Sacha Black

Sacha Black is a British competition-winning, bestselling indie author, podcaster, professional speaker, developmental editor, and writing-craft teacher whose Better Writers Series of writing-craft books has become a fixture in indie writing communities. Her craft books have been translated into Korean and are widely cited as some of the most useful working references published by an independent author over the past decade.

Her Better Writers Series includes 13 Steps to Evil: How to Craft Superbad Villains (2017), the book that built her reputation, which treats the villain rather than the hero as the structural engine of a story and walks the writer through motive, structure, psychology, the perfect balance of good and evil, and the working mechanics of writing a villain readers root for. 10 Steps to Hero: How to Craft a Kickass Protagonist applies the same structured approach to the protagonist. The Anatomy of Prose: 12 Steps to Sensational Sentences walks novelists through sentence-level craft: rhythm, the use of the five senses, eliminating crutch words, deepening character emotion, and the working habits that separate flat prose from sentences that hold a reader. 8 Steps to Side Characters covers supporting roles and ensemble work, and The Anatomy of a Best Seller: 3 Steps to Deconstruct Winning Books and Teach Yourself Craft teaches readers a working method for studying the bestsellers in their own genre.

Her fiction includes the YA fantasy Eden East trilogy (Keepers, Victor, Trey) and the sapphic fantasy romance A Game of Hearts and Heists. She publishes through her own imprint Atlas Black Publishing because, as she has often said, an indie author can choose which rights to sell on a book-by-book basis. She still sells translation rights to traditional publishers (her craft titles came out in Korean through a Korean publisher) while keeping print and digital control in English.

She hosts the popular Rebel Author Podcast and the Next Level Authors podcast, hosts the monthly fiction and nonfiction podcast for the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi), and serves on the ALLi team. She runs writing courses, consults on craft, marketing, and the publishing journey, and speaks at writing conferences internationally.