# Successful Indie Author > Craig Martelle's personal indie author community on Facebook, with practical publishing advice, twice-yearly writing challenges, 1,200+ Five Minute Focus videos on YouTube, and an active Substack newsletter. Source: https://selfpublishingdirectory.com/communities/successful-indie-author Website: https://www.facebook.com/groups/SuccessfulIndieAuthor Category: Author Communities (https://selfpublishingdirectory.com/communities) Pricing: free — $0 AI-powered: no Tags: facebook, business, strategy, marketing, community, writing-challenges, productivity, youtube, encouragement Last verified: 2026-06-18 Best For: Genre fiction authors who want 20Books-style business strategy with more warmth and personal founder presence, plus twice-yearly writing challenges Community Type: social-group Genre Focus: general Member Count: 8,000+ members Platform: facebook 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](/communities/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.