The Misadventures of an Indie Author: A Tale of a Private Investigator Mystery

Greetings, fellow bookworms and amateur detectives! Swinton here.

I finally drafted, edited, formatted and published The Dyeing Process. It’s only taken me four years to accomplish this. That’s four times longer than I thought it would take. Picture this: me, a first-time indie author, armed with nothing but a laptop, a wild imagination, and a burning desire to write my very own private investigator mystery.

Now, let me set the scene for you. It all started on the first of November 2019, day one of NaNoWriMo, a month long marathon that writers undertake every year. As I sat hunched over my keyboard, sipping on copious amounts of coffee and trying to conjure up the perfect plot for my debut novel. Little did I know, I was about to embark on a quest beyond that month filled with self-publishing shenanigans.

First things first, I had to come up with a protagonist. Enter Neil Ames, a troubled private investigator. Well, that’s not exactly, right. First came The murder victim Kathleen Sterling, an investigative journalist, whose spirit can’t seem to leave her apartment. She was going to help a bumbling police investigator find her murderer, much like Columbo, who would be helped by the victim’s dog, named Sherlock. Wrong. Suddenly a brooding, haunted, private investigator, with a Sherlock Holmes fixation , who told me his name is Neil Ames, strode down the hallway to the crime scene. Sherlock the dog remained , but not the spirit of Katherine Sterling.

With Neil by my side, I dove headfirst into the world of private investigation, crafting a plot filled with twists, turns, and more red herrings than a fish market. (All right, I know that’s cliché, and if it was in the book it would have been edited out.) But little did I know, the real mystery was about to unfold behind the scenes of my writing process.

As I delved deeper into the murky waters of self-publishing, I quickly discovered that navigating the indie author scene is a lot like solving a mystery – full of unexpected plot twists and hair-raising encounters with dubious characters.

First, there was the editing process – a harrowing journey through the treacherous landscape of typos, grammatical errors, and plot holes the size of potholes. Let's just say, my manuscript went through more revisions than a Broadway play during tech week. (Sorry, my background in theater always finds it's way into everything I write.) I found a great critique group and a kind but firm copy editor…Natalia Leigh who tamed the actor who loves dashes and hash marks to semi-colons.

Next up, cover design. Now, I may be a whiz with words, but when it comes to graphic design, let's just say my artistic talents leave a lot to be desired. After countless hours spent wrestling with Photoshop and more than a few failed attempts at creating a cover that didn't look like it was designed by a toddler, I finally caved and hired a professional…A really good cover designer…Stuart Bache.

And let's not even get started on marketing. As an indie author, I quickly learned that promoting your book is a full-time job in itself. From building a social media presence to organizing book signings and blog tours, the list of marketing tasks seemed endless. But hey, at least I got to flex my detective skills by hunting down elusive book reviewers and tracking sales data like a seasoned gumshoe.

But amidst all the chaos of my indie author journey, there were moments of pure magic – like the thrill of holding my published book in my hands for the first time, or the joy of hearing from readers who fell in love with Neil Ames and the talented amateur, Octavia Clarke (his Watson).

So, to all you aspiring indie authors out there, I say this: embrace the madness, laugh in the face of adversity, and never underestimate the power of a good detective novel – even if it takes a few misadventures to get there.

Until next time, keep sleuthing and keep writing!