Indie vs. Traditional Publishing

I was chatting with a new pal Tracy Cooper-Posey who’s been kind enough to have me as a guest blogger on Dec. 16th about which is better, going the indie publishing route vs. a more traditional publisher. And both of us agree the indie route wins hands down for one reason: control.

What’s not to like? There’s no waiting for acceptance, no rejection, no trying to fit into a mold that may be just a hair too narrow to give a great story enough room to breathe. If you go it alone, once you finish collaborating on the cover imagery and editing, if you’ve got help, creating your own work for sale is a fully actualized creative experience.

I confess, I still would like to see my book for sale in one of those shiny pretty publishing sites like Ellora’s Cave or Carina Press. But honestly, I don’t have time to wait for them. I’m getting old! I’ve wasted enough time pursuing other people’s dreams to the detriment of my own and I’ve got to get serious and crank out some frickin work! Once I get my schedule down and start to exceed and not merely meet my allotted daily word counts I will submit to some of these venues. But in the mean time I’m going to adopt the Steve Jobs school of thought: “A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.”

He said that in 1998 about designing products with focus groups’ input, but it has some merit. If Amanda Hocking (AH) – the queen bee of indie publishing – a success story most of us dream about during the day AND at night – had waited for traditional publishers to recognize her…well, enough said.

I like to feed my creative muse and ambitions with thoughts of what will happen once I achieve my own version of AH’s success: that gorgeous white wood desk with its distinctive curved lines for my office. The lawn service that will come and edge my grass and keep everything pristine so I can sit beneath a charitible sun on my black vintage patio furtniture, iPad in hand as I create yet another hilarious romantic masterpiece. The Gucci satchel my little mutt or Terrier dog will ride around in as we food and book shop without thought for budgets or sacrifice…sigh.

I believe doing it my way can make that happen. That’s not to say that indie publishing is any easier than traditional publishing. The need to continuously market, promote, and let’s not forget write makes it as much work as it is dream – day jobs can be SO inconvenient in this regard – but creating the tale of one’s life post literary success can be invigorating. I encourage every aspiring best seller – wherever you are in your writing journey – to feed your creativity with thoughts of what the future looks like when you have more readers than you can comfortably count. I love stories like that…