Author: Mandy Webster

Amanda L. Webster is the author of If You Didn't See It Coming, One Bad Cat, Demons of the Night, DIY High, Valley of the Bees, and F-ing Freddy Fisher. She is also a writing teacher who lives part-time in a sorority house.
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How to set prices and earn royalties on your independently published novel

Mandy Webster

Setting the right price for your independently published novel is crucial to maximizing your earnings while ensuring your book remains competitive in the market. The price you choose not only affects your royalties but also influences readers’ perceptions of your book’s value. Here’s how to make strategic pricing decisions and understand how royalties work.

An effective book pricing strategy will keep your novel affordable without devaluing your work.

Royalties are the payments you receive for each copy of your book sold. Unlike traditional publishing, where authors typically receive a small percentage of sales (usually 5-15%), independent authors keep a much larger share of their earnings—often 35-70% for ebooks and 40-60% for print books, depending on the publishing platform and pricing model. However, royalties are calculated after subtracting production costs, platform fees, and any distributor cuts.

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Book Reviews, Find Your Next Read

What happens when the rich girls fall? Megan Abbott’s El Dorado Drive delivers a smart, suspenseful answer

Mandy Webster

Once upon a time, the Bishop sisters were the kind of women thrillers love to center: wealthy, well-dressed suburbanites who lunch and plot in cul-de-sacs that glisten like glass. But Megan Abbott has never been interested in the fairytale version of domestic noir. In El Dorado Drive, she rips those women from their thrones and deposits them somewhere much more volatile—post-auto-industry Detroit—and asks what happens when the once-powerful fall from grace. The answer is the Wheel.

Get your copy of El Dorado Drive from my independent online bookstore today!

Harper Bishop, the youngest of the three sisters, is just trying to survive. Her finances are a mess, and her once-golden life has dulled into daily stress and compromise. When her older sisters—Pam, charming but in the middle of a messy divorce, and Debra, the family’s once-proud matriarch—invite her to join a secretive new club, she’s intrigued. The Wheel, they promise, isn’t an MLM or a pyramid scheme. It’s a sisterhood. A chance. A solution. But readers know better. Abbott knows we know better.

Continue reading “What happens when the rich girls fall? Megan Abbott’s El Dorado Drive delivers a smart, suspenseful answer” →
Finish Writing Your Novel Now!

Beta readers vs. ARC readers: do you need both as an indie author?

Mandy Webster

For independent authors, feedback is invaluable. But when it comes to getting pre-publication opinions on your book, should you use beta readers, ARC readers, or both? While they serve different purposes, each plays a crucial role in refining and marketing your book before publication.

There is a major difference between a beta reader and an ARC reader.

What are beta readers?

Beta readers are early readers of your full manuscript draft. Think of them as workshop partners—people who help you shape your book before it reaches the final stages. They provide feedback that might lead to deep revisions, pointing out plot holes, character inconsistencies, pacing issues, or anything else that could improve the reading experience. Because of this, beta readers are typically used before the final proofreading stage, when there’s still time to make significant changes.

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Book Reviews, Find Your Next Read

What price are you willing to pay? Kiley Reid’s Come and Get It explores ambition, class, and compromise on a college campus

Mandy Webster

What starts as a college novel about an overworked RA quickly builds into something darker, messier, and far more interesting. In Come and Get It, Kiley Reid (Such a Fun Age) pulls readers into the fluorescent-lit hallways of a University of Arkansas dorm where ambition, identity, and power quietly grind against one another until the friction threatens to ignite.

Get your copy of Come and Get It from my independent online bookstore today!

The book centers on Millie Cousins, a 24-year-old “super senior” RA with big goals and a razor-sharp budget spreadsheet. She dreams of homeownership, financial stability, and a long-term campus job—ideally in housing, a world she knows inside and out. Millie genuinely enjoys dorm life, even the rituals of roommate drama and bulletin boards. But despite her clear-eyed focus, she’s mired in the emotional labor of Belgrade Dormitory, where she splits duties with another RA and is expected to monitor the mental health and behavior of dozens of residents—all for just $250 a month.

Continue reading “What price are you willing to pay? Kiley Reid’s Come and Get It explores ambition, class, and compromise on a college campus” →
Finish Writing Your Novel Now!

Is it wrong to use AI for book covers? Here’s why the answer isn’t simple

Mandy Webster

If you’ve spent time in publishing spaces lately, you’ve probably seen the heated arguments over AI-generated book covers—and the moral panic that sometimes comes with them. The core of the opposition sounds reasonable: artists deserve to be paid. Many AI image generators are trained on existing artwork without permission. Some argue that using AI is stealing from creatives and eroding the value of real human labor. In this view, choosing an AI cover over hiring a professional designer is not just a budget decision—it’s an ethical failure.

To be considered a new, copyrightable work, a derivative work must be substantially different from the original and reflect the artist’s own creative input. Where should we draw the line when the “artist” is AI? Should accessibility be a consideration?

It’s also true that AI doesn’t yet create perfect, consistent, or always-usable art. Many covers made with AI look slick on a screen but fall apart in print. Designers bring not just visual skill but marketing savvy, genre expertise, and an understanding of composition that a prompt can’t replicate.

