Indie Writers Club
Cara Clare and James Blatch host a weekly light-hearted chat about all things self publishing.
Join the Word Count Club to be a part of the accountability partnership. We'll support each other in getting the words done :)
Send in your questions, comments and talking points to our discord channel.
Episodes
76 episodes
Ep 433 - The Self Publishing Show
James Blatch returns after an 18-month hiatus to relaunch the Self-Publishing Show and outline its new direction. In this solo episode, he reflects on why the show paused, what changed during that time with the Indie Writers Club, and how the p...
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Season 2
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Episode 75
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40:17
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074 - Cara's Exit Interview
In this heartfelt exit interview, Cara Clare reflects on her journey as a co-host of the Indie Writers Club alongside James Blatch. They discuss the significance of the podcast in their personal and professional growth, the exciting announcemen...
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Season 2
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Episode 74
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35:17
073 - What's Wrong with Hamnet?
In this episode of the Indie Writers Club podcast, James Blatch and Cara Claire discuss the transition of Cara's writing project, 'The Chatterley Affair', into the marketing phase. And delve into a detailed critique of the film adaptation of 'H...
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Season 2
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Episode 73
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42:43
072 - Are You Owed Money by Anthropic?
In this third-to-last episode of the IWC Podcast, we will look at the Anthropic (Claude AI) settlement on offer to some authors. We'll explain what needs to happen by you if your name is on the official list and what your options are.Th...
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Season 2
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Episode 72
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39:58
071 - Launching a Standalone Book
In this episode of the Indie Writers Club, Cara talks us through her launch strategy for a standalone book (a Chatterly retelling with vampires and spice!).This is one of the toughest challenges for indies. Our process generally relies o...
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Season 3
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Episode 71
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49:49
070 - Cara's Big Announcement!
This week Cara and I review the current happenings in the world of indie and we briefly discuss our own plans for 2026.And at 43.47 (if you want to skip ahead) Cara makes a sad announcement :(We both wish you a Happy New Year and ...
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Season 2
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Episode 70
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47:53
069 - Navigating Christmas as an Indie Author
In this festive episode of the Indie Writers Club, James Blatch and Cara Clare discuss the challenges of taking downtime during the holiday season while managing their writing businesses. They reflect on sales trends during Christmas, share per...
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Season 2
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Episode 69
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32:30
068 - Direct Selling with Etsy
In this week's episode Cara and James are joined by Robin Bennett-Freebairn whose non-fiction gift books are flying off the virtual Etsy shelves. This has big implications for special editions and box sets, especially at this time of year.<...
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Season 2
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Episode 68
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46:35
067 - AI Acceptance & Direct Selling
In part two of a look back at 2025, Cara and James discuss where we are with AI acceptance (spoiler, a dwindling band of holdouts very much exist). We also discuss direct selling as one of the big expansion areas for indies.USEFUL LINKS:...
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Season 2
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Episode 67
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39:00
066 - AI Translations, A10 Algorithm and other stuff
In this episode Jame & Cara start to look back on a fast moving year for indie publishing. They touch on AI Translations, one of the big breakthrough areas, the mythical A10 Amazon Algorithm and plenty of other chat!USEFUL LINKS:...
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Season 2
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Episode 66
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47:37
065 - Building a Direct Empire (with AP Beswick)
We are joined by the multi-talented Adam Beswick (AP Beswick) to talk empire building.Adam has used TikTok to build a loyal following of readers and he now focuses on selling direct to them, using TikTok Shop and TikTok Lives. He's an ev...
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Season 2
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Episode 65
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55:28
064 - Drafting a Novel
It's NovelNovember and we're both drafting a new novel!USEFUL LINKS:Get 15% of annual plans at our sponsor ProWritingAid by using code IWC15https://www.prowritingaid.com
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Season 1
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Episode 64
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41:22
063 - Influencing the Influencers
This week Cara & James touch on the subject of influencers and how to use them. James also talks about the coming AI storm for ads, he reports on AuthorNation and rants about the cost of living!USEFUL LINKS:Get 15% of annual p...
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Season 2
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Episode 63
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35:35
062 - News from AuthorNation Vegas
In this week's episode, James reports from AuthorNation, indie publishing's largest conference. The talk is of new technology, a recent slump in ads effectiveness and the possibility of more seismic changes to come!USEFUL LINKS:Ge...
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Season 2
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Episode 62
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36:34
061 - Author Scams & Ghost Writing
This week we delve into the intriguing world of ghost writing. You might know Cara is/has been, a professional ghost writer and she spills the beans on this industry that takes place largely in the shadows.We also touch on the sudden ep...
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Season 2
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Episode 61
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39:40
060 - How to Create an INCREDIBLE AI Assistant
This week we have a bona fide guest! Cissy Mecca is a close friend and fellow author whose work I'm constantly admiring—she's brilliant at finding innovative ways to streamline our publishing workflow. (And she's an incredible writer, too.)...
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Season 2
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Episode 60
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55:25
059 - Trad Vs Indie - Is There Now a Winner?
We discuss the the state of Trad vs Indie after a couple of comments from notable authors and commentators and come to an interesting conclusion!Also - it's possible Taylor Swift is secretly self-publishing poetry on Amazon KDP! We look ...
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Season 2
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Episode 59
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41:31
058 - The Big Facebook Ads Experiement
Much has happened behind the scenes of the Facebook Ads Manager and so james is setting out a series of tests. spending money on various combinations of Adv+ and manual targeting to see what's working now.James also reveals the finalists...
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Season 2
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Episode 58
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40:53
057 - The New Era of AI Searching
It's Friday! It's the Indie Writers Club!We continue our deep dive into the new era of searching using AI.Even if you are dead set against all things AI - you cannot ignore the fact that readers will be searching for your books us...
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Season 2
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Episode 57
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51:01
056 - Get Your Books Ready for GEO!
The era of keywords and Google searches is coming to an end. Searching through a longer form conversation with an AI is already taking over. That means we need to get our blurbs and book packages ready for the new era.James & Cara d...
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Season 2
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Episode 56
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41:17
055 - Are Facebook Ads Back?
In episode 55, James reports from the Floridian beach where he's attending the annual NINC conference. He and Cara also report some encouraging signs from their Facebook Ads campaigns.USEFUL LINKS:Join our Patreon for e...
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Season 2
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Episode 55
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37:19
054 - Becoming a Full Time Author
Making the switch from hobbyist to full-time author is a dream for many. But it comes with its own challenges. From two of us who have become full time self-employed, we go through some of the pitfalls and areas to think about.USEFUL LIN...
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Season 2
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Episode 54
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50:21
053 - Audio Books for Authors - Part 2
It's part 2 of our discussion about generating income from audio versions of your books. We talk about the AI options among other things, and James has a mini rant about the opposition many authors still face, because they use the latest techno...
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Season 2
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Episode 53
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47:52
