Successful Indie Author

Successful Indie Author is a Facebook group founded and personally run by Craig Martelle — retired Marine Major, law school graduate (summa cum laude), and million-selling author of 200+ books who co-founded 20BooksTo50K with Michael Anderle in 2015. Where 20Books has grown to 70,000+ members with a data-clinical culture, Successful Indie Author operates at a more intimate scale with Craig present as founder and primary moderator.

The Successful Indie Author Ecosystem#

The Facebook group is the social hub of a broader content network Craig has built around the "Successful Indie Author" brand:

• YouTube channel (youtube.com/@SuccessfulIndieAuthor) — over 1,200 "Five Minute Focus" short-form videos (Ep1220+ as of mid-2026) covering every aspect of indie publishing, from cover design and metadata to mental health and writing craft
• Substack newsletter (successfulindieauthor.substack.com) — launched mid-2024; regular articles on marketing, writing, and author business topics, also cross-posted to Medium (@successfulindieauthor, active through 2026)
• SIA Writing Challenge (sia-writingchallenge.com) — a word-tracking tool powering the group's twice-yearly writing events
• Nonfiction book series — "Become a Successful Indie Author" (3rd edition, 2023; 4.43/5 on Goodreads with 590+ ratings), plus companion volumes on release strategies, pricing, collaborations, and writing compelling fiction

Writing Challenges#

The group hosts two free writing challenges per year:

• No Excuses November — a 50,000-word writing challenge with daily word count tracking on sia-writingchallenge.com; documented running through November 2025
• May I Write a Novel — a parallel challenge in May

These events are the group's most distinctive offering relative to other indie author communities. Participants track daily progress publicly, creating shared accountability across the group.

Culture and Philosophy#

Craig's approach combines military directness with genuine empathy. As he writes in his Substack: "A flop is not a verdict on your ability as a writer. It's a data point." The SIA Writing Challenge site describes itself as "no-drama, focused on helping professional authors get their words in."

Discussion topics span the full indie publishing workflow: release strategies, pricing, covers, blurbs, reader engagement, newsletter growth, marketing on a budget, and writing productivity.

Who It's For#

• Authors who find 20Books too large or data-clinical: SIA offers the same business orientation with more warmth and personal founder presence
• Readers of Craig's book series: Authors already aligned with his philosophy who want community connection
• Accountability-seekers: The twice-yearly writing challenges provide structured word-count accountability with a tight-knit community tracking alongside
• Genre fiction authors who want encouragement alongside practical business frameworks

Pricing: Free to join. No paid tiers.

Strengths#

• Founder-present community: Craig personally creates content across YouTube, Substack, and the FB group — the level of founder engagement is unusually high for a community this size
• Video library depth: 1,200+ Five Minute Focus videos make the YouTube channel a standalone resource for new indie authors, searchable and free
• Writing challenge infrastructure: The sia-writingchallenge.com platform provides real word-count tracking, not just self-reported posts

Limitations#

• Smaller intelligence pool: Fewer members means less crowd-sourced market data compared to 20Books (70,000+) or r/selfpublish (110,000+)
• Facebook platform dependency: Group content isn't searchable externally; Facebook algorithm changes affect post visibility
• Five Minute Focus is a back-catalog more than a live series: Production has continued steadily (Ep306 in late 2021 to Ep1220+ by 2026), but uploads are sporadic rather than daily; the channel's value is the searchable 1,200-episode archive, not fresh weekly content
• Member count unverified: The listed "8,000+" could not be independently confirmed from external sources (Facebook removed public member counts for private groups)
• Rules not publicly documented: The group is private; posting guidelines are only visible to members

Related Communities#

For high-volume market intelligence and data-first business strategy, 20BooksTo50K is the industry benchmark with 70,000+ members. For wide distribution strategy specifically, the Wide for the Win Facebook group is the dedicated resource. The Successful Indie Author group occupies the space between: business-focused but community-warm, small enough to be personal.