The new Independents

Consider how independents (otherwise known as “Indies”) are respected in almost every other art form. Indie musicians and film makers are the people who follow their artistic instincts out of the big record companies and huge film studio systems to produce unconstrained works of originality. They are the ones who risk doing it differently for the sake of integrity and artistic vision.

Publishing revolution

The world is changing. For generations publishing was the privilege of the rich, the lucky or the terrifyingly talented. In our own time we have seen huge monopolies pandering, not to the majority but, to the biggest single demographic. Homogenisation and a competitive market have resulted in less choice not more. This has ensured that a glut of vacuous celebrity autobiographies and clones of the last big publishing success have ruled the bookshelves. Goodness knows how many worthy works of literature slaved over by decent writers have never even been considered because they did not fit the latest fashion or projected sales figures. I would not fancy the chances for Charles Dickens or Shakespeare being published today as first time writers, let alone the likes of Joseph Heller or Kurt Vonnegut:
“Just not Jane Austiney or Harry Potterish enough and certainly won't appeal to Strictly Come Dancing and X-Factor generations.”

J.K. Rowling was rejected by so many publishers that she almost gave up before someone took a chance on her (apparently on the advice of his 8 year old daughter and the publisher still advised her to keep her day job). Because she was doing something new and different, no one, not even JK, knew that the public would take to her work in such a way.

People want to publish work for a variety of reasons. In some cases it is a manuscript that has been languishing with a pile of rejection letters and you would just like to see it in book form. In some cases it is something you have that you know has limited appeal but there are people out there who would be interested. In some cases you know you have a great book and you want to get it out there because you are a writer and publishing your book allows you to move on.

The internet has changed the game. Now you don't have to have a bestseller to make it worthwhile. The internet is not interested solely in the biggest demographic - when the storefront is worldwide the smallest demographic is pretty big. Any demographic is a market worth having and any interest group, no matter how spread out around the world, now has numbers to justify publishing books for them.

Advantages of Independant Publishing

  • Timeliness - if your book is of the moment about something happening now, it can get out there while it is still relevant
  • Creative control - many people who write do realise it will not make them rich - they want to write a book and have it published and they want it to be their creation not the creation of the marketing department of some huge company.
  • Royalties - traditionally author royalties are tiny but as an indie writer you get a generous slice of every book sold.
  • Rights - as an indie author you have not signed away the rights to your books. You keep the movie rights, TV rights, eBook rights etc.
  • Print on Demand - no one has to risk investing in a run of 10,000 or more. If it does not sell you are not going to be ruined and the planet thanks you.

Print on Demand

Print on Demand is not only green but it is practical. In the past publishers had to be sure of thousands of sales to justify a print run on a book. Now if you can keep a steady interest in your book, you can justify its publication. It will only be printed as it is bought. Your book will never be used as compost or stored in a huge warehouse waiting to be mulched.

Independent and Self Publishing

Here is a list of people who self published at a time when it was expensive and most of them before Amazon when they had to go out and sell the books one by one.
  • Mark Twain (Huckleberry Finn was self published – Twain was already famous but still took the self published route)
  • Matthew Reilly (Writes bestselling thrillers - 4 million copies worldwide- took out a bank loan to self publish 1000 copies of his first book)
  • E.L James (Did you know that 50 Shades thing was a self published book in its first incarnation?)
  • L Frank Baum (The Wizard of Oz started life as a self published work)
  • Richard Bolles (What Colour is your Parachute – one of the best selling self help books of all time was self published)
  • Tom Peters (One of his most widely read management books was .. self published)
Other examples of authors that took matters into their own hands were authors such as James Joyce, Edgar Allen Poe, Rudyard Kipling, D.H. Lawrence. There is a very long list and a quick internet search will surprise you as to the membership of the self published club.

Would it surprise you to know that the afore mentioned Ms. Rowling is now a self publisher selling eBook versions of her book online? That is how much benefit there is to taking this route.

The ...yes but... moment

A great book does not guarantee success but a bad book badly presented is a sure-fire recipe for being ignored. Have a look at our recipe for ensuring your book is a quality product. We need to show that self published books and books published by small publishers such as ourselves can be of high quality and we need to get rid of the idea that self publishing allows the publication of rubbish. It is inevitable that as people learn the skills involved there will be mistakes but we want to set the bar as high as possible. We have our own experience and we have read through acres of literature on successful self published writers. Here is our recipe for quality:
  • Write the book
  • Put it away for a month then take it out, reread it and rework the bits you are not happy with.
  • Study a book like "The Elements of Style" by Strunk and White and edit your manusctipt again.
  • Put your manuscript away for another month and then edit it again
  • Find people who will tell you the truth and ask them to give you feedback
  • Look for people who will give you content feedback and other people who will nitpick with the grammar.
  • Put your ego on hold and see every fault found as a fault that will not be in your published work.
  • Find your target audience – use facebook, google+, blogs, conventions, groups, clubs, publications and whatever else strikes you as relevant to the book you have written.
  • Create a buzz over the book.
  • Set up a website for the book – creating a blog is easy with many companies who for a reasonable fee provide everything you need to get up and running.
  • If your ego can take it, ask people in the community to give you feedback on your work-in-progress - you would be surprised how generous people can be.

Don't take just our word for it

Article at Forbes dated 15 Aug 2012 - Publishing Is Broken, We're Drowning In Indie Books - And That's A Good Thing
Article in the Guardian dated 29 August 2012 - Self-published authors react with anger to 'laziness' charge

How we can help

We are here to help and encourage writers and we wish you well with your book whatever route you take. We know what sort of dedication, work and commitment is involved in writing a book. If you got this far, you are serious about getting your book published. Of course if you research even the links we supply, you know that it is quite possible to go it alone. We also know what it takes to produce a quality book and how much difference having a professional team in your corner can make. We have been there, done that and we have solutions and experience that can help you avoid costly and soul destroying mistakes.

We are certain that as great books are published by indie writers that people love to read their writers will be as well considered as indie musicians and indie film makers.

So keep writing, keep following your dream and let us know how we can help you.