“Writers need to stop defining themselves by their publisher, or lack thereof. “Indie” is becoming a meaningless affectation.”
I really, really wanted to agree with this when I read it. It resonates with how I feel about my book and what I’m doing – that I’m competing with all books, and not just the independently produced ones. I’d never send my book for review by a publication dealing only with indie books; I’m putting Make a Move up for the Pepsi Challenge against every book out there, and I’m competing on story, character, dialogue and ideas, knowing that my editing and printed product are comparable with anything the mainstream can offer, and won’t let me down. The quality of my book is more important to me than any label I could attach to it, or myself.
And in a perfect world, that would be enough.
Thing is, if you don’t label yourself, someone else will. And that label is “vanity publisher”. It happened to a writer friend of mine last week; she was enquiring about whether attending a seminar on book marketing, targeted at publishers and held by a respected outfit in Manchester, would be of benefit to her. The reply she received told her that there would be little of interest to a vanity publisher. Nice.
This stereotype – the vanity publisher – was weak ten years ago, outdated five years ago, and is now just tired. Even its irony value as an inaccurate, mindless cliché sustained by a supposedly creative industry has faded. It’s time it ended.
I read Zoe Winter’s blog post over at IndieReader.com about how the term “indie author” is starting to catch on, and how indies with the skills and drive to produce a quality product need to stand up and define what it means to be an indie. I agree with her assertion of what it means – or what it should mean to be an indie author – and I’m committed to playing my part on all counts, but I’m skeptical about one thing, and that’s how far we, as indies, can push the title. I “officially” adopted the title of indie author when I changed my About page recently, but I didn’t do it because I needed to feel like part of a movement, or I was looking for validation, or I was yielding to peer pressure; I did it for the reason anyone running a business should do anything: because the customers asked.
I run Google Analytics on this site, and I monitor what people are searching for when they find me. Know what my most frequent search term is? “indie novel”. I don’t know specifically what these browsers want when they search for indie novels, but I hope they want the same thing I did when I used to search the “contemporary” section of a bookshop: something new, inspiring, raw, alternative, edgy – exactly the kind of books that are struggling to get book deals as publishing pounds are redirected to easier sells. So these readers are searching for something, and they’re finding me, and they’re sticking around to explore the site and download my sample episode (okay, I admit it, I have a data fetish).
So there is an indie movement in books, but it’s the readers who are driving it, not the writers. We have no control over where it goes, other than to do our utmost to give the readers print books and eBooks of the quality they deserve. And as for the title of “indie author”, its your choice whether to adopt it, but given the energy, enthusiasm and acceptance of the indies I’ve met since I published Make a Move and started this blog, it’s one I’m proud to accept.
Tags: Alternative, EBook, Indie, Make a Move, Self-publishing, Vanity
The danger in embracing labels of any kind is that their meanings can change over time and evolve into something completely different. “Indie Author” is a nice buzzword right now, but when you look at the wide spectrum of authors adopting it, you see it’s losing any real meaning.
IMO, you’ve gone the true Indie route, but what about the author who uses Author Solutions, Lulu or Smashwords, or is published by a Soft Skull or Akashic? Do they all fit under that Indie umbrella, or would some indies exclude them from their definition of it? Who decides?
I’m seeing a lot of self-proclaimed “indies” adopting the label simply to vehemently express what they’re NOT, eg: NOT traditionally published, as opposed to expressing any true independent mindset.
As a reader, in my book you’re an author, and the process of how your book came to be published is far less interesting than whether or not it’s any good. I think all authors should aim for THAT to be their defining label and keep the inside baseball stuff off to the side.
YMMV.
I guess this issue comes back to the need for curation. In the absence of any filtering agent (functional, not literary) indies are looking for a way to establish a standard that divides them from the misguided masses ePublishing their novella-length life story for $10 on Smashwords, accompanied by a typo-ridden blurb. Not that I’m anti-Smashwords, or any free publishing service – I was lucky enough to have the disposable cash to finance a print run, but just because a talented writer isn’t as fortunate as me in that respect, I wouldn’t dismiss their work just because it’s only available through eBook or POD.
As for quality – of course I hope that the quality of the writing will see the best authors making a name, but that differentiation is going to take some time, and until then, I’m interested to see how this movement evolves, especially if the readers – as I suspect – are the ones who end up defining what makes an indie book, if not the author.