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 | 74 | Founded | 4 months ago | Last Issue | 40 hours ago |
| Active | |||||
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aifictionlab.substack.comLatest Issues
The Dashboard Autopsy
In April 2025, my royalties looked like a mortgage payment on a house I didn’t even own yet. I thought I had finally, after years of grinding, cracked the secret of the Amazon algorithm.
By October, someone had cut the power.
The Indie La...
The KDP Dashboard Autopsy Prompt
A No-Sycophant Forensic Audit for Indie Authors
HOW TO USE THIS PROMPT
Amazon Attribution: A No-Nonsense Guide for Indie Authors
You spend money on Facebook ads. Someone clicks. They end up on Amazon. They buy your book.
Did that sale come from your ad? You don’t actually know. Not without Amazon Attribution.
That gap between “the click” and “the purchase” used to...
I looked at every beta reader platform on the market. Here's what I found — and why I ended up building my own.
I need to be upfront about something before this article goes any further.
I built Author’s Haven — a beta reader management platform for indie authors. That means I have an obvious financial interest in how this comparison lands. I’m tell...
Going Wide Isn’t Wrong. It’s Just Not for You Yet.
I told you going wide was worth considering. I was working with incomplete information.
In October 2025, my KDP dashboard looked like a crime scene. Revenue had collapsed to less than 20% of my spring peak. I did what panicking authors do:...
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Authors
The writers behind this newsletter.
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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