New Blog
2008 December 3
Several of us got together and decided to create an indie blog. We’ll be talking about all things indie here. I just wanted to put out this note as a placeholder in case anyone stumbles upon the blog before it really gets going.
This upcoming Monday should be the first post, it’ll be by a veteran indie author, Cliff Burns. If you’d like to guest blog here, just click on the submissions page above, and send us your essay/idea for an essay (if you want to send us an idea before you write the whole thing.)
Thanks!
zoewinters
Moriah Jovan
R.J. Keller
robinaltman
Evangeline Holland
alanbaxter
Looking forward to this, Zoe! I’m certain your site will become an excellent resource for indie writers seeking advice, guidance and fellowship from their fellow scribes (and a connection to readers bored with the thin gruel that mainstream/corporate publishing has been offering up of late).
Good luck and all the best with this important venture…
Thanks, Cliff!
I’m hoping we can keep it intelligent and civil! It’s easy to both become defensive and be perceived as defensive in going indie. And I think the less defensive we come off, while providing helpful resources to those interested, the better.
We need to drag April over here.
Hehe, as a contributor? I asked her, but she’s pretty busy. She said she’d guest blog on occasion but couldn’t commit to anything weekly.
Okay. I invited someone else to come check us out. If you see the name “Amy Lane” in your inbox, I referred her.
Cliff, I’m so happy to see you!
Cool beans!
And Cliff is opening us up with a guest blog on Monday
I’m working on a banner right now. This was the stock banner, I’m doing something more Renaissance-y haha.
Squeee:-) I’ve been invited! (Thanks, Mojo, for the invite:-)
Welcome, Amy!
Amy Lane is here?? Woot!
That’s awesome, yay!
Welcome Amy!
Love the classic motif here, Zoe.
Thanks Rae! This is the easiest banner I ever made. Two images. Smoosh. Done.
You smoosh rather well, Z.
And welcome, Amy!
Glad to see Cliff Burns here as well. I’m a fan of your blog.
Hey Kel, thanks!
Very cool! Good idea for you indies to get together and share resources and blogs.
Hey Edie, thanks! I think the problem for a long time was that most people were “in the closet” about it because the stigma was so big against it. It made everybody feel like they were “in this by themselves.” I think more of us are starting to be open about it, and that gives opportunities for more groups to form with resources and such.
Hi y’all!
Kel told me all about you guys and I am jumping up and down with excitement at the new developments! It’s about time the world of indie publishing started getting the kind of credibility (some) indie films have gotten in recent years and I’m looking forward to taking this journey with you. I’m not a published author yet (indie or otherwise) but once I actually get a novel properly finished (as opposed to 90% complete and growing moss on my hard drive), I’ll be ready to learn from you all about how to take on the indie publishing world.
And beautiful banner, Zoe!
Hey Elleann, welcome! Fabulous! I think one of the primary reasons that we don’t have a lot of strong resources like this and a big community that are open about it is that there is so much STIGMA to doing this.
It USED to make sense to not put out your own work, back when it was crazy expensive, and you couldn’t get into distribution without selling your soul to the devil, but things aren’t like that now, plus we have the interwebz.
I think the more people who just come out and say: “Look, I’m indie, and I’m indie because that is my preference right now,” the less the “self published stereotype” arguments will make any sense to anyone.
It’s fine if someone doesn’t want to go indie for whatever reason, but IMO it’s not fine to disparage every person who does it with a half-thought out, but much repeated stereotype that has nothing to do with what most of us are trying to do here.
I have a friend who thinks I focus on the “stigma” part too much, and maybe she’s right. I’m not “whining” about it, but I feel that it’s an issue that can’t be ignored, since it’s one of the primary reasons otherwise capable indies shy away from it.
If someone has done their research and wants to accept the challenge, and understands all the risks involved, but the only thing holding them back is stigma, it may be time to re-evaluate whether or not other people have the right to dictate the road map for your life.
People get really worked up about this issue. “Oh noes real publishers, agents, and trad published authors won’t think you’re legit.”
So what?
I care that my READERS like what I have. Whether or not the literati approves is neither here nor there.
Oh, and thanks about the banner!
It’s so easy to get me fired up on this topic, hahahahahaha.
Elle!!!
So good to see that you followed your feet home
Zoe, I think the eventual proof of the indie pudding is going to be in the eating.
– as the ‘general public’ gets to see that there are indie writers who can produce professional and well-crafted prose as opposed to the kind of prose that led to the whole stigma thing (in my mind, anyway).
When someone used to say they were self-published, I used to cringe because I fully expected to find a book that reeked of amateur … bad writing, poor layout and an author who thought they were the bees knees, LOL!
But times have changed and (imho) I think we have a lot of thank fan fiction for! Yes, there is a lot of dreary c**P out there, but there are also lots of great writers producing outstanding works of fan fiction and who have large, loyal and devoted fan bases. My dd has been reading online fanfic for several years now, but when she first started , I kept telling her to quit and read a ‘real book’ instead, LOL!
Hey Elleann,
The funny thing is, I don’t think the general public “cares.” It’s easy for writers to forget that most people don’t know the names of every major publishing conglomerate, let alone all their imprints. They don’t know and don’t care who produced a book. They only care if it’s good.
Most of the people I’ve come across who aren’t “in the industry” were shocked that it took me so long to “self publish” they absolutely do not get the politics involved here. The snobbery is all on the “insider” side of things.
And in this sense “insider” includes unpublished writers. Most self published books, you either can’t tell they’re self pubbed, or you never really notice them because the cream rises to the top.
I think the whole issue started out because there was a time when any good book pretty much WOULD get published. When the slush piles were smaller, when the publishing industry didn’t think it was the movie industry.
Originally it really WAS to protect writers from being scammed by vanity presses. Which back then weren’t lulu or iuniverse. But companies that really were scamming writers out of a lot of money. As in, tens of thousands of dollars. Back then the only distribution channels were hard to get into. You really did NEED a publisher, to sell much of anything.
And so there was a stigma because writers who went on their own were seen as both “not good enough to get a publisher” and “not wise enough not to be scammed by a vanity press.”
But this isn’t 1972. We have a lot of things now we didn’t have before, and a lot of access to readers in a grassroots way that we didn’t have before. When the odds, even of good writers, of getting published now by a major house are so slim, and when odds of STAYING published by a major house is so slim, “stigma” is the only argument anybody has left to hang onto.
And “vanity.” But vanity is about motivation, not method of publication. There’s no logic in acting like someone who believes in their book enough to put it out in the marketplace themselves is somehow any more vain than any other writer. It’s not like we all just “want our name on a book.”
I dont’ know about you, but my goals are slightly higher than that.
And I was BIG into the fanfic scene for awhile. A few of my fanfic fans have crossed over to reading my original stuff.
Very interesting convo, Zoe.
I look forward to more as this blog develops!
Appropos of motivation, I think that back in the day, as a brand new writer, I felt that getting picked up by a commercial publisher was a sign that I was ‘good enough’! It was about validation of me as a writer. These days, knowing a lot more about the realities of the industry, I no longer see it that way.
In fact, the way the world communicates has changed SO much over the last decade that it’s not surprising that publishing is changing too. More power to the indie writers!!
Hey Elleann,
Not sure why you went back to the moderate box. Did you use a different email address or link? It could be the two smileys. I’m not exactly sure why sometimes a blog sees two smileys in a comment and goes: “Danger, Will Robinson.” Eh.
And yeah, validation just isn’t a big enough motivation for me to go through those gates.
So I have to find out about this new blog secondhand, via Cliff? And after all my kerning tips, Zoe! (ROTFLMAO!)
Good luck!
hahahaha Mike, sorry sorry. I’ve been crazy busy. (and I just burned a salmon patty. DAMMIT gah.) Okay, anyway, it is so weird how we all know each other.
Do you ever get the feeling that there are like 300 people on the internet tops, and the rest is just an illusion?
Hmmmm… interesting! I’ve subscribed
Awesome Naomi, Welcome!
There is no spoon.
Bwahahahaha