I consider indies to reach different levels within their author climb like the 20 books to 50K Facebook group, but adjusted for estimated revenue compared to how many reviews.
Under 20 reviews - The Algae Indie - Just starting, newly minted, or just hasn't discovered the joy of giving their books away for free to build their audience.
Greater than 20 but under 50 reviews - The Plankton Indie, still struggling, but finding their way. They make over the $10+ a month and they are working their way up!
50 to 100 reviews - The Prawn Indie, finding their stride and growing. They might make around 100$ in a month from their books! Very exciting stuff, working towards paying off those launch costs.
100 to 200 reviews - The Small Indie, loyal fan base and it's possible this indie has broken even on launch costs on a few books but still hasn't paid for their time to write it yet or is still trying to pay off their author platform costs.
200 to 499 - The Lobster Indie - They've broken even on their book and are probably break even on their author platform costs too! Now they can finally start paying off their time for writing. They have a large enough fan base that they might be able to breakeven on a future book launch within launch month!
500 to 1,000 reviews - This is the Lobster to Trout transformation. It's a large upstream battle to actually making a steady income as an Indie author! That transformation of finally having a single month of making 1,000+ on a book! They might actually be close to affording to be a full-time author!
I'm a Plankton struggling to transform into a Prawn if I just focus on my Romantasy books and my S.M. McCoy author platform. My romantasy books have yet to break the 100+ a month to be a Prawn, sitting at an average of $20 or less a month from my books. In fact, we are halfway through August and I have sold 1 e-book of Breaking Fate, so under $5 for the month so far.
For my Sky Robert platform, I have a few books around the 130+ ratings on Amazon, and some months I'm a Prawn and others I'm still a Plankton. Halfway through August, I've made around $13 under my Sky Robert platform so far.
With both my pennames, I'm still under $20 for the month, so still a Plankton indie author even with having some of my books with 100+ reviews.
Month over month, I invest my own time and money into keeping my author business afloat. As much as I'd love to consider being an author a career, it's firmly a hobby I throw money and time at for now. My goal is that this investment pays off and eventually is a career that I can feed myself and my family with.
But, due to financial reasons the launch of book three in my Medusa series will be delayed in an attempt to revive the series from obscurity. I will be working on writing, editing and preparing Reaping Olympus, and then launching it in a Kickstarter campaign that my friend Heather will help set up after I've got the book prepared. I'll have a Kickstarter exclusive cover set of all three books, creating a set with Reaping Olympus included and depending on the success of the campaign including character artwork. I mention this so that some of you aren't confused by the fact that I pulled my pre-order of Reaping Olympus from my website, and Curios. This is due to the fact that the pre-order was available and launched for 2 weeks and not a single person pre-ordered.
Indie authors are in tumultuous times. I'm sure I'm not the only indie author that has seen a huge dip in sales this year. Last year, I averaged around $100 a month from my alien romances, and this year, I've barely made it to $50 some months and others I struggle to get $10 or $20 across 10 published books.
I'm still searching for ways to turn it around, but there are only so many months that I can support paying for Bookfunnel, Booksprout, Booksiren, webhosting, author giveaways, book covers, editing, and more before I have to start cancelling services due to the books not covering the costs of maintaining my author platform. I don't mind not making money for my time, but I do need to breakeven on costs like monthly services.
A way that you can help me make an extra $100 this month to help support my costs is grabbing TKManAteHer from Curios for free. That's right, Curios has a creator fund that if I can get over 100 unique readers to grab my book from the platform, they will pay me $100. So, you can help me make $100 this month, by grabbing my free short story here:
If you prefer to listen to your books and wish to help support more books by me, the book is available in Audio format for $6 as well.
My Romantasy Greek Mythology Medusa Retelling is also available on Amazon:
https://books.steviemarie.com/takingmedusa
https://books.steviemarie.com/breakingfate
My Books on Curios:
https://marketplace.curios.com/creators/skyrobertromances-9PPLJ6
Have you already read Taking Medusa, or Breaking Fate, what did you think of the story?
