Indie authors are authors. Say that again. With feeling. Because its true.
It baffles me how even now, in 2022 there is some kind of stigma attached to those of us who choose to take complete control of our novels and be our own masters for whatever reasons we choose.
Tell people you play in a band and they are enthused, Hell, they might even come and see you guys play.
Tell people that you are an artist and they will take a look at your work, Tell them you are a bedroom dj, and they will nod approvingly, after all, such things are the future of music.
Yet tell people you write, and they will invariably ask. “Published?”
You tell them that no, you are an indie author, happy to self-publish and you get the look, followed by the almost sympathetic nod. “Oh, so you’re not a real author?”
Why? Why do people feel that to consider ourselves worthy we have to be tied in with an organisation that may not be the best thing for our novels? Why should we have to whore ourselves out to be taken seriously? I have a friend, a scientist who is well loved the world over but who I will not name, who has had well over twenty books traditionally published, all on his area of expertise. During our conversations, he revealed that more than anything he wants to write a horror novel. Naturally, I encouraged him to go for it only for him to smile sadly and explain that his publisher only want his fact books on his specialty.
I suggested that in that case he self-publish but was greeted with confusion and disbelief as he told me that no, he could not do that, and would instead continue writing the same old books for the foreseeable future. I can’t think of anything worse than writing something you don’t want to.
Haters of self-publishing will no doubt argue that he was correct to not do so, far better perhaps to rely upon a publisher to advertise your novels for you and do all the leg work. Yet the traditionally published author friends I have still have to do an insane amount of their own work and advertising.
Why on Earth jump through hoops when you still have to do that? THE MONEY! I hear some of you shout! Because of course, all new traditionally published authors are billionaires.
Right? No. Far from it. Besides, in my humble opinion, if you are writing to make money then you are writing for the wrong reasons. Write for the passion. Ask any indie author and the majority will tell you that even if no-one read their work they would still write. Its what we do. We are born with these stories wrapped up within our core and we need to give them life. But there are typo’s and spelling mistakes in indie books! Yeah, sure, like there aren’t typos and shit in novels by famous authors too.
It reads like its written by a fifteen-year-old, is a common complaint I read in facebook groups with regards to indie books, and I guess a lot of that has to go down to personal taste. We all like different things. Some of us like splatterpunk. Some of us like ghost stories. Some of us like novels about horny aquatic humanoids bursting ashore to abduct voluptuous women and eat their menfolk….just me? Some of us like teen vampire romances. Some of us eat burgers with the pickle. Don’t trust those last people.
But seriously, the wealth of indie talent on the horror scene right now is absolutely mind-blowing and if because of some inexplicable snobbery you can’t bring yourself to read their work the only one missing out is you. Hell, you probably eat the pickle too.