Review of "Tough Love for Indie Authors" by Keri-Rae Barnum

​Score: 94+/100 (9.4+ out of 10)

Naturally, books about indie authors and self-publishing always resonate with us!

How could they not?

Our world is authors, books, reviews, contests, cover designs, social-media promotions, category placements, revised manuscripts, ISBNs, marketing campaigns, and all of the hopes, dreams, frustrations, risks, and hard work that come with deciding to share a book with the world.

We have seen authors at nearly every stage of that journey: people finishing their very first manuscript, people trying to decide whether to pursue a traditional deal or publish independently, people who have poured thousands of dollars into a book and have no idea why it is not selling, people who have been misled by expensive publishing packages, and people who have built genuinely impressive careers through persistence, professionalism, and a refusal to give up.

Oh, and by the way, we've been through all of it too!

So when a book comes along promising “an honest look at what it takes to win in self-publishing,” it naturally gets our attention.

And thankfully, Tough Love for Indie Authors is not one of those vague, overly cheerful books that tells writers to “believe in themselves,” upload a manuscript to Amazon, make a few TikToks, and wait for fame to arrive. Keri-Rae Barnum understands that self-publishing can be empowering, profitable, creatively freeing, and even life-changing. But she also understands that it is work. A lot of work.

Keri-Rae Barnum is someone whose advice on this subject is worth listening to. Her lessons and tips come from years of experience. Similar to Julie Broad (founder of Book Launchers), Dale L. Roberts (Self-Publishing with Dale), and Steven Seril (our founder), Barnum has been there and done that. She's walked the talk.

Barnum is the owner and CEO of New Shelves Books, a full-service publishing consulting and book-marketing agency that works with both authors and publishers on the parts of publishing that so often determine whether a book merely exists or actually reaches readers: production, distribution, bookstores, libraries, launches, author platforms, and marketing.

In other words, she is not simply another person offering generic advice after uploading a few books to Amazon. She has spent years working directly with authors and publishers in the often confusing, expensive, frustrating, and highly competitive business side of books. She understands the difference between publishing a book and publishing it well.

Barnum’s central argument is simple: self-publishing is not a consolation prize or shortcut. It is author-led publishing. That means an indie author is not only a writer, but also the publisher, product manager, marketer, creative director, and long-term steward of the work.

If you want something out of your book publishing and marketing, you need to show up. You need to put time, effort, thought, and energy into it. Yes, there are unicorns and one-hit-wonders out there, but you're extremely unlikely to be one of them. Books don't usually sell themselves. The most successful authors are those who were actively involved in their book marketing. Heck, we often have Brandon Sanderson over here, and he's always showing up at author events promoting his books or brand. If even Sanderson needs to actively promote and market, shouldn't you?

The first part of this book compares traditional, hybrid, and indie routes, fairly acknowledging that each can make sense depending on a writer’s goals, resources, patience, and appetite for control. Barnum is especially firm about hybrid publishers: some provide worthwhile services, but authors need to understand exactly what they are paying for, what rights they retain, and whether the “publisher” is genuinely providing value.

The book then urges authors to write with readers in mind. “Writing to market,” in Barnum’s view, does not mean becoming bland or cynical. It means understanding genre promises, audience expectations, emotional payoffs, positioning, and what makes a concept easy to communicate and sell. A romance should deliver a satisfying romantic arc; a mystery should solve its central puzzle; nonfiction should clearly address the reader’s problem.

If there is one thing that we all collectively dread, it is editing. You can tether revising to that too.

For many writers, editing feels like the stage where all the excitement of finishing a manuscript dies beneath a mountain of tracked changes, harsh comments, plot holes, awkward sentences, typos, repeated words, formatting problems, and the terrifying possibility that the book we loved writing is not nearly as perfect as we thought it was.

Barnum actually does not make editing sound like a boring chore. You might even say she makes it sound kind of exciting. If anything, her advocacy for good editing is one of the most persuasive parts of the entire book. She reframes it not as a punishment for getting something wrong, but as the point where a draft finally becomes a real book. The writer may have created the raw material, but the editor, reviser, proofreader, and publisher help turn that raw material into something sharper, cleaner, clearer, more professional, and more capable of reaching the reader the author had in mind.

And she does not simply say, “Hire an editor,” then move on.

She explains the actual editorial funnel: developmental editing for major issues with structure, plot, arguments, pacing, character arcs, or reader expectations; line editing for voice, rhythm, style, clarity, and sentence-level polish; copyediting for grammar, continuity, consistency, and factual details; then proofreading as the final inspection after the book has been formatted.

That may sound obvious to experienced authors and publishing professionals, but it is not obvious to a lot of people entering indie publishing. Too many authors treat spellcheck, Grammarly, or a friend who “has good grammar” as a substitute for a genuine editorial process. Then they wonder why readers notice plot holes, confusing wording, clunky pacing, formatting glitches, or small errors that make the whole project feel less professional.

