Spotlight on Indie SFF's founder — a Catholic novelist with nearly 50 books across 16 years who keeps her platform persona separate from her author byline — joins Kristin to talk about the curated referral site she launched last summer after the indie sci-fi space made it clear that authors with her convictions weren't welcome. This conversation covers the long road from Kindle's original gold rush, to realizing the publishing industry’s bias, to building the based-fiction home Indie SFF didn't have.

In This Episode

* “I Could Do Something Better”: A few years back, someone tried to crowdfund a conservative book site and quietly let it die. When she found the abandoned attempt, the decision to create a new home was simple.

* The Email That Funded a Website: The straw that broke the camel’s back was the Indie Sale’s narrative announcement saying authors with her convictions weren’t welcome. The funding came together the same week — a paid-off bill, an extra paycheck, and a saddle she wasn’t using anymore that covered exactly what the dev quote required.

* Kindle Before the Gold Rush: She published into the original Kindle wave nearly twenty years ago, when readers were hungry and a non-bestseller could comfortably pay off a mortgage.

* Why Scammers Made It Harder for Everyone: Every adaptation Amazon makes to clamp down on KU and ratings abuse hits the honest authors first. The page-read economy collapsed, ratings got gated behind a $50/month spend, and the platform keeps contorting around the worst actors.

* Author-Rated Content, Not Surprise Content: The site lets authors rate their own books across four categories. Readers can filter on the front end instead of finding the surprise on page eighty. She isn’t pretending to be the content cop — the system runs on author honesty plus a reader-feedback loop.

* Based ≠ Christian: True conservatism conserves something, and Western civilization conserves Christianity, so a real Christian will be based, but a based reader isn’t necessarily Christian. The site is built for the overlap and the people standing next to it, not a denominational gate.

* The Grimdark Ink “Sisters of Mercy” Mess: A recent contest billed itself as non-discriminatory and then had judges call Christian themes in an incense-punk novella “blatant in-your-face zealotry.” Comments got closed on the response. The pattern keeps repeating.

* The Hidden Exorcism Prayer in the Footer: At the bottom of every page on Spotlight sits a small circle of Latin initials — the Saint Benedict exorcism prayer. Anyone offended at being excluded from the site is, in her read, exactly who that footer is addressing.

* Author Nation Got Anonymized Selection Right: This year Author Nation anonymized presenter submissions so the committee judges the proposal, not the name behind it. She’d like to see more of the industry do the same.

* Free Now, Free Later: She pays for the site out of pocket and runs a Buy Me a Coffee tip jar for upgrades. The early fear among authors was that she’d flip it to a paid model. She won’t.

* Don’t Rush a Book Out — The Audra Winter Cautionary Tale: A TikTok-famous fantasy author took pre-orders, raised hype, then refused edits even after a major-press editor offered help. Once a name is tarnished, the climb back is harder than the climb up.

* Hire One Editor for One Short Story: The best money she spent on her craft early on was an edit of a single short story she could actually afford. The advice jumped her writing forward by years and is still her highest-leverage recommendation for developing authors.

* 50 Books, a Day Job, and a Friend Who Wrote 100: The output looks intimidating until you remember how many were short. Burnout is real — her answer is permission to rest, not the write-every-day catechism. She knows a romance author who has cleared 100 books in the same window.

Guest Links

* Join Spotlight on Indie SFF: https://spotlightonindiesff.com

* Youtube: @Spotlightonindiesff

* X: @spotlightfic

Kristin’s Links

* Editing Services: nonsensefreeeditor.com

* Newsletter: https://www.fictionalinfluence.com

* YouTube: https://youtube.com/@nonsensefreekristin

Timestamps

00:00 - Introducing Spotlight on Indie SFF.

01:40 - Early Kindle Gold Rush.

02:51 - Scammers KU and AI.

05:36 - Building a Better Site.

07:22 - Content Ratings System.

08:14 - Based vs Christian.

09:40 - Submission Rules Lines.

11:38 - Curated Sales Backlash.

13:08 - Anti Christian Bias.

15:19 - Do Awards Matter.

16:57 - Fixing Popularity Contests.

18:59 - Submitting Books to Indie SFF.

20:31 - Trust, Ratings, and Moderation.

21:35 - Funding and Future Sales.

23:53 - YouTube and Rumble Strategy.

27:34 - Writing Pace and Burnout.

28:57 - Craft First, Publish Later.

32:01 - Avoiding Indie Author Pitfalls.

34:41 - Building Sites and Reputation.

36:18 - Where to Find Spotlight on Indie SFF.

37:03 - Final Thanks and Wrap-Up.

About This Podcast

Nonsense-Free Kristin is where independent authors and creators learn to build their platforms, master their craft, and create on their own terms—without begging for permission from gatekeepers who hate them.

New episodes weekly.

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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kristinmctiernan.substack.com