishing's largest conference. The talk is of new technology, a recent slump in ads effectiveness and the possibility of more seismic changes to come! USEFUL LINKS: Get 15% of annual plans at our sponsor ProWritingAid by using code IWC15 https://www.prowritingaid.com Join our Patreon for exclusive access including Live Q&As with James & Cara and your chance to discuss your writing career. https://www.indiewriterscl...
This week we delve into the intriguing world of ghost writing. You might know Cara is/has been, a professional ghost writer and she spills the beans on this industry that takes place largely in the shadows. We also touch on the sudden epidemic of author scams using AI to highly personalise the first approaches. USEFUL LINKS: Get 15% of annual plans at our sponsor ProWritingAid by using code IWC15 https://www.prowritingaid.com Join our Patreon for exclusive access including Live Q&As wi...
This week we have a bona fide guest! Cissy Mecca is a close friend and fellow author whose work I'm constantly admiring—she's brilliant at finding innovative ways to streamline our publishing workflow. (And she's an incredible writer, too.) We recently stayed together in Florence, and I was fascinated watching her receive her daily structure from her assistant "Pedro." Turns out Pedro isn't a person at all, but an AI she's trained to organize her entire work life, freeing her up to focus on t...
We discuss the the state of Trad vs Indie after a couple of comments from notable authors and commentators and come to an interesting conclusion! Also - it's possible Taylor Swift is secretly self-publishing poetry on Amazon KDP! We look at the evidence and implications... USEFUL LINKS: Get 15% of annual plans at our sponsor ProWritingAid by using code IWC15 https://www.prowritingaid.com Join our Patreon for exclusive access including Live Q&As with James & Cara and your chance to dis...
Much has happened behind the scenes of the Facebook Ads Manager and so james is setting out a series of tests. spending money on various combinations of Adv+ and manual targeting to see what's working now. James also reveals the finalists for the 2025 Amazon Kindle Storyteller Award without giving away any judging secrets! USEFUL LINKS: Get 15% of annual plans at our sponsor ProWritingAid by using code IWC15 https://www.prowritingaid.com Join our Patreon for exclusive access includi...
It's Friday! It's the Indie Writers Club! We continue our deep dive into the new era of searching using AI. Even if you are dead set against all things AI - you cannot ignore the fact that readers will be searching for your books using AI in the future. That means you need to adapt the way you describe your books, where you list them and a host of other things. If you want to learn more on this subject, I'd encourage you to sign up to Reedys's Ricardo Fayet's newsletter here: https://www.indi...
The era of keywords and Google searches is coming to an end. Searching through a longer form conversation with an AI is already taking over. That means we need to get our blurbs and book packages ready for the new era. James & Cara discuss the take-aways from NINC including Ricardo Fayet's talk on GEO. USEFUL LINKS: Ricardo's Blog: indiewritersclub.com/ricardo Join our Patreon for exclusive access including Live Q&As with James & Cara and your chance to discuss your writing ca...
In episode 55, James reports from the Floridian beach where he's attending the annual NINC conference. He and Cara also report some encouraging signs from their Facebook Ads campaigns. USEFUL LINKS: Join our Patreon for exclusive access including Live Q&As with James & Cara and your chance to discuss your writing career. https://www.indiewritersclub.com/support
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