A REVIEW OF PUBLISH AND THRIVE: A Course for Indie Authors

Creating Your Author Career

Let me say from the start that I feel a little bit like a Sarra Cannon fangirl. I stan her, I guess you could say. And I am a zealot for a reason. 

I want to share this course because it made me re-envision the possibilities for my writing career. I’ve been a teacher all my life. My husband often points out my Lisa Simpson tendencies (“Grade me! Tell me I’m good!”). I spent the entirety of my life believing that writing could only be the sidepiece to my day job, that I would always have to teach, that no one makes money as a writer. This way of thinking solidified in graduate school, where the traditional style of publishing is lauded as the only way and every “successful” writer is also a teacher. 

I believed there was only one way to be a writer, and the road was hard and selective. That you have to cross your fingers and hope your book lands on the right person’s desk on the right day. That the only way to get your work out into the is to beg at the gatekeeper’s door and hope that each sentinel making decisions about your work would see the value in it. 

Basically, it was incredibly disempowering to think about writing in this way. 

And then, I took Publish and Thrive. 

This course transformed the way I think about how writing fits into my life. It changed what I believe is possible in a writing career. 

WHAT IS PUBLISH AND THRIVE?

Publish and Thrive is a five-week course for authors (especially indie authors!) who want to develop a writing career that will sustain them not only financially but also artistically. It walks you step by step through the process of developing your ideas into publishable books, marketing those books, and building a writing life that will bring more than money (but also money). 

It’s been my dream for some time to find ways to help artists make money. Not because I am super interested in money (if you know me at all, you’ll know I am not), but because I believe that art is valuable. Books are valuable. Poetry and stories are valuable. And the way we show value in our current society is money. I want artists and writers to be able to support themselves and create more beautiful, valuable things. This showed me not only a way to do it for myself, but also a way to include others and bring them along. 

The shape of publishing is changing. The democratization of technology of course has its good and bad sides, but the shifts in the publishing business are an example of the good. You don’t need to ask permission anymore. Of course, this means there’s all kinds of books of varying quality that are published and things that are super niche. But that’s great! It puts the distribution and production of the work in the hands of the writer. The writer no longer needs to be beholden to what an agent/editor/publisher/distributor/bookstore thinks will sell. Instead, the author just needs to find their readers, connect with them, and understand them. 

This is exactly what Publish and Thrive teaches you to do.

The course is taught by Sarra Cannon. She is an indie author who has published more than 25 novels and has made more than a million dollars from her books. She has been self-publishing since 2010. She’s also a former teacher and this really shows in both her course design and her teaching style.

The course lasts five weeks, although honestly, it’s way too much information to fully absorb in that amount of time. Thankfully, you get lifetime access, including all of the updates and bonuses that Sarra adds each time (there have been a lot!).

WHAT MAKES PUBLISH AND THRIVE DIFFERENT?

This course distinguishes itself because it doesn’t just concentrate on your sales or popularity; it also teaches you about designing a writing career in which you can really thrive. 

I have read a ton of advice for indie authors since beginning this journey. There are a lot of useful resources out there. However, a lot of these are prescriptive. They tell you what your career should look like and what you should do. It’s often really useful information that shows you what has worked for other people and their books. But the thing is, you’re not other people, and what works for them and their books is going to be different than what works for you.

This is not a course that tells you that you must learn to use Amazon ads and get a million Instagram followers. This is a course that lays out all the possibilities for publishing and guides you in picking and choosing which possibilities are going to work best for you, your books, and your career. Sarra doesn’t tell you what you should do. She shows you the things you could do. This teaching style makes all the difference. 

This is a course that understands creative passion and artistic drive, and helps you take these things into consideration while also taking concrete steps toward your vision for your writing life.

WHAT TO EXPECT

Module 1: Gearing up for Success

This week contains several lessons on everything from developing a publishing strategy to writing your best book to your author website. Basically, it covers everything that you want to think about before you actually hit publish: the ideas, the writing, the editing, the cover art, the title, the blurb, and setting up your author platform. It’s a deep dive into bridging the gap between your creative ideas and the preparation it takes to put those ideas out into the world where readers can actually find them. In this first week, Sarra covers your author mailing list, social media, and your website. 

Module 2: Publishing Your Novels

Week 2 gets into the nitty-gritty of actually hitting publish on your novel! There is a surprising amount to do,and Sarra walks you through all the ins and outs of publication. This week delves into how to find your ideal reader, ISBNs and how to get them, keywords and metadata, and formatting. There’s also whole lessons that walk you through the nuts and bolts of publishing on each of the major vendors, including Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, and Kobo Books. She also has lessons on how to publish in print and audio. 

Listen, I said it was a lot of information, and it is. But it’s presented in bite-sized chunks that make each step seem totally manageable. It’s also set up so that when you reach each stage in your publishing journey, the information that you need at that point is easily accessible.

Module 3: Running Your Writing Business

This week is one that I know can be intimidating for lots of writers: the week of numbers! Thinking about money and yourself as a business can make an artist want to run screaming for the woods. Ahhh! But it’s important stuff, and the way it’s presented in Publish and Thrive makes it doable(and the spreadsheets are already made for you!). Week 3 includes lessons on structuring your business, pen names, tracking sales, taxes, and budgeting. 

But the best lesson in this week is one that made me weep and ultimately changed the way I think about my writing: Cultivating an Entrepreneur’s Mindset. It was so helpful to see how another creative and sensitive soul thinks about this and it straight-up transformed the way I think about my art.

