Indie Writing?

Total Read Time: 3 minutes

["Stylish pen" by yaneq]

I've always turned up my nose at self-publishing.  Let's face it, it's gotten a pretty bad rep over the years.  The badly-designed covers, the poor content...  These books stand out among their professional-looking, traditionally published counterparts.  These are the books that sit on the shelves of bookstores for years, turning yellow with age until they get scrapped or sent back to wherever they came from.

Maybe the author comes in to do a promotional signing (an event often filled with quiet desperation), or some family members show up to make their purchases of support, but beyond that, these books always seem doomed from the start.  I've considered those that do succeed to be the exception to the rule.

Confronted with this alternative, which seems like no alternative at all, I have always focused on submitting my own novels through the traditional route.  I diligently purchase each new edition of Writer's Market to find new leads on potential publishers or agents and send out my queries.  Months can go by before I receive polite refusals (assuming they send anything at all).

To make matters worse, each publisher and agent seems to have their own unique submission requirements and formatting needs.  Don't even get me started on those who don't accept simultaneous submissions...

I know, this is the way it's always been.  I'm not going to try to reinvent the wheel.  But I'm finally starting to see that perhaps there is a viable alternative.

It was an article my mother forwarded me from my uncle that started to shift my thinking: The Very Rich Indie Writer.  Granted, it focuses on extreme success cases and the sales numbers are from December, which is the high point of the year for book sales, but it still raises some interesting points.

From Self-Published to Indie Writer
The title of the article itself fascinated me.  The idea of being an 'independent writer' really struck a chord.  It has much better connotations than being a self-published writer, when they are essentially the same thing.

People don't look down on independent filmmakers or musicians.  Black Swan received five Oscar nominations this year, while the soundtrack for The Social Network, released on Trent Reznor's independent label, won Best Original Score.

Sure, there are also a lot of bad independent films and albums out there, but people don't seem to paint all indie artists with the same brush like we do with self-published authors.  Instead, being labeled independent is a source of pride.
 
Eliminating the Middleman
By avoiding the long, complicated process of going through a traditional publishing house, writers are free to release their work at whatever pace they want.  Instead of waiting for the most auspicious time (in the publishing house's mind) for your work to be printed, it can be sold to the public almost right away.  And with the writer becoming the publisher, they can deal directly with retailers and maximize their royalties.
 
Leveling the Playing Field 
Ebooks are changing the way people buy.  We are no longer purchasing a physical product.  Companies such as Amazon, Smashwords, and Lulu allow indie writers to upload their work directly, and put it into the same format as any other traditionally published ebook that is sold alongside it.  Sure, the cover graphic might not be as fancy, but the difference in appearance is now almost negligible.

Since the independent writer can name their own price, they can undercut the big guys.  Customers are much more willing to take a chance on something that will only cost them a few dollars.


The bottom line is, I want in.  The book industry is going through major changes right now.  With companies like HB Fenn and Borders filing for bankruptcy, who knows what will happen next?  I doubt that many publishing houses are actively seeking unpublished writers in this climate, and I want my work to get out there where people can read it.  Meanwhile, companies like Amazon are cashing in with their own print on demand and ebook services.

And so are the indie writers who use them.  Why not me?