Why I publish independently

Today is blog carnival day!

What is a blog carnival, one might ask? A blog carnival is when a bunch of different bloggers decide to write upon a particular topic on a particular day, and then do so. Generally there is a host blog where readers can go to find links to all the blog posts about that day's topic. This particular blog carnival was the brain child of Chris Kelly.

Today's topic: Why I publish independently, or as I call it, "How the hell did you become an indie writer?"

Today's host blog: Dun Scaith, Home of Scathach Publishing

So, how did I become an indie writer?

First, let me say right off the bat that until very recently (as in the last couple of weeks), I've never thought of myself as an indie writer or a self-published writer or whatever you want to call it.

I was just a writer. Until a year ago, I had never self-published anything of my own. For years my short stories had found their way into print or online markets, and I have a print contract with a small book publisher for some of my fantasy work.

If anything, I thought of myself as a traditional print writer.

Then along comes Amazon with the Kindle, and thus was born the capability for writers to publish their works directly to a digital audience without having to go through a publisher. It also doesn't hurt that the money is pretty good if you can make sales.

At first I was hesitant. I had some of the fears and concerns a lot of traditionally-published writers still have. Self-publishing is a sign of giving in and giving up. Self-publishing means no traditionally print publishers will ever touch you. Self-publishing means your work sucks.

I remained hesitant for at least six months, trying to make up my mind whether or not I would go ahead and begin publishing my work on Amazon.

Then several things happened over about three months. These were events that forced my hand on self-publishing.

I lost my job.

Okay, so I got another job. Then I lost that job.

And my wife lost her job. She got another job. Then that job fell away, too.

Blame it on the bad economy, if you will. I had been a professional newspaper editor for nearly 20 years, and suddenly not only was I without a job, but my whole career seemed gone. Sure, there are still newspapers out there, but their readership is dropping like flies (literally in some cases since the average newspaper reading audience is older) and the advertising dollars are no longer there.

Of course I kept trying to get another job, but it never worked out. My wife tried, too, but it wasn't happening.

So, call it a matter of desperation, if you want. I call it, "How I pay the damn bills every month." I had already been writing fiction in short and long forms for as long as I'd been a newspaper editor, so why not go ahead and make some money from it?

I've chatted with a number of other indie authors over the last year or two, and many tell me they became indie writers because they wanted complete control or they felt their work was unusual enough that traditional print publishers would never publish them.

That's not me. My newspaper career was over and I needed money. It's that simple.

I still work with print publishers, and will continue to do so on some projects. But I'll also keep right on doing my digital thing, publishing on Amazon, Smashwords and at other online venues.

Oh, and the reason I recently came to think of myself as an indie writer has to do with all the naysayers. Actually, that's not accurate. I don't mind naysayers. The truth is I began to think of myself as an indie writer because of all the "assholes" out there trashing indie writers, many of those assholes being involved somehow or other with the traditional publishing industry.

I don't mind people disagreeing with me. I don't mind people thinking something I'm personally doing is stupid. But to go out of your way to verbally assault myself and others in such a nasty fashion as I've seen done numerous times on other blogs ... that's too much.

So, if you're one of those people who hates the idea of self-publishers and indie writers and digital publishing and the Kindle and everything that goes along with it, you can thank your fellows for adding one more to the ranks of indie writers.

In other words, it's a big F-U to those assholes.

I have bills to pay and mouths to feed. I don't have time to wait six months for a print publisher to decide whether or not they want my latest book, then a year before the book is released, and then perhaps another year for my first royalty checks to start rolling in.

I don't have time to be concerned that someone's itty bitty feelings have been injured over my doing something that has no effect whatsoever on their life, and that they're scared the traditional print publishers are all going to go away or that books will no longer play an important role in the world, economically and artistically.

SCREW. ALL. THAT.

I've started a business. Don't like it? Don't buy my products.

Besides, print books are going to be around, at least for a long, long time if not forever. Far too many people have their panties in a bunch over nonsense that doesn't really matter. To borrow (steal) a line from fabulous paranormal romance indie author Zoe Winters, "We aren't curing cancer or feeding Ethiopian children. It's just publishing."

And as I've said before, "I've seen what happens to the print industry when digital publishing comes along. I was in the newspaper business for far too many years not to recognize the signs. Not this time. Not to me."