Module 4: Marketing Your Books

The module on marketing your books is by far the longest, with the most information. This is partially because there is a lot to know, but also because Sarra does not give you a marketing plan. Rather, she shows you the options, helps you weigh the pros and cons in your own situation, and helps you get the ball rolling. Week 4 explores pricing, ads, preorders, launching your books (with a few different launch plans), and reviews. There’s also special lessons about how to market your books if you are a slower writer or writing nonfiction or standalone books. 

There is no one-size-fits-all-you-must-write-series-and-rapid-release advice here. There are lots of options!

Module 5: Creating Success That Lasts

The last week of the course is entirely devoted to creating a sustainable career and writing life. Sarra spends nearly 20% of the course talking about how to thrive, how to make a writing life that you can really live with, and how to find joy in the process. It touches on everything from time management to handling criticism to organizing your data. It also covers goal-setting, burnout, and planning. The range and depth of topics that this module covers shows the amount of thought that has gone into her lessons. This course recognizes that an author is not a machine, that writing can be a business but also be more than just business, and shows how to build a writing career that will really support you for the long term.

WHAT’S INCLUDED

For me, one of the most important (and very necessary!) perks of the Publish and Thrive course is the lifetime access. I was just drafting my first novel when I started the lessons, so I was definitely not ready to think about box sets or newsletter swaps, but I was glad that the information would be there when I was ready to delve deeper into those parts of the process. Also, indie publishing is constantly shifting and changing, and the course gets updated regularly. Since I took the course a year ago, five new lessons have been added, as well as new resources, like launch plans.

Each module of the course contains between three and five hours of video lessons, as well as four recordings of question and answer sessions with previous students. The Q and A videos are each about two hours long, so each module has 10 to 15 hours of information (3 to 5 hours of instruction and 8 to 10 hours of Sarra answering questions from previous students).

Each week, there’s also a new live Q and A session with Sarra where you can ask your own questions. I personally didn’t listen to the Q and A sessions from past rounds of the course in the beginning, because time was tight and I figured the questions were probably not relevant to me. Actually, these sessions are also packed full of information–it’s enlightening to hear about other students’ plans, challenges, and successes. 

Each module also contains a workbook for that module, about 20-40 pages of information, links, and recommendations of other resources to check out. There are even bonus workbooks for plotting your novel, editing your novel, and sample launch plans. Finally, for those writers who are adverse to spreadsheets, there are spreadsheets already set up where you can track your sales, taxes, budget, etc. 

Finally, enrolling in the course also gives you access to the Publish and Thrive Facebook group. This allows you to post questions any time, and Sarra is impressively responsive. But you don’t just get responses from Sarra. You also get answers from the other alumni, who are at varying stages of their career. The group is very supportive, and it’s useful to see the questions that others ask as well. 

THE DRAWBACKS

I know I keep getting into infomercial territory. I am really trying not to, and I apologize. 

I promised an honest review, and as much as I felt like the Publish and Thrive course really helped, there are some caveats. 

This course is lot of information in a very short time span.

The biggest thing I found difficult about this course was that it was A TON of information in a very, very short amount of time. Maybe it’s just the university instructor in me, but I feel like this could easily be a semester-long course. That being said, I love that Sarra allows lifetime access to the materials, because honestly, you need it. I personally could not absorb all of the information or walk through the process in a matter of five weeks. 

This course is spendy. 

I definitely needed a nudge to justify spending this kind of money on a career that I am just starting. I am honestly lucky to have a supportive husband who is also a writer. He pushed me to invest in myself. Why is it easy for me to spend hundreds of dollars on a university course but I hesitated with this? I;m not sure. Because honestly, Publish and Thrive was probably a much better investment. 

This course is time-consuming. 

If you plan on following along week by week, participating in the weekly Q and A, and watching all the videos in five weeks, you definitely need to make some time in your schedule. There’s nothing that says you need to watch all the videos “on time”, but it sure is nice to be able to ask questions in the Q and A. That being said, this kind of deep dive into the business of indie writing is not possible in a tiny snippet of time. So fair warning, clear some time for yer learning. 

THE FINAL VERDICT

I can’t tell you that Publish and Thrive is going to make you a millionaire. I can tell you that Publish and Thrive has shifted my mindset completely, from thinking of my writing as something that I needed to squeeze into the minutes between my real life to thinking of my writing as my purpose, my meaning, and the way I show up in the world. 

This course helped me see that no matter how much time I have (it is often not much!) I can move in the direction I want my writing career to take, and that doesn’t have to look like anyone else’s. (Note: Sarra also has a course called HB90, which focuses on time management and goal setting that really helps if you feel pinched for time and are not sure where to start! You can see my review of that course here.)

It’s made me let go of looking to the gatekeepers for permission to get my words out into the world. Instead, I am just doing it, and I have a clear vision of how to get there. That transformation in mindset is probably the most valuable investment I have ever made in myself. 

I definitely needed a nudge in order to go for it.

So if you need that nudge, let me be it. Creating a writing life that will sustain you is worth it. Living up to your potential is worth it. You are worth it. 

This post contains affiliate links to Sarra’s courses, which means if you choose to enroll after clicking my link, I will receive a small commission at no extra charge to you. That being said, I am recommending this course because it really has changed my thinking on my writing career and what’s possible for writers and I want to spread the word!