Black Friday Is Loud – Here’s How I’m Hiding as an Indie Author (And Why You Should Too)

I woke up this morning to the sound of distant traffic—everyone racing to stores, fighting for deals they’ll forget by January.

My phone buzzed with Black Friday emails.

And I did the most radical thing an indie author can do the day after Thanksgiving:

I closed the laptop.

Put on a sweater.

Walked outside with a paperback proof copy and nothing else.

No ads.

No analytics.

No “one more tweak to the blurb.”

Just cold air, bare trees, and the kind of silence you only get when the rest of the world is busy buying things they don’t need.

It felt like rebellion.

Because here’s the truth we don’t say out loud often enough:

the indie author journey is a marathon run at a sprinter’s pace.

We launch books, refresh sales dashboards, chase algorithms, answer comments at midnight, and somewhere along the way forget why we started telling stories in the first place.

Thanksgiving reminds me every year that the real magic isn’t in the numbers.

It’s in the moment a reader closes your book, looks up, and realizes the house has gone quiet because they were lost in your world.

That’s the win worth chasing.

So today, while the world shops, I’m choosing something different.

I’m choosing the kind of day that fills the creative well instead of draining it.

If you’re reading this and feeling the same tug—the one that says “maybe I don’t have to hustle today”—here are five quiet rebellions I’m giving myself permission for. Maybe one of them is for you too.

1. Read like a reader, not a writer.

No pen. No notes. No “how did they do that?” Just the story. Let someone else carry you for once.

2. Walk without a podcast.

I usually listen to marketing gurus or craft interviews. Today the only soundtrack is wind and my own thoughts. Turns out my brain still has a few good ideas left when it isn’t being shouted at.

3. Touch grass (literally).

The proof copy in my pocket is heavy in the best way. Physical books still feel like proof that this isn’t all a dream.

4. Write one page for no one but me.

Not for the next launch. Not for the email list. Just a scene I’ll never publish. The kind of writing that reminds me why I fell in love with this in the first place.

5. Let the sales dashboard stay at whatever it is.

It will still be there tomorrow. The story won’t write itself if I’m refreshing numbers all weekend.

The world will keep spinning if we take one day to breathe.

Your book isn’t going anywhere.

Your readers aren’t going anywhere.

And neither is the magic you spent years learning how to put on a page.

So if you’re hiding from the Black Friday chaos with a book and a blanket—if you chose nature over notifications—if you’re protecting the quiet that lets you create—

thank you.

You’re not behind.

You’re exactly where the best stories come from.

See you on the other side of the weekend—refreshed, recharged, and ready to keep building this beautiful, stubborn, impossible indie life together.

Now go read something that makes you forget the world for a little while.

You’ve earned it.

P.S If you’re looking for a cozy escape this weekend, Evelyn Speckleplum: The Fey Realm is waiting👇

https://amzn.to/4hWdb1F