The Indie Lab
Marcin PilarczykBusiness intelligence for self-publishing indie authors. Most of what I publish here is free. Paid subscribers get the frameworks, prompts, and tools behind every post.
| Platform |  | Pricing | Freemium | Publishes | Daily |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Issues | 81 | Founded | 6 months ago | Last Issue | 7 days ago |
| Active | |||||
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aifictionlab.substack.comLatest Issues
The “Beta” Feature Amazon Has Run Since 2020
Seven weeks ago I nominated The Lightning War: Rising Storm and Scent of the Silence for Kindle Deals. Ninety-day window, no cost, two clicks. This morning I got a notification that an earlier nomination had expired, so I went back in and n...
The Checklist Never Explained the Top Earners. Here’s What Does.
Write more. Be consistent. Build a list.
You’ve read this a hundred times. It’s not wrong. It’s also not useful, because it doesn’t explain anything. Plenty of authors do all three and stay stuck at three hundred dollars a month for years....
When AI Starts Feeling Your Book, Everything Changes
Let me tell you the thing no one in the “use AI for your writing” space wants to say out loud:
AI cannot replace a beta-reader right now. Not really.
The Indie Lab is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my wor...
Your Email List Isn’t Dead. It’s Just Being Ignored.
The most common thing I hear from authors who’ve been at this for more than a year: “I have a list, but I never really use it.”
Maybe you built it off a reader magnet in 2022. Maybe you sent a few launch emails, got distracted by the next...
Your Book Isn’t Failing. Your Marketing Is.
The book didn’t fail. You just never told anyone it existed.
That’s an uncomfortable sentence for most authors to sit with. We spend months – sometimes years – writing, editing, revising, polishing. The book becomes a person to us. So when...
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Laid off twice. Built a sci-fi portfolio. Sold 8,131 copies in 2025. Now I document what actually works on Amazon – in real time. Most of what I publish here is free. Paid subscribers get the tools and prompts behind the posts.
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