This month, I’m excited to introduce Tammi Labrecque, indie author, editor, and publisher, who I know through the online Smarter Artist community, and interviewed about her Indie Pub Intensive courses. Tammi lives in Bangor, Maine with two kids, three cats, and dozens of fictional characters that keep her awake nights. When she’s not helping other indie authors achieve their dreams, she writes across several genres, including romance, fantasy, urban fantasy, mystery, and horror.
Indie Pub Intensive
What does Indie Pub Intensive offer?
Indie Pub Intensive is a selection of small-class (10 people per class) intensive courses that cover general topics—like mailing lists, launch strategies, ad basics—in a narrower, more focused way than most other courses.
How are the Indie Pub Intensive courses different from everything else out there? What do they add?
There are a lot of ways that IPI is different from other educational and coaching offerings in the indie publishing space.
- First, each class is small and extremely focused. 10-12 students talking about one narrow topic for just four weeks at a time.
- Second, it is not a series of pre-recorded videos that several hundred or thousand people are watching at their own pace; it’s a real-time class with other indie authors in a virtual classroom, plus individual video calls with the instructor.
- And third, I’m pretty sure no one else is doing the one-on-one coaching component with any course; most instructors are casting such a wide net that it’s simply not possible for them to interact with each student personally.
Why did you start Indie Publishing Intensive?
I started IPI because I kept hearing from people who needed a little extra help in small, specific areas—email lists, how to create a decent ad, etc.—but were not able to afford existing courses, or hundreds of dollars an hour for consulting. So many people I see offering author services are charging 500, 800, 2000 dollars or more, and authors who are just starting out are often bootstrapping it and can’t afford services at that price point until they’ve got a little experience under their belt. But they need the help now, to get that experience. By combining a small group of students into one class, I can offer every student that one-on-one contact each week and share the cost across the entire class. It’s not ‘retire to Cabo’ money, but it allows me to help other indies—a goal that is really, really important to me—while still leaving time for my own writing and publishing, which is where I want to make the bulk of my income anyway.
Who will benefit from the courses you offer at Indie Publishing Intensive?
Indie authors just starting out who aren’t getting what they need from watching static videos or reading blogs/books about whatever topic. The large- and small-group calls allow us to cover the generalities of each topic, while the interactive nature of the one-on-one calls allows students to get answers to their specific questions and guidance for their specific situation.
That sounds just great, Tammi! Remind me again when the new round of courses is starting?
Course are ongoing, but this first round of courses sold out in 12 hours. A small number of seats are still available for Mailing List Expert (in March), Your Best Launch (in April), and Ads That Work (in May).
Thank you so much! Now, before I let you go, what is the best writing advice you were ever given?
‘One thing that helps is to give myself permission to write badly. I tell myself that I’m going to do my five or 10 pages no matter what, and that I can always tear them up the following morning if I want.’
Do you want to be interviewed next?
Check out the guidelines and/or email me at marielle@mswordsmith.nl.
(The Amazon links in this post are affiliate links, which means I receive a small percentage if you buy through these links.)