✨"Breathtaking romantasy" - N.N. Light
✨"Flipping pages late into the night" - Rebel
✨"It's like watching a movie, only better" - N.N. Light
✨"I couldn't put it down" - Amy's Bookshelf Reviews
✨"Powerful and ever-changing FMC" - Mary
✨"Twistedly Brilliant" - Rose
✨"Mystery of fates and desires... Deliciously Torturous" - Jess
✨"A Fascinating Colossal World" - Sandra
✨"I absolutely love this book!" - LaWanda
✨"Hungry for more" - Jess
✨"This.author.is.EVERYTHING!!!!" - Megan
Have you shared your thoughts by leaving a review?
Us Indie authors survive off of shares, likes, and reviews to reach new readers! Check out my books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/S.M.-McCoy/author/B07F5T71VW
I finished reading Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan and I'm in LOVE! So excited for book two to come out in April, and I'm so sad it's not already out! Already pre-ordered the book!
I've been in a writing slump due to internalizing the drop in readership during 2025. Don't worry about me quitting being a writer. I will always write and I won't stop writing, but it does change what books I'm interested in writing. I've struggled with wanting to finish writing Reaping Olympus due to this, so I've decided to write something different to get out of my funk, which will delay the launch of Reaping Olympus will not be released in October like I planned. It will get written, but I'll do it in my own time and without worrying about readers wanting it or not. When I do finish it, I'll launch it with a Kickstarter and hope for the best.
This experience has taught me that if I do a series instead of standalones again, I'll make sure to finish writing the whole story first before even launching book one so that I'm not discouraged based on what does or doesn't happen with the launch, reviews, or otherwise.
Happy reading, and perhaps you'll find your next favorite read among the featured indie authors below! And for those of you wanting to know the status of where I am in writing the next book, scroll to the bottom!
xoxo
Stevie
Hope you find some great indie reads! Chat soon!
xoxo
Stevie
Hi, I'm Stevie. I'm a mom of two kiddos, and I write fantasy romance, and alien romances. I started with writing a YA vampire romance, and I retired the 3-book series because it wasn't the same kind of style as the rest of my books, and I didn't want those books to be the first impression readers got of my writing. I also wrote a sci-fi fantasy mash up Kingdom of Acatalec, got a traditional contract book deal, but it flopped because I wasn't and still am not that great at marketing things without more control over what I can do with my books. I received my book rights back and will relaunch that book with my indie control after I finish my Medusa Retelling Series.
The Dark Gods Rising is mythology reimagined if you are like me and believe that the "monsters" of myth and legend were hunted by Greek gods because they were different, because they were a threat to their power and rule. Perhaps, the monsters weren't the bad guys after all, and Medusa wasn't the villain myth made her out to be. There is always more than one side to every story.
Dive into a slow-burn romance, fast-paced fantasy adventure with all the political mechanisms of Greek Myth, and the what-ifs from a different point of view.
Start Reading Taking Medusa today: https://books.steviemarie.com/takingmedusa
Taking Medusa is available on Kindle, and Audible!
Grab from Curios: https://marketplace.curios.com/creators/skyrobertromances-9PPLJ6
Add to Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/150498806-taking-medusa
Book two is LIVE! https://books.steviemarie.com/breakingfate
Add to your Goodreads shelf: Breaking Fate (Dark Gods Rising, #2) by S.M. McCoy | Goodreads Breaking Fate on Amazon: https://books.steviemarie.com/breakingfate
Check out books narrated by me on Audible(US) here: https://www.audible.com/search?searchNarrator=Stevie+Marie
Check out the Author store and grab the signed hardcover or signed paperbacks! https://payhip.com/BrokenBooksPublishing
Also by me: Do you like Alien Romances?
Check out my Pen Name Sky Robert!
Chat soon!
xoxo
Stevie
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