Here’s the hard truth about being an indie writer: craft is necessary, but it’s not the whole machine. If you want sales that aren’t a one-time accident, you need to know where the system is leaking and fix the right leak.
This audit is a map. No fluff. Not a pep talk.
Run it like a mechanic, not a priest.
1) Run a “Hard Border” Diagnostic
Stop treating “my book isn’t selling” as a single problem. It’s usually one of three.
The Packaging Leak
Symptom: High impressions, low clicks.
Meaning: The market doesn’t understand what your book is, or doesn’t trust it.
Fix: New cover, better title, sharper blurb, tighter category fit.
The Conversion Leak
Symptom: High clicks, low sales.
Meaning: The sample isn’t closing, or the price feels wrong for the promise.
Fix: Edit the first 10%. Rework the opening pages. Adjust pricing.
The Craft Leak
Symptom: High sales, weak reviews, or poor sell-through to Book 2.
Meaning: The book isn’t delivering on the promise the packaging made.
Fix: Improve pacing, editing, structure, and payoff.
Don’t “try harder” at the wrong layer. Diagnose first. Then operate.
2) The “Translator” Packaging Test
Your packaging is not an extension of your art. It’s a translation of your art into a language the market can read in half a second.
Abolish Vague Imagery
Does your cover signal a specific genre in 0.5 seconds—or is it a mood board only you understand?
The Comp Comparison
Find the top 5 books in your exact subcategory. Put yours beside them.
Do you look like you belong at the party… or like the weird cousin who brought a lute?
The Blurb Hook
Does your blurb:
start with internal monologue (bad),
start with backstory and throat-clearing (worse), or
start with a high-stakes conflict and a choice (good)?
Your blurb isn’t a synopsis. It’s a trap door.
3) Move from “Rented” to “Owned” Distribution
Stop asking the algorithm for permission to exist.
The Platform Risk Check
If Amazon or your social media platform booted you tomorrow, how many readers could you reach by hitting send on an email?
If the answer is “zero,” you don’t have a business. You have a hope.
Strategic Proximity
Identify five authors at your level in your niche (not Big Five celebrities).
Are you actively sharing audiences through newsletter swaps, joint promos, bundles, or anthology projects?
The Lead Magnet
Do you have a piece of bait with a pulse? Something that turns a casual reader into a subscriber?
A short story. A prequel. A deleted scene. A “specific obsession.”
Owned distribution is slow. So is compound interest. That’s the point.
4) Define Your “Non-Negotiables” (The Voice Anchor)
To avoid “fine,” you have to choose what you refuse to optimize away. That’s how you stay commercial without becoming trend-soup.
The Optimization Map
List three things you’re doing strictly for the market:
chasing a trope set
rapid-releasing
hitting a target word count
writing to a category’s expected beats
The Resistance Point
List one thing you won’t change even if it costs sales:
your prose edge
an unhappy ending
a niche theme you won’t dilute
the specific kind of weird you’re protecting
The Result
If you have no resistance point, you’re at risk of writing slop.
If you have too many, you’re writing a private diary.
Find the 80/20: enough market fit to be found, enough stubbornness to be remembered.
5) Kill the “Persistence” Narrative
Persistence is a baseline. It’s not a strategy. It’s fuel.
Stop Digging
If you’ve written three books in a series and none are moving, don’t “persist” with a failing bet.
Iterate: change the packaging, change the positioning, change the channel, or start a new signal.
Measure Input vs. Outcome
Are you spending 90% of your time barking on social media and 10% building distribution (email list, partnerships, measured ads)?
Flip the ratio. Stop performing for strangers. Start building assets.
The Brutal Bottom Line
Quality gets you invited to the table.
Packaging gets you a seat.
Distribution gets you a microphone.
Luck decides if the power stays on.
You can control the first three. So control them on purpose.
Great tips!