Ask any indie game dev what the secret to marketing an indie game is and you will hear pretty much the same thing: get featured on the Steam or the mobile App Stores, get covered by the press, get covered by a popular streamer. Launch without those and that game you worked so hard on for however many years is going to be a bust.

But, just imagine a market where those considerations aren't even an option. What if there was no such thing as a Steam Launch Visibility Round or getting featured on the App Store? What if there was no enthusiast press to cover your game? And what if instead of the 7667 games that released on Steam in 2017, there were more than 100,000 new books in the same year. And what if the total number of titles in the store exceeded 4,000,000.

Indie fiction authors have so much more to teach than what goes down at Bear Creek.

That truly apocalyptic scenario is a reality if you are a self-published fiction author. For example, Amazon.com doesn't have special curated pages showing "best new books," Unfortunately it just shows a list of the top selling books and those are filled with books that have been there for the last couple decades (Harry Potter, Steven King etc). And worse off, unless your book is a traditionally published literary darling, nobody writes about newly released books.

These basic limitations make some of our troubles as indie game devs seem petty. You might think it would be hopeless for making an indie career as a self-published author. But amazingly, a hearty bunch of indies figured out how to survive this harsh reality without the kinds of luxuries that we expect. 

With all the recent talk of an Indiepocalypse, I went out to see how other indie creatives managed to survive. What I found in indie author world was a set of marketing strategies that were amazingly sophisticated. It seems the brutal environment bred innovation.

If your game failed find success because it was never featured or earned media coverage there is some hope for you yet. Let's explore an alternative reality to the indie world. Think of this like a botanist venturing into the harsh deserts to see what adaptations have evolved. 

Look at this cute little desert Kangaroo Rat. They adapted to the lack of water by harvesting moisture from seeds. So clever.

Disclaimer

The purpose of this article is to give ideas and alternative marketing strategies to indie devs who hope to release commercial games in a sustainable fashion. If you are a hobbyist or trying to break our very conception of what the medium is, this is not for you. This blog is not intended to stop anyone from pursuing their own creative path. Do whatever you want. Truly! But if you want some ideas on how to try to earn a living from your creative work so that it doesn't seem like such a gamble, this post is for you.

TLDR: Here is what indie authors are doing that we should consider

What are self published authors 

There have always been authors who wrote and distributed books despite not being signed by one of the big 5 publishers (Random House, Simon & Schuster etc). Typically these self-publishers were those whose chosen genre or writing abilities didn't fit with what publishers considered quality. But there were enterprising individuals who did the printing and distribution themselves: typically selling books out of the trunk of their car 

Some of these books are traditionally published and some are from indies. Can you tell the difference? Neither can most readers.

However since the release of the Kindle eBook reader and the widespread adoption of eBooks, authors can now sell their work without the overhead of distributing physical copies. The complete dominance of Amazon.com as a book distribution platform also means that a self published book can appear in the same search results as a book from the traditional publishers. In response, indie authors have upped their quality and marketing sophistication so that they appear indistinguishable from traditionally published authors. As a result of the indie author business model, many indies make more than a middle tier author that is signed to a traditional publisher.

Here are the nitty gritty details how they do this:.

They build a loyal fan base 

Indie authors make their real money from repeat buyers. Loyal fans evangelize their books, leave reviews, and buy every SKU (the eBook, audio book, and even the physical copy) just because they love their author so much. Amazingly, there are many indie authors who have built such a small but potent fan base that they earn hundreds of thousands of dollars a year but are virtually unknown outside their tight circle of followers. These authors have never been featured on the New York Times best selling list, they don’t win literary awards, or get movies made out of their books. But, they are top of mind to the people who matters the most: their fans.

The most important tool that indie authors use for connecting to their fan base is a mailing list. A mailing list performs far better than Twitter and Facebook and allows them to converse 1 on 1 with their fans. It also allows authors to slowly establish a relationship over time.

To get people on their mailing list, authors typically have a book on Amazon that is discounted to free or $0.99. That cheap book ends on a cliff hanger but with a message on the last page that says “Download the sequel to this book for free by going here <link>.” That links to website with a mailing list signup form. Once confirmed on the list, they are sent the promised free book.  

This is an example of the last page of many indie books. It is a clear, simple offer to get another free book in the series.Clicking that link takes you to the author's email list signup page.

Once you are on the mailing list, the author introduces themselves with an auto-responder sequence detailing their background and other books that they have written. The author also regularly sends out more free books to further build goodwill with their fan base. 

Then when the author releases a new book, they email their list. Those loyal readers then instantly download and almost always review that book the day it launches because they are so loyal. 

What we can learn from this

Build. A. Mailing. List. Now! And use it!

I write about this a lot so you can just go read my previous posts on this matter

They write a TON of books

The classic image of an author is one who toils on their masterwork for years. They live a monk-like existence in a sequestered hovel waiting for inspiration to strike. They rewrite every sentence until it is perfect. Then, they emerge with a book only after considerable anguish. This process repeats sporadically until they die having released only a handful of books. (See Harper Lee or J.D. Salinger)

This notion is not true for indie authors. These folks crank out books. Some at the rate of one a month. On top of books they also write regular blog posts, short stories, and emails to their fans. It is not uncommon for them to write 9000+ words a day, everyday. They measure their productivity with AIC time. Or Ass in Chair Time (while writing.)

Typical output of a single successful indie author. 

There are many reasons for this behavior. 

Nobody knows which book will be a success. They could either spend time pondering, deconstructing the meaning of literature, and then rewriting the same book 3 times. Or just publish 3 books and figure out which one does the best. The general rule is 20% of their books make 80% of their income. Unfortunately, nobody knows which will be a hit so they just need to keep trying. See this great talk How I Won The Lottery

Also if you write more, there are more books for your fans to buy. This is another reason authors establish a loyal readership who will buy everything the write. 

Authors also understand that success doesn't come overnight with a single book. There is a general understanding in self-publishing that you need to release at least 10 books before you can even hope of making a living at it. 

What we can learn

If you are having trouble getting visibility, make more games and faster. Quality is important but there are other ways to do more faster: