Self-publishing has become a legitimate avenue towards getting traditionally published. With the indie success stories of Amanda Hocking and Hugh Howey, traditional publishing gatekeepers, who once looked down their noses at self-publishing, are now eagerly trying to pick up indie authors that have burst out into the writing scene and have become financially successful.
For those who have dreamed of being a writer, the process of publishing a book has always been daunting. The path to publishing is intimidating since most of the large publishing houses will only accept submissions from authors with agents, and finding an agent can be a soul-crushing experience. Agents and those few houses that accept manuscripts without an agent are rarely willing to risk accepting new authors without a proven record. If they do read your manuscript, it may only be a page or two. Unless these two pages scream “the next big thing,” they will most likely hit the delete key. You may not even get the courtesy of a form rejection letter.
As little as ten years ago, writers wishing to get published had no choice but to try and make it through this process and the New York Publishing house (the Big 5) gatekeepers. Ebooks were making their first entrance into the publishing world, and those who considered themselves “serious writers” frowned upon self-publishing. Self-publishing, or indie publishing as it’s known today, was considered another form of vanity press. Those brave enough to attempt it in the early days were often looked upon with contempt by their peers.
Fast forward to 2016. All the Big 5 houses now offer their books in both print and ebook format, most of those same publishers have started their own digital first publishing houses, and Agents and Editors are mining the Amazon best seller list looking for indie bestsellers. But not all indie authors care about being traditionally published—there are many indie authors who make a good living writing and are happy to stay on their own. They love the control self-publishing gives them. They have the final say on their book’s edits, book covers, release dates, and pricing. And there are many traditional published authors who now augment their income with indie publishing. This new breed of authors whose books come out in both traditional and indie publishing are called “hybrid authors.”
Places like Amazon and Barnes and Noble have made self-publishing easier. For a percentage of your sales, the Amazon Kindle Direct Program allows you to upload your self-published book, and within forty-eight hours, it’s up for sale on the Amazon Marketplace. Barnes and Noble has a similar program called Pubit. Within these programs you aren’t limited to offering your book only in ebook/digital format, you can also sell a print version of your book online. Besides Amazon and Barnes and Noble you can sell your indie books on iTunes, Kobo, Googleplay, and Smashwords.
Indie publishing has become so popular that a cottage industry has sprung around it. You can hire former Big 5 Editors to edit your books, you can buy cover art for your books from professional graphic artists, and if you are so inclined, you can even pay someone to format your books and get them ready to sell online. If you are a terrific writer and storyteller, these new services enable you to put out the same quality of books as one of the Big 5 houses. Long gone is the contempt for self-publishing. Today, indie publishing is accepted and embraced by both writers and the writing industry.
About the author: Cat Brown writes under the name of Catrina Burgess and is the author of the YA Paranormal series, The Dark Rituals.