January 7, 2025 at 11:13 AM

How Indie Authors Can Thrive in 2025: Tips for Success

2024 is OFFICIALLY behind us, everybody go ahead a breathe a deep sigh of relief! Between the US elections and slumping eBook sales, 2024 was no walk in the park for authors – whether indie or traditional. But here’s the good news, 2025 is shaping up to be a pivotal year for self-publishing. AI is on the rise, language barriers are disappearing, and books are reaching more readers than ever before. With all that, we at B&N Press are here to bring you some Indie Author Tips for 2025 to help you survive and THRIVE. Let’s get started!

Tech Tools You’ll Love in 2025

The obvious place to start is AI—but don’t worry, dear reader, this isn’t just an article about Artificial Intelligence! That being said, if we want to know how to walk forward into 2025, it’s important to know the tools and challenges that face us. AI is both.

The shifting ground for AI debate is seeded with hot takes all around. Some readers are purists, who will not read anything even assisted by AI, while others are agnostic, with a range of opinions mostly based on whether they can tell if a novel had AI help.

For indie authors without the big budgets of traditional publishers, AI tools can be game changers, boosting efficiency and saving time. You could bounce your thoughts off and receive instant feedback, or have it help you with outlines and plot holes. That said, the line between ‘Generative’ and ‘Assistive’ AI can get a little blurry. Sticking to tools for technical tasks—like polishing metadata or optimizing SEO—might be the way to go. For example, using AI to help you polish your metadata or SEO-optimize your product pages.

One of the most transformative uses of AI (that we know of) for indie authors, will be the creation of AI narrated audiobooks. Now, we know that readers will almost always prefer something created entirely by Humans, you simply cannot replace the spark that we put into everything we do. Still, the possibility of having an audiobook without the hefty production price tag cannot be overlooked.

Now, how we feel about these tools is another story, keep your eyes peeled for another post on that soon!

What Readers Want in 2025: Diversity and Bite-Sized Stories

In 2025 technology is going to reshape publishing – sure, but what does that really mean for you as an indie author? Well, we predict that as tools for translation become more refined and accessible, there will be growing demand for global distribution. Our team at B&N Press has been working diligently to bring this feature to you, but no announcement yet!

With this increase in multicultural readership, we can expect even more narratives that speak to people across the world. Diversity has been a huge focus in the arts over the past four years, and this trend isn’t slowing down. As we grow in our understanding of each other’s stories, readers may start looking for more sophisticated takes on inclusivity.

Social media has shaped readers’ habits, leading to shorter attention spans worldwide. Clearly not our favorite thing to hear as authors of any kind. However, plenty of authors have started to adapt to the increasingly inattentive readers through short form, “episodic” content. This format still has a way to go as far as polish is concerned, but we should expect to see more novellas in 2025.

Maybe it’s time to reimagine that fantasy epic you’re working on as a miniseries!

Challenges Indie Authors Can Overcome

As AI becomes more formidable, we can expect an influx in new self-published authors. In fact, we predict that 2025 will see the one of the largest explosions of indie content in our lifetimes! Unfortunately though, this will exacerbate an already difficult problem for indies: oversaturation. With competition ramping up, quality will shine through. While many new authors may lean on AI, seasoned indies with standout content will rise above the crowd. These might even appear MORE desired in comparison to the generated content that will quickly fill any online store that allows AI-generated content.

The refinement of these new technologies will be a radical shift for the self-publishing world. New tools crafted specifically for editing, marketing and generating books will arise, translation and global markets will become more accessible. Indie authors will have to fight hard to hold their ground, but let’s face it—indies are nothing if not scrappy, and we’ve got this!

Our final prediction for 2025? Self-publishing is going to THRIVE, and so are you dear reader.

This is our year, and we cannot WAIT to see what you will do with it.