And yet, the conversation around AI art often lacks nuance.

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Book cover design for independent publishers: making your book stand out

Mandy Webster

They say not to judge a book by its cover—but when it comes to indie publishing, readers absolutely do. Your book cover is often the first—and sometimes only—chance to grab someone’s attention, so it needs to make an impact. Whether you’re working on a shoestring budget or ready to invest in professional help, understanding your options for book cover design is crucial. In this post, we’ll explore the pros and cons of designing your own cover, hiring a designer, or trading services to create a cover that does your story justice.

In this series, we’ve reviewed the planning, writing, evaluating, and revising steps of the novel writing process. Now it’s time to publish your novel!

DIY book cover design

Designing your own book cover can be a cost-effective solution, but it requires a solid understanding of design principles. Many publishing platforms offer cover generators, but these tools are often limited and produce generic-looking covers. I used them for my first couple of books, but I quickly realized that I wanted to represent my work more professionally. If you choose to design your own cover, keep these key factors in mind:

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Author Interview

Author interview with contemporary romance author Stefanie Castro

Mandy Webster

Contemporary romance author Stefanie Castro knows how to tug on readers’ heartstrings—and keep them turning pages late into the night. Best known for her Boston Embers romance series, Castro blends swoony romance with raw emotion and isn’t afraid to explore the tougher topics that shape her unforgettable characters. In this interview, she opens up about her writing habits, the authors who inspire her, and how her nursing background helps her infuse compassion and depth into every story she tells.

In Embers in the Outfield, Kennedy and River have been clashing since their first fiery encounter at a college party ten years ago. Reunited at a wedding, their undeniable chemistry resurfaces—along with all the tension and resistance that once drove them apart. As fate keeps throwing them together, what begins as a fling soon stirs deeper feelings, forcing them to confront the possibility that love might be hiding behind all the sparks.

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Q: Who are some of your favorite authors that you feel were influential in your work? What impact have they had on your writing?
A: K.A. Tucker, Elle Kennedy, Jewel E. Ann, and Emery Rose are all authors I adore. They’ve all contributed to my love of books and writing. Their characters have shown me how to fall in love with these make-believe worlds but have reminded me of the many layers a character can have and that I don’t have to be afraid to tackle the tougher topics of life. They’ve shown me that the emotion I want to bring to my own characters is completely safe and welcome. I appreciate that kind of writing.

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Finish Writing Your Novel Now!

How to select the right independent publishing platform for your novel

Mandy Webster

Once you’ve finished writing your novel, the next big decision is choosing the right platform on which to publish it. With numerous options available, it can be overwhelming to determine the best fit for your book. Before diving into the platform selection process, it’s crucial to define your publishing goals. Below are a few examples of goals you may wish to achieve.

In this series, we’ve reviewed the planning, writing, evaluating, and revising steps of the novel writing process. Now it’s time to publish your novel!

Maximum reach: If you aim to reach a global audience and prioritize sales, platforms like Amazon KDP and Barnes & Noble Publish are excellent choices.

Creative control: If you want complete control over your book’s design, formatting, and distribution, platforms like Lulu and IngramSpark offer more customization options.

Royalties: Consider the royalty rates offered by different platforms. Some platforms offer higher royalties, while others may have lower rates but provide additional services.

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Book Reviews, Find Your Next Read

What secrets lie behind the Midnight Door? Katrina Monroe’s haunting tale of sisterhood and trauma

Mandy Webster

What if the scariest thing isn’t what waits behind a mysterious door, but what happens when you never speak of it again? Katrina Monroe’s Through the Midnight Door is a genre-bending novel that slips between the psychological and the supernatural, the traumatic and the magical, all while anchoring itself in the emotionally raw terrain of sisterhood. It’s eerie and unsettling in the best way—but also heartbreakingly intimate.

Get your copy of Through the Midnight Door from my independent online bookstore today!

Years after the Finch sisters dared to unlock the doors in a seemingly impossible abandoned house in their dying hometown, the youngest, Claire, is found dead inside it. Her death pulls Meg and Esther—both estranged and damaged in different ways—back into each other’s lives. They’re not just grieving a sister; they’re unraveling what really happened that summer and what they never told each other.

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Finish Writing Your Novel Now!, Memoir

How to write a memoir: Start with the theme, then build the story

Mandy Webster

If an autobiography tells the story of your whole life, a memoir zooms in on a specific piece of it. A memoir is a focused narrative built around a central theme or question, often rooted in transformation, struggle, identity, or insight. It’s not about everything that’s ever happened to you—it’s about what happened and why it matters.

Instead of telling an entire life story, a memoir zooms in on a particular “slice”—a specific period, theme, or experience that defined or transformed the author. Memoirs tend to be more literary and reflective, often prioritizing emotional truth and personal insight over comprehensive detail.

In my last blog post, we talked about how the basic steps of the novel writing process can be used to write a full autobiography. The same holds true for memoir—but with one crucial shift. With memoir, the first step isn’t structure. It’s theme. Let’s walk through how to find your theme and shape your memoir around it—one notecard at a time.

Continue reading “How to write a memoir: Start with the theme, then build the story” →