Back during the 2025 New York Comic Con, I attended the panel discussion about Everything You Need To Know About Independent Publishing. I shared their main points in this previous post.
This part is about audience questions and the panelists’ useful answers (again, this is one of my favorite panels I went to and have been to!):
When it comes to handling reviews, feedback, and criticism, how do you cope?
John You can laugh at your one and 2 star reviews, but take your 3 story reviews very seriously. They will tell you what to fix in your books. They liked it enough to give you at least three stars, but they’ll provide corrections. And the good thing about being self published is you can go make those directions.
Ashleigh: You need to make sure that you filter for yourself. If you see one person who didn’t like your book, because it triggers them for something, let it go. But if you start seeing the consistent certain messages over and over again, this is difficult for this. This is difficult for that. You don’t even necessarily have to change them, but you ask yourself, ‘Is the audience I’m aiming for?’
There was a question about how to utilize the infamous BookTok. Specifically, the question was, “Can you speak to what kind of TikTok posts really work for you?”
C.S.: I shared a video of the map design (of a mermaid scene). It was to explain a revelation and it was combined with other videos about books that concentrated on similar genres.
Ashleigh: Yeah, same, so I’ll do a lot of explanations of the scene. I explain the background to some lines written and thought process of a scene.
C.S.: And it works so well. I also think there are templates out there that help you design things like CapCut, Video Leap. You can even look up trending music and put it on top of it. That doesn’t really take up much time.
But also, people really like to see your face.
Ashleigh: I was very shy at first, and silly on one video, sometimes just literally putting your face on and being like, ‘This is me,’ but that does help.
John: Don’t forget, social media is interactive. It was too late, right? So make sure that you’re not just screaming by my book to people, right? Make sure you’re having conversations, telling other people about other things that just buy my book. Why, why should they buy your phone? What’s in it? You know, what’s your favorite character? That kind of stuff.
This age old question: What type of tools or tips did y’all use to overcome writer’s blocks?
J.R.: I love this one. I do a student of consciousness writing. So I will literally sit there and whatever is coming from my mind, I don’t care if it’s about potatoes, I just start writing, and after a while, one time, you know, like, probably about two or three paragraphs in, it starts to work.
lsabella: So, for me, I have ADHD, and so I always have at least three projects happening at the same time. So if I get more to one, and I get stuck on one, I’m gonna try another one. You can do that for chapters, too, or even the mid-chapter. Sometimes, I’ll get writer’s block in the middle of a chapter and just skip it. Go to the next chapter. Maybe it’ll come to you later.
The next question dealt with cover art, deciding on a design, struggling with finding an artist, etc.
mel Three of my covers I did myself, and I have no formal training as an artist. So, actually, you have to have a good amount of ego and also be a little rogue and you might end up doing your own cover art.
John: There are great resources out there for finding artists like fiverr, I use to find my commercial artists, and I found a great one in the Philippines. I send them a description of what I wanted, and some reference photos, and he sends it back three weeks later for a couple hundred bucks.
Ashleigh: I found https://www.deviantart.com/
They’re not covered designers, but there are amazing artists on there. I reached out to people for commissions. You have to do a little bit of more diving because they’re not cover designers, but there are templates for it. Like, you can download a template from Amazon and give it to them. So the illustrations are all from DVNR, and it’s cheaper. I highly recommend.
And the last question: Can you speak to the time management part, treating your writing like it’s a business?
C.S.: I work full-time and do this part-time. I set aside at least two hours every day. That is strictly dedicated to writing or operations. I am extremely privileged to be able to say that I can do that every single day. But I think my most important thing is, like, if you have five minutes one day, that’s something. That’s better than zero!
I’ll take 10 minutes on my lunch break to write a little bit. I’ll use dictation to write while I commute to work. If you find a little bit of time here and there, you’ll eventually see, Oh, wow, I actually did all of this stuff throughout all of this time, and it adds up. But it is definitely a big endeavor, and it’s not for the faint of heart.
Melissa: Absolutely. I think you also need to know what time of day is best for your writing. You need to find when your best brain is going to exist, or your best writing brain, and sometimes you need to experiment a little for a week, try this time of day, try that time of day, and see what works best for you. There’s a lot of self-awareness to this.
John: Make sure that you have your own space that you know you can sit in un-interrupted. Whether you kick people out, or lock your own self out, sit in your car, make sure you have your own space. It’s a job, basically, that is an actual job that you have to go to to do, right? And don’t keep your Xbox near!
And I personally believe that having the process of outlining your stories first will help you out quite a bit. Because then you know what you’re going to be sitting down to do, whatever time, but there’s 5 AM or 5 PM, you’re going to know what you’re going to do within that a lot of time.
S.C.: You’re not gonna make money immediately. Do not expect that. Don’t eat yourself up over it. Don’t put that on yourself. But measure that time and make sure you’re actively moving forward. That’s the kind of the most important thing.
John: And pay your taxes!
