Three Months Later

Three months ago, I made the decision to become an Indie writer.  I literally researched everything I could find, most of the really useful info coming primarily from the blogs of other Indies.  I had lost the dreamy notion that with publication comes great fortune and the opportunity to write whatever I liked all of the time.  Trad publishing doesn't work that way and the chances of becoming successful are growing slimmer all the time.  I found I was too impatient to wait around for submission responses.  I wanted to write books that crossed genres.  I wanted to write in multiple genres.  I wanted to do things my way.  I wanted to do everything rightnowthissecond.  It seemed as if the Kindle route was the shining light in the distance.  I felt like I could experiment, take chances and lose out on nothing doing it.  I had three finished novels that needed to be edited.  I wanted to see what ebooks could offer someone like me.

So I threw together a short story collection.  I had lots of short stories on my hard drive.  I would never submit them anywhere but I enjoyed writing them.  I had some personal ones that are a true reflection of incidents that happened to me - these I will never publish because I feel it would be unfair to the people in my life who are portrayed in them.  I have others that are undefinable.  They are dark in a way but not similar enough to place together.  Then I had ones which could be placed under the genre of horror.  I decided to take a chance, upload them and see what happened.  I had no expectations, horror, short stories, unknown writer, Indie publishing, unprofessional cover - it had everything going against it but still, I wasn't losing out.

That was three full months ago.  I sell copies slowly but steadily.  Last month I got my first reviews on Amazon.  I rarely sell anything on Smashwords aside from free coupon copies but my stuff is there and even on B&N.  I uploaded another short collection that was extremely experimental.  It sells very little but in my own way, I'm proud of it nonetheless.  I'm still terrified of what people will think of the things I've uploaded.  I worry that the horror stories are weak, that people won't get the faery one, that I'm not good enough to write.  But I've learned so much.  And I'll keep learning.  And writing.  And experimenting.  And being happy.  Because the whole Indie thing is stressful and time consuming and can chip at your self esteem sometimes.  But the happiness it gives me cancels it out. I love it.  Even the horrible bits like book covers, formatting and self promotion. 

There's something freeing about being in control.  Again, I've lost nothing from this.  My stories were there, doing nothing.  I'm slowly earning something from them.  More than what I was gaining when they were sitting quietly on my hard drive.  And I'm working on new things, novellas and novels plus the occasional piece of flash fiction.  I'm still working on one of the completed novels, the other two will be looked at again eventually.  They are for the younger reader so not as popular on Amazon as of yet but maybe some day they'll have a place.  There's no pressure though.  That's the best bit.  I can take my time, I can change my mind, I can be as creative as I like. There's a place in Indie publishing for people like me and I'm going to enjoy it for as long as I can.  Highly recommended.  ;)