I’m Orna Ross—author, poet, creative catalyst, founder of the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi) and the Indie Author Lab.
I created the Indie Author Lab because at ALLi I’ve seen how indie authors are being inundated with information in unhelpful ways. Another tactic, another tool, another ten things you’re apparently doing wrong.
It’s exhausting, and at ALLi we see many talented writers grow disheartened, even despairing, beneath the weight of it all. I believe the answer to this challenge is not more information but the opposite: time to integrate what you already know, beyond the noise.
In the age of AI, we all need to go deeper—into our work, our reasons for writing and publishing, and our own definition of a writing life worth having.
And we need to consciously plan, from a creative perspective, so we can say ‘No’ to what might sound exciting but is not right for us, right now.
The clarity you’re looking for is in you, waiting for you to listen and engage. Indie Author Lab is a guided process for doing that.
Yes, there is an archive of up-to-date events brought to you from the London Book Fair, Author Nation, and more but the real work happens when we you put the learnings to work on what’s most relevant, right now.
There’s a workbook to focus your attention and a live monthly workshop with me.
If you’re tired and unsure and wondering whether you’ve got it in you — you do. You just need the right support.
Scroll down to read more or scroll to the end to register.
Indie Author Lab: The Monthly Cycle
Week 1: Set Your Monthly Intention
In the first week, you set a month-sized top creative intention under one or all of three headings: Maker, Manager, Marketeer. You are offered creative practices that turn down the noise and enable you to listen for your own answers—or you bring your own. Then you make a plan to carry it into the actual days of the month to come, with supportive tools, practices and community, to keep you on track.
Week 2 Doing the Work
Using the archive for inspiration, while keeping to your practices, you write, publish, and market according to your own intention, at your own pace. The tools from Week 1 travel with you, and you observe the creative process doing what the creative process does. Not every day will go in the direction you want, or feel 'productive'. That's not failure; that's information to note, and to bring to our monthly workshop.
Week 3: Substack Live Workshop
This is the heart of the lab each month: the workshop on Substack Live. The moment you hold your intention and what’s actually been happening, up to the light and ask (with attentive curiosity not critical judgement): what's working, and what isn't? Each month brings a short talk and together we work on our workbook exercises and the plan that is ours alone—not a generic checklist, but a clear sense of where we need to place your attention and why. Bring your questions and I’ll answer them directly and candidly—and the hive mind will also have lots to offer. The session doesn’t finish until every question is answered, that’s my promise.
Week 4: Focus and Complete
Now you renew—recommit to the intention; revise—adjust the plan to meet where you actually are, not where you thought you’d be; or release—let go whatever is not working. So much of the creative life is learning what not to do. The focus now is on completing what you started to your satisfaction, so you can set a new top intention next month. And remembering to celebrate your win.
Whatever is happening in your writing or publishing life, this planning and production process has room to hold it, so you can set, work, gather, release — and begin again.
Throughout the Month: Ask or Tell Me Anything
The community chat is a warm space you can step into whenever you like—to think out loud, to cheer someone on, to ask the small question, or simply to lurk among others following the same process. The chatroom is a safe, member-only space where you can enjoy the slow, deliberate, deeply satisfying work of becoming the author you want to be--one month at a time.
Use the chatroom to share your small accomplishments and bigger wins, the inevitable wobbles, the hopes and dreams you haven’t told anyone else yet. Some months you’ll be vocal; some months you’ll just want to know we’re here. All good.
Your annual membership unlocks:
Indie Author Lab Workbook: The workbook is built around the seven processes of publishing—editorial, design, production, distribution, marketing, promotion and rights licensing—but it also harnesses the magic of creative process and practice. Beginning where you are, it directs your focus to the particular challenges you’re facing right now.
Monthly online workshop. Substack Live Audio session each month in which you tackle the next part of your writing and publishing plan, using the planners and workbook to go deeper, and focus your momentum—plus a monthly ‘Ask Me Anything’ with Orna.
Downloadable, printable tools, based on the exercises in Creative Self-Publishing and a proven sequence of success that has worked for thousands of indie authors. Quarterly, monthly, weekly, and daily planners are provided.
Selected Self-Publishing Talks: The best of the indie author year, gathered in one place. Talks, sessions, and insights harvested at the London Book Fair (UK), Author Nation (US), and other leading indie author events around the world—distilled and brought to you, online.
Ebook copy of Creative Self-publishing, the definitive guide Orna wrote for the Alliance of Independent Authors, now used by creative writing and publishing teachers around the world.