What’s the difference in Small Publishing, and being an Indie Author?

Well, if you do it right, in the reader’s eyes: Nothing.

When speaking against “self-publishing” (God I hate that word, but it’s what most people call it), there are countless examples given of why self-publishing is bad and why most self-published work sucks. But so? Who cares? I mean really. Who. Cares? Further, who knows?

Writers for the most part know the names of every imprint of every major publisher in the genre they write in. Further they usually know the names of most of the smaller respectable publishers and epubs in their genre. But . . . the average non-writing reader does not. They don’t know and they don’t care.

Sure they know who Random House is. But if you say: “Quick, who published your favorite novelist’s last book?” They will look at you like this: O.o

They don’t know. And they couldn’t tell you even if you threatened their life or kidnapped their children and made the correct answer (without looking) the ransom. What does this mean for you as an indie author?

It means, it doesn’t MATTER how much 95% of what is self-published sucks, as long as YOUR work doesn’t suck, readers don’t care. So I have my own little imprint that I started. Down the street from me (metaphorically speaking), there is a small press that puts out maybe 3 books a year. What distinguishes them, in the reader’s mind, from me? Nothing. Not one damn thing.

So this is something that mildly irritates me. The idea that if you publish your own work, it will somehow paint a scarlet S (for self-published) on you. And you will sell fewer books than if a small publisher (who can’t afford to market you any better than you can) were to publish you. Hell, there are some readers who don’t even know what Authorhouse or iuniverse is. So even if you don’t have your own imprint, with a whole demographic of readers you still aren’t screwed. And there are many who don’t care.

Here is the ONLY thing a reader cares about: A GOOD BOOK. Period. End of story. They do not care who the publisher is. They don’t understand all the bizarre politics of our industry. They have no idea about all these little cliques and weird oneupmanship games we have going on. And even if they did, they probably still wouldn’t care.

An unknown author published by a major publisher, faces the same challenge an unknown author published by a small publisher or published by their own imprint faces: gaining reader trust. If a reader doesn’t know you or your work, they don’t know if they like you. So make it easy for them.

Give them a good-looking cover. However you have to do that.

Give them a good interior layout, however you have to do that.

Some people have an eye for design and some people don’t. Some people can get by on their own skills and some people can’t.

KEPT is by no means “perfect” in design or layout. I am a work in progress. But KEPT was a free ebook and I couldn’t “afford” to hire a top notch cover artist and interior layout artist, so I had to learn enough to get by, and I’m still on that learning curve.

I will say don’t do your own editing. Because we all need more than one pair of eyeballs to examine our work and help us polish it. I won’t tell you how to get this accomplished. If you’re smart enough to figure out everything else, you’re probably smart enough to know how to have your work properly edited. And