Barnum is especially good at making the distinction between revising your own work and editing it. Authors should absolutely clean up their drafts, let them rest, read them aloud, cut filler words, seek feedback from alpha and beta readers, and do everything possible to hand an editor a manuscript that is worth their time. But a writer is usually too close to their own work to see every weakness, inconsistency, or missed opportunity. That's not an insult to authors. It is simply reality. And it is probably one of the most important realities an indie author can accept.

We get this excellent quote about editing and working with an editor: “Pros revise. Amateurs argue.”

The marketing sections seem to encompass the heart of this book. Honestly, we get the feeling that marketing was the core around which the rest of this book was crafted. There's a lot of focus from beginning to end about it. Anyway, the specific marketing sections include author platforms, websites, email lists, social media, Amazon pages and ads, review strategies, sales materials, bookstores, airport stores, libraries, publicity, and long-term campaigns. Barnum repeatedly brings the reader back to direct relationships with readers, especially through an email list and a dependable backlist. Our founder often says that the greatest mistake he made in his early days of publishing is not focusing on a building and using a mailing list.

That was one of the parts of this book that really resonated with us. In fact, there were several parts of this book that peaked our interest—that spoke to us. We already talked about how interesting the editing section was. Well, there's this section about choosing fonts and formatting, and how important that is for accessibility to readers (i.e. customers). Specifically, Barnum talked about using dyslexia-friendly fonts where possible, high-contrast text, clean spacing, logical eBook navigation, and avoiding formatting choices that make the page harder to track.

Gosh, you guys probably have no idea how great this advice is.

We read 300+ books a year, and one of the most frustrating, hair-pulling, teeth-grinding things we encounter are books that are nigh-unreadable because the author chose an impossible-to-read font, a nauseating format, or decided to encrypt or password-protect everything in the file. Guys, don't do this. Just don't. Just choose a normal font and a normal font size and make your book accessible. All of this fancy-dancy stuff isn't making your work seem special or protecting it. It is creating an unnecessary barrier between your book and the person who wants to read it.

A reader should never have to fight a book just to enjoy it. They should not need to squint at tiny text, decode bizarre fonts, hunt through a badly designed eBook, or wonder why a file they legitimately purchased will not open on their device. That is not an immersive reading experience. That is a headache.

And, frankly, it is the kind of headache that can turn a potentially enthusiastic reader into someone who quietly gives up, requests a refund, leaves a frustrated review, or simply never buys from that author again. You have no idea how many times a year we encounter a problem like this, and it usually comes from authors who think they're already Stephen King and they need to put their book behind bullet-proof glass behind a security corridor of laser beams before anyone is allowed to read it.

Barnum understands that formatting is not merely cosmetic. It is part of the reading experience. It is part of professionalism. And, yes, it is part of making a book accessible and marketable to as many potential readers as possible.

It is easy for authors to overlook, but the point is undeniable: a book that is easier for more people to read is a book with a better chance of being read, enjoyed, recommended, and purchased. Accessible means more readable. "More readable means more marketable." That's a nice quote, by the way.

Speaking of quotes, there are some good ones in this book. Here are a few of our favorites:

“Long-term sales come from long-term relationships.”

“Relevance is earned through authenticity and consistency.”

“Be visible. Be confident. Be ready to stand behind your work.”

“This isn’t just about discipline. It’s about survival. Burnout is a career killer. A long-term marketing strategy gives you the tools to stay in the game … without sacrificing your creative energy.”

Oh, and by the way, there's also a section about choosing a marketable book cover and how important that is. Specifically, the author warns against using WordArt and cheap, amateurish methods to make your book cover. That just hit us between the eyes. We just read an excellent book about time-traveling ghost people in the last contest, but our initial experience was tainted by the fact that the cover looked like it was made on PowerPoint in about five minutes. As the author says, if your cover looks like it was made on PowerPoint, people are gonna ignore it, cringe, and/or click away.

Invest in your cover. Just do it. Please. Do it for yourself.

The final chapters move beyond a single release. They encourage authors to build systems, protect their time, track business results, develop multiple books or series, expand formats and rights, and think of each book as an intellectual-property asset with a life beyond launch week.

All in all, there's a lot of good indie-author-information packed into this sub-300 page book. It flies. It really does. In fact, some of us read this book multiple times. Honestly, it often feels like an introduction to indie publishing rather than a deep dive into the minutiae of it.

Still, that may be exactly what many indie authors need. Rather than overwhelming readers with a thousand technical details before they have even decided what kind of author career they want, Barnum gives them a practical foundation, helps them understand the right questions to ask, and points them toward the habits and priorities that can keep them from making costly mistakes.

Check it out on Amazon!