From an Idea to a Paperback, Audiobook and Kindle Book.
The Reality of Being an Indie Writer
By Natasha C Akinfolarin #DislexicPoet
There were moments during the making of The Lie when I genuinely wondered if I was ever going to finish it.
Not because I stopped believing in the poems,
But because being an indie writer can sometimes feel, like trying to build a house during a storm. While teaching yourself how to use the tools, at the same time.
People see the finished book.
They see the cover.
The Amazon listing.
The audiobook.
The Kindle version.
What they do not see is everything that happened behind the scenes to make it real.
The late nights staring at a screen until my eyes burned.
The constant editing.
Re-editing.
Formatting.
Proofreading through dyslexia while second-guessing every sentence.
The moments where one small technical problem suddenly felt massive because I was already mentally exhausted.
Being an indie writer means wearing every hat yourself.
Writer.
Editor.
Designer.
Promoter.
Proofreader.
Tech support.
Marketer.
Some days it felt less like publishing a poetry book and more like surviving one.
There were times I honestly thought:
“Why am I putting myself through this?”
But the truth is — The Lie was never just another project to me.
It became something I needed to finish.
Not perfectly.
Not flawlessly.
Just truthfully.
And there is a difference.
Creating the paperback alone felt like climbing a mountain some days. Learning margins, spacing, page numbers, formatting chapters, Kindle conversions, resizing covers, checking files over and over again until I no longer trusted my own eyes.
Then came the audiobook.
That was an entirely different beast.
Reading those poems aloud forced me to sit inside emotions I originally wrote in silence. Some tracks had to be redone multiple times. Sometimes technology failed me. Sometimes my confidence failed me.
There were glitches.
Corrupted files.
Formatting issues.
Moments where I nearly launched my laptop across the room.
And underneath all of that technical stress was something bigger:
Self-doubt.
The quiet voice asking:
“Is this even good enough?”
“Will anyone care?”
“What if I fail publicly?”
I think most indie writers carry those thoughts privately.
We just do not talk about it enough.
People often romanticise creativity, but very little about this process felt glamorous. Most of it looked like exhaustion, determination, notebooks everywhere, USB sticks, endless cups of coffee, frustration, and refusing to quit even when my brain wanted me to.
Especially as someone with dyslexia.
There were days my mind simply stopped cooperating. Days where words blurred together and every correction created three more mistakes.
But I kept going.
One page.
One track.
One edit at a time.
And now somehow The Lie exists as:
– a paperback
– an audiobook
– and a Kindle book
Saying that out loud still feels surreal.
Because this project started as pain on paper.
Now it exists in multiple formats across multiple platforms, reaching people I may never meet.
That means something to me.
The book is not perfect.
But I was never reaching for perfection.
I was reaching to be heard.
To be free.
To be understood.
I was reaching for honesty.
For survival.
For a way to turn silence into something that finally had a voice.
And honestly, I think there is something far more human in that than perfection could ever give me.
And honestly? Finishing matters.
There is something powerful about carrying an idea all the way through uncertainty, fear, technical disasters, creative burnout, and self-doubt — and still refusing to abandon it.
I think that is what The Lie really became in the end:
Proof that I could.
Not easily.
Not gracefully.
But stubbornly. Truthfully. Humanly.
That is the reality of being an indie writer.
And maybe that matters more than perfection ever could.
Thank you to everyone who has supported this journey, listened to the spoken-word pieces, read the poems, shared the work, or simply stayed beside me while I figured all of this out.
This book fought me every step of the way.
But I fought back.
Discover The Lie paperback, audiobook and kindle edition.
Thank you for reading,
Your DislexicPoet 🖤