Something Is Moving.
Saturday, The Chosen, a brain full of plans, a meeting with the voices in my head, and five days until we see what one month of this experiment actually did.
Dear Rebels,
Today is Saturday, and weekends usually mean fewer views around here.
The weather is still good, the last warm days are hanging on, and normal people apparently like to go outside and enjoy them.
Couldn’t be me.
But this weekend is a little different because we have The Chosen.
And The Chosen has been doing VERY well.
You guys seem to really like reading the story chapter by chapter, and I have already been told off.
Which is AMAZING.
Why?
Because it means you care.
So… who told me off?
Well.
I can’t say.
What I can say is that right at the moment Ksenia finally arrived and everybody was waiting to see what would happen next…
We went back to the past.
LOL.
Fair enough.
That was exactly the reaction I wanted.
So will today be another trip into the past?
Will Ksenia finally meet…
NOOOOOOO. Spoiler police are officially on duty.
I know many of you haven’t read the latest chapter yet, and some of you are deliberately waiting until there are more chapters so you can sit down and read several together.
Your secrets are safe here.
Yesterday I did something new with the reviews too.
For the first time, I reviewed two books together: The Ones Before and The Origin, Books One and Two of Lacunae’s Perpetūra.
And Rebels, when I say Lacunae built a world, I mean she BUILT A WORLD.
There are the novels.
Then there is a free interactive version you can explore in your browser, where your choices can take you through different routes.
There is an Atlas.
There is a Codex.
There is original music.
There are objects, connections, visual details and little pieces scattered everywhere that suddenly make you suspicious of absolutely everything.
Basically, Lacunae created the perfect environment for someone like me to completely lose control.
I went in to review two books.
I came out investigating fictional objects across centuries and developing an unreasonable emotional relationship with HANDS.
Long story.
Read the review.
And there is more coming because I have already read Pantheon, the first book in Lacunae’s new trilogy, AND Lacunae is coming to the Imperfect Rebel Podcast.
So yes.
This rabbit hole is continuing.
Maybe that review arrived at exactly the right moment, because lately I’ve been thinking a lot about what happens when a story becomes bigger than the page.
Just kidding.
I’m powered by Coke Zero.
Being tired? Sleep? What are those?
Anywhooooooo.
Busy, busy, busy.
And I LOVE it.
My head is completely full of ideas and plans right now.
The real question is whether I can transform all those ideas and plans into actual content.
Leslie Reta on Always Forever, Love, Addiction and Letting Go
One of the things I love about this whole experiment is watching the different parts of my world start connecting.
Books become reviews. Reviews become conversations. Conversations become podcast episodes.
My conversation with Leslie Reta is now live, and if you haven’t heard it yet, Saturday feels like a pretty good day to disappear into a long conversation.
I’ll leave the podcast, Spotify episode and my review of Always Forever together at the bottom of this post.
October: we level up.
Our first month of the Indie Author Experiment is almost over.
And for Month Two, I want to level up.
Meaning?
We are going to test social media.
Yeah.
For real.
I’m thinking about spending October experimenting with faceless content.
Images. Videos. Reels. Different formats. Different ideas.
I’ll still appear occasionally in Stories, but the main feed could become an experiment of its own.
Then maybe November becomes Phase Two.
Maybe.
If I find the courage.
I’m shy, you know.
STOP LAUGHING.
I still need to have a meeting with the voices in my head and establish the official strategy.
Attendance is mandatory.
Coke Zero will be provided.
And then comes October 1.
That is the big one.
On October 1, I’m publishing the complete numbers from the first month of the Indie Author Experiment.
Everything we have been measuring since September 1.
I’ll also publish the plan for October so you can look at it with me, and one month later we can see what actually happened.
Month One was about building and being discovered.
Month Two is about growing what we built.
Day 25 results, reported on Day 26
Yesterday’s numbers gave us another interesting little plot twist.
| Platform | Metric | Day 24 | Day 25 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Website | Daily views | ↓ 41.4% | ↑ 52.9% |
| Website | Daily visitors | ↓ 15.4% | ↓ 12.1% |
| Podcast | Plays & downloads | ↑ 400% | ↑ 580% |
| Views | ↑ 176% | ↑ 208% | |
| Engagement | 12× | 13× | |
| Net followers | +3 | +3 | |
| Net followers, 30 days | +15 | +15 | |
| Views from non-followers | 50.5% | 51% | |
| Discovery outside network | 79% | 84% |
And THIS is why I’m happy today.
The website moved from a 41.4% drop to a 52.9% increase.
Podcast growth moved from 400% to 580%.
Facebook moved from 176% to 208%.
LinkedIn discovery outside my existing network moved from 79% to 84%.
And more than half of my Instagram views are now coming from people who don’t follow me.
Things are moving.
Twenty-six days ago, I started this experiment because I wanted to know what would happen if an indie author simply showed up, tried things, documented everything and put the real numbers on the internet.
Now we are almost one month in.
And I have SO MANY ideas for Month Two.
What should I test in October?
What would you try?
What do you think could bring these numbers up?
Five days until we open the whole first month and see exactly what happened.
Until then, I have a strategy meeting to attend.
Apparently the voices in my head already booked the conference room.
Have a beautiful Saturday, Rebels.
Continue down the rabbit hole
Everything I mentioned above is here together, so you can finish the Journal first and choose where to disappear next.