To Be An Indie - Blog Carnival

This post is for the Indie Author Blog Carnival run by Dun Scaith. Check out the host here and of course check out the other participants below my own post.

The subject for this particular blog carnival is basically why we chose to go down an Indie route.

Looking back, I feel like I fell into it but in reality, I put a lot of time and research into my decision.  I wasn't sure if it was possible, how it worked, if I could do it all alone.  I spent more than a few hours trying to figure it all out before I finally said feck it and jumped right in.

I've always written with the vague notion that some day I'd make a living doing it.  But I've never really done anything about it.  I haven't written query letters or sent manuscripts to agents and/or publishers.  I also didn't have a realistic idea of what it is like to be a traditionally published author. 

This year I basically decided I wanted to take creative writing seriously.  I have a few years of being at home left.  I now have five small children.  One is at school, one is in playschool and next year two more will be starting playschool leaving only one at home.  When last but definitely not least mini-Farrell goes to playschool, it'll be time for me to either go back to work or find a job I can do at home.  So this time period is my chance to prove to myself one way or another whether writing is right for me - as a source of income anyway.

So I had a time limit.  And the misfortune to write things that aren't particularly marketable.  At least by trad publishing standards.  I could tone things down and try to fit into one particular genre but I really can't face that.  I write dark fiction to take a break from the fluffier stuff.  I write tame y/a fiction to take a break from the morbid stuff.  I switch genres, I go into taboo areas and I never get bored.  I have fun.

I did quite a bit of research into publishing, ebooks, contracts, etc.  I discovered that most published writers don't live on their earnings.  Many books fail to earn out their royalties, many get remaindered or aren't marketed very well and the publishing industry seems to be in an awkward place.  If I went down that road, it would be highly unlikely my manuscript would be read.  If I was successful in signing a contract, it would take years for anything to happen and after that I'd pretty much be on my own.  I might be tied into a contract.  Maybe even forced to churn out never-ending series of books, one after the other.  Success is relative but for me, trad publishing just didn't seem like a sign of success anymore.  I didn't want to hang about for years on a dream that might never happen.

Then there was the ebook issue.  Being independent and self publishing seemed like a viable option all of  a sudden.  After a lot of thought, I decided to experiment with ebooks, particularly using Amazon DTP and Smashwords.  I could do things rightnowstraightaway and receive almost immediate feedback.  I would know how people responded to my work and better yet see how my promotional efforts affected sales insanely quickly.  The excitement from other indies has always been infectious and I had realised something.  I had nothing to lose.

I tested it out with some short stories and loved every second of it.  Odd little pieces of flash fiction I never expected to sell now sell every day.  Not many copies but it is a lot more than I expected.  I had such low expectations that every day seems to bring a new high.  It's been such a learning curve but at the same time it all feels so freeing.  We can do things our own way and that rocks.

Even better is how much I've learned in so many aspects of publishing, editing and marketing.  There is such a helpful Indie community out there (Kindleboards I'm looking at you), more than happy to share what they've learned to us newbies mixed in with all of those readers who are dying to tell us what they think.  The consumers are the important ones, they're dictating how we are adapting and dealing with change in publishing.  And we're able to listen and react - something traditionally published writers can't do because they don't have as much control over what happens to their books.

Purely down to my initial introduction to self publishing these past five months or so, I am more than happy to continue.  I'm concentrating on a novella and a novel that I hope to release (after some editing and cover art help) - I don't see myself having any regrets.  I don't have the personality (or time) to wait around for somebody else to publish my book.  I have no problems editing to make a book more readable but I can't change a book to fit a certain market.  Becoming an indie will not work for everyone but if you feel like traditional publishing isn't a good fit then maybe give my way a try.  Lots of people manage to use both methods of publishing and this often works out well too.  Never say never but for me, I'm happy with what I'm doing.

If I fail, I fail on my own terms and if it all works out . . . bonus.  :)

Participants:

Jess C. Scott

Ty Johnson

Levi Montgomery

Moses Siregar III

Kait Nolan

Zoe Winters

Camille LaGuire

Targoun

Luna Lindsey

M.T. Murphy

Susan Bischoff

Stacey Wallace Benefiel

J.A. Marlow

Chris Kelly