Inside the Indie Author Illusion Factory
By now, if you’re an indie author, you’ve either joined a “supportive” online writing community or rage-quit five of them already. You’ve posted your story links to Reddit. You’ve experimented with newsletters. You’ve watched your work get 43 likes from fellow writers, 0 from actual readers, and one heart-eyed emoji from a bot in Pakistan trying to sell you an “amazing” cover design. Congratulations. You’ve entered the cycle; the ouroboros of the writing world where the snake eats its own tail and still somehow dies of starvation. Welcome to indie publishing in the age of algorithmic chaos, digital dopamine, and curated delusion. Act I: Writing for Writers, Performing for Bots Let’s be honest: platforms like Wattpad, Substack, even Instagram author spaces, are no longer about reaching readers. They are beautifully lit echo chambers where writers write for other writers, and the main currency is emotional validation, not actual readership. “Oh wow, your story is so good. ...
