I made this a couple years back with help from some community suggestions, and it was a lot of fun. I hope you enjoy. How many points do you have?

The Indie Author Achievements List

By Dave Dobson (https://davedobsonbooks.com) 
with contributions from the community

Level 1: Newbie (1 point each)

  • Deforestation: Publish in paperback format as well as ebook
  • OMG What: First written review from someone with whom you’ve never interacted 
  • Golden OMG What: First five-star written review from someone with whom you’ve never interacted 
  • Hope Dies: Experience a ≥50% drop in sales/pagereads from one month to the next
  • Misdirection: Start a sequel but then switch to another project which you also don’t finish
  • Modicum of Notoriety: First unpaid review on a book blogger’s site
  • Into the Ether: Give away at least ten copies of your book to friends and relatives who then never mention the book to you again so long as you both live
  • False Start: You get one-starred by somebody who read less than 20% of your book
  • Dreams Vanish In Daylight: You return free ebook codes that nobody ended up wanting
  • Fiscal Responsibility Be Damned: You send a paperback copy at your own expense to somebody in a different country
  • Winning: You make at least ten social media posts about your writing that garner zero comments, reactions, or shares

Level 2: Wannabe (5 points each)

  • Parasites: First unsolicited spam from book marketing scammers
  • Motherf%&$ers: First copy shows up on book pirating site
  • They Really Love Me: Make it out of the initial phase of a book competition without being cut
  • Back to the Well: Publish a second work
  • The Well is Dry: A second (or later) work has consistently under 10% the sales of your first book
  • Hey, I Have To Pay Taxes: Make at least $400 in total revenue in a year
  • No, I Don’t Have To Pay Taxes: Make at least $400 in revenue but spend at least three times that on covers, editing, marketing, and advertising
  • Islands in the Stream: You are mentioned by someone you don’t know and haven’t paid in video format on a TikTok/Reel/YT Short
  • We’re Ready For You Now: You do your first interview or book chat with a blogger or author
  • Ha Ha Sigh: An interview you did with someone has less than 30 views after a year has passed
  • Unrequited: Be rejected for BookBub Featured Deals at least fifteen times.
  • When Hope Is Gone: You’ve given up on promotion in despair, letting all your ads lapse, and then somebody buys at least four different books of yours in a single day
  • No, That’s Not Me: Positive mention of your writing makes your day, but then you realize they are actually talking about a different author entirely
  • Now Wait A Minute: You are one-starred for elements that appear nowhere in your book
  • Noble Wounds: You are one-starred for elements in your book that are the heart of what it’s about
  • I Done Told You Already: You are one-starred for elements in your book that are in the description or content warning you provided
  • No Thank You: Someone returns your free book
  • Pedantic: You explain to somebody how word count is a more useful metric than pages
  • Bullet Points: Your book is included on a list of some sort (either good or bad, who cares, at least they know I’m alive)

Level 3: Stylin’ (20 points each)

  • The Big Regret: Spend over $300 on some form of promotion or in-person event that creates less than $50 of revenue
  • The Brick Wall: Do The Big Regret (above) three or more times in different venues
  • Unengineered Shelfie: Somebody you don’t know and haven’t paid posts a picture of a bookshelf and your book is on there somewhere
  • Holy Fan Art Batman: Somebody you don’t know and haven’t paid creates a visual representation of your characters or your world (a song counts too)
  • Benevolent Overlord: Somebody who has at least 500 reviews on a single book praises your book and appears to have read at least some of it.
  • Unintended Hemingway: Somebody praises a subtlety in your book (foreshadowing, symbolism, metaphor) that you 100% didn’t intend when writing
  • Memelord: A post you make on writing or books gains 500+ likes
  • Starstruck: You are recognized by a fan you’ve never met before somewhere unexpected (public bathroom, gym, best friend’s wedding)
  • Well Actually: You find yourself offering more than one paragraph of completely unsolicited advice to someone just starting out
  • Hey, I’m A Genre Now: Somebody uses your name to describe your style of writing or all your books at once