Guest Blogger: Cliff Burns

To kick us off on the indie group blog, we’ve got Cliff Burns with us today. Cliff has been an indie/author publisher since before we had POD technology, when you had to do offset print runs. Here are some of his thoughts:

The Ever-evolving World of Indie
by: Cliff Burns

You’ll excuse me if I take on the deep, mellifluous tones of an elder statesman. I’ve been involved with the independent (“indie”) writing and publishing scene for nigh on two decades now, and have witnessed many changes, challenges and developments during that time.

Back when I was starting out, there were a number of publications that spotlighted the indie/small press scene, including Factsheet Five (USA) and, up here in Canada, Broken Pencil. I used to contribute sporadically to BP–which is probably still around, in one form or another (though its driving force and inspirational founder, Hal Niedzviecki, has moved on to greener pastures). During Hal’s tenure, Broken Pencil was a terrific booster of small/micro presses. And Hal and his staff didn’t discriminate; send in a sample issue and you usually nabbed a mention. Sometimes you got lucky and your odd rag caught someone’s eye and earned a glowing writeup….

I suspect many of the people who used to operate those presses and publications have moved to the internet, where it’s cheaper and there’s an opportunity to reach (potentially) a worldwide readership. There’s also a growing host of young up and comers who have never published a physical book in their lives and couldn’t tell you the difference between perfect binding and saddle-stitching. Whereas at one time people typed or painstakingly printed stories, poems and confessions, pasting on pictures and designs cut from magazines and newspapers as illustrations, sometimes hand-colouring them…nowadays folks blog.

I pause for a moment to ponder what’s been lost…

But only a moment because I’m quick to acknowledge that the new technologies out there—blogging, podcasting, POD publishing—are incredible tools for authors of an independent bent. It frees them from the endless grind of submitting work and waiting months, sometimes years for a reply. These advances facilitate the rapid growth of indie writing, creating a different paradigm, one that challenges the hegemony of traditional publishers, breaking their monopoly once and for all.

The indie world still attracts the eccentrics, iconoclasts in search of a soapbox, real or virtual…but more and more talented, motivated individuals are using those aforementioned new technologies to create a forum for work that has been rejected by the “trads” for a variety of reasons. For some, it turns out to be a canny move: David Wellington and Scott Sigler secured book deals and Terry Fallis won a Leacock Award for a novel he published through iUniverse.

Here’s the rub: that level of success involves an enormous expenditure of time and energy. As an indie writer and self-publisher (I’ve had my own imprint, Black Dog Press, since 1990), I can tell you that much of my day is spent promoting my work and connecting with colleagues and readers from here to Timbuktu. Between my writing, networking and family guy responsibilities, I’m worn to a frazzle.

Which leads us directly into:

Misconception #1: The life of an indie writer is something to be devoutly wished for; getting to spend all your time on your writing, wow, dude, sounds like a dream come true.

The reality: An indie author is disciplined, hard-working, applying him/herself to the daily practice of writing, improving their craft. Often it’s a seven-day work week and the stress can be a killer.

It really bugs me sometimes that I expend so much energy writing and editing my work, from my novels and short fiction right down to blog posts, spell-checking them, making them as easy on the eyes as I can…and then I read something like:

Um…nothing much to say today. Kind of aimless. Watching the soaps. Maybe going to see that Quiet Riot reunion concert Saturday. Anybody remember them? Hey, cool. Gonna sign off. Ta, til later…

Yowza. Stuff too dull to be scrawled in a journal, let alone posted for public consumption.

Misconception #2: Indie artists can get rich and/or famous doing their own thing. Hell, look at Ani DiFranco and Trent Reznor and Radiohead—

The reality: fat chance.

Okay, here’s the bad news: those people you just mentioned? They’re musicians. Big difference. Second, if you’re in it for the fame and fortune, indie writing probably isn’t for you. True, there are the occasional success stories, a la Wellington and Fallis, but they’re the rare exception. Indie writing, really, when you get right down to it, is all about presenting an idea or vision without interference or tampering, placing it directly into the hands of readers. It’s about maintaining control over your work and never compromising or re-making it to accord with someone else’s whims.

Misconception #3: Anyone can be an indie writer.

The reality: true…to some extent. But there’s a helluva learning curve.

Yes, you have to be patient and persistent, learn as you go. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes—most things can be undone (or redone). If you’re a technophobe, well, you shouldn’t be around computers in the first place. But if you’re willing to devote yourself to finding out about the many exciting avenues and possibilities the new technologies represent, ladies and gentlemen, the world is your oyster…

Misconception #4: E-books are the future.

The reality: sorry to disabuse you of this notion but, in my experience, most readers still prefer a solid, reassuring book in their hands.

Browsing snippets of a book on-screen is one thing, scrolling through a four hundred page novel is something else. Eventually serious indie writers have to produce “dead tree” editions of their work. It’s a fact of life. Once you achieve a certain level of success and recognition, your readers will demand it. And, who knows, you might finally get a chance to make some actual money from book sales (but don’t count on it). Talk to other writers, join forums, get the poop on publish-on-demand (POD) outfits, who gives the best service, who to avoid. There are resources, reams of good info out there for indie scribes willing to do their homework.

Misconception #5: Indie is a euphemism for “amateur” or “failure”.

The reality: Indie writing, like traditionally published efforts, runs the gamut from the sub-literate to glittering literary gems. That said, it behooves indie authors to maintain professional standards and produce work of consistently high quality.

One of the canards directed at indie authors is that they go their own way because they aren’t good enough to make it the traditional route. This one galls and that’s why my point re: preserving professional standards is so important. Hopefully more indie writing will lead to more indie reviews, insightful critics and commentators helping separate the wheat from the chaff.

FYI: for many frustrated scribblers, veering away from the trads is a direct response to the indignities and humiliations they inflict on authors, the sense that writers are relatively unimportant in the grand scheme of things. A good number of us rebel at that notion and seek to empower ourselves and connect to a growing legion of readers who are internet savvy, educated…and bored with what the publishing scene is offering, looking for alternatives…

Misconception #6: The future of indie writing is a) bright b) gloomy c) neither

The reality: Indie writing/publishing is still very much a work-in-progress.

I can’t tell you where we’re going to be five or even three years from now. Things are moving too fast. I will offer up one prediction and that is the big media corporations will continue to downsize and dump their publishing arms. The medium, small and micro- presses will be flooded with material, some once-big name authors flogging their manuscripts alongside the rest of us poor shleps. Or maybe looking into this POD thing, at least that way you get more per book than you would with the biggies…

Misconception #7: Making these new technologies available to everyone will lead to a torrent of lousy, amateurish prose. Readers won’t be able to find the good stuff–

The reality: we’re creating the world’s biggest, most diverse bookstore.

Wall to wall books. Manifestos and screeds and fantasies of the high and low kind; mysteries and conspiracy theories, Joycean epiphanies and the worst potboiler crap.

Each of us accessing the same technology, the marketplace encompassing everything from an e-book of poems inspired by a beloved childhood pet to a novel that goes on to be a New York Times bestseller and a top-grossing movie. Why not?

It’s like punk rock—DIY in its purest form. Sure, you’ll find yourself bombarded by tons of bad music, cranked out by talentless amateurs…but every so often a band like the Clash or Sex Pistols will take to the stage and completely blow you away.

Indie artists are today’s visionaries, auteurs, shamen. They make bold journeys and chart strange, alien terrains. Never easily classified, crossing and melding genres with errant disregard. Always presenting us with the unexpected. Stripping us of our preconceptions, cutting the safety net, shaping the stuff of dreams (and nightmares). In basements and bedrooms, home and hovel, poised before glowing screens. Concocting anarchy out of primitive zeal, creating new memes to supplant those that have grown tired and stale.

“…and a one…two…free…four!”

Cliff Burns is a Canadian author who “turned pro” almost twenty-five years ago. His blog, “Beautiful Desolation”, features over 250,000 words of prose, including two novels and numerous short stories, monologues, essays and rants. All available for free reading and downloading (under terms of Creative Commons).

© Copyright, 2008 Cliff Burns (All Rights Reserved)