Kindlerella is a blog dedicated to self-publishing and all the growing pains that come with it. Without making it sound too intimidating, I just want to make it very clear that there is a lot to learn here if you really want to make it in this industry. Why? Because you'll be the one doing 99% of the work, if not all of it. Now that I look back, writing takes no more than 40% of my time, and trust me, I'm being generous. Everything else falls under different categories that I don't enjoy doing as much. For example, marketing is one of the things I hate doing. In fact, the only reason I do it every day is that it helps me do what I love the most, which is writing. Not everything that comes with this career is sipping hot tea while looking out your window waiting for inspiration to kick in. This is business and you should treat it as such.

About seven years ago when I first started indulging in this idea of becoming a writer, I used to find information all over the place, writing down bits and pieces of knowledge I thought would be enough to start. Looking back at it, I want to hug my younger naive self. I was a law student, daydreaming about taking a left turn and having enough courage to finally do what I truly wanted. To be honest, other than writing, there is no other job I would enjoy doing every day. Not that I know of anyway. This tells me something very important. Writing is what I truly want to do with my life. Sure, pursuing this dream of mine set me back several years, but I finally graduated, forgot my degree that is just there, chilling, and started building my career from scratch. No prior knowledge, no education in the field, nothing. Luckily, learning about all aspects that come with self-publishing isn't something you learn in school anyway. To this day, I am still learning. To be completely honest, to this day things are still changing.

But here's the thing. I could never find a place where someone would teach me every step of the way. Instead, I would often spiral, finding more and more tutorials and even more contradictory information that made me want to quit more than once. It was too overwhelming, especially that feeling of not even knowing what I don't know. Because let me tell you, you can technically write down anything you want, follow basic instructions on Amazon, upload your work, and call it a day. No knowledge or skills whatsoever. But even then I knew that this way was not an option if I wanted to make it and actually make money. Had I had that someone to walk me through everything that was coming my way, I would save myself years. I'm not exaggerating. I would pay a small fortune to just have a place where I would learn EVERYTHING, or at least be able to find it.

I will give my absolute best to be that person for you. I'll teach you everything that I personally did, including things that may seem like they don't have anything to do with self-publishing. They do. It's up to you to choose what you want to implement in your strategy, but let me first share this one thing with you. Back in the day, I would pick and choose certain tips and ignore the ones that seemed unnecessary. That was a mistake. If you could ignore this beginner mentality where you'll want to find ways to do less, your success will come much, much faster. To put it bluntly, instead of thinking "How can I avoid doing this particular step?" always ask yourself "What else can I do here in order to be even more successful?"

I'll teach you about writing, blogging, YouTube, income, marketing, social media, and everything that you'll face at one point or another. It would be impossible to list everything now. All of these pieces make one huge puzzle. It sounds intimidating but think of it this way. You wouldn't open a coffee shop and skip a bunch of steps in the process. No, you would take it seriously because it's business. Sadly, the reason why so many people fail and give up on writing is that they don't see this as a business when, in reality, there is no other way around it. Knowledge is key. If you really want to make this your career and want to take it seriously, you're immediately in a much better starting position that the vast majority of self-published writers. You may think that all of them are doing everything in their power to make it, everything you'll be doing, but you're wrong. And that's good news for you.

So without further ado, let's start. Brace yourself, this will be the most exciting chapter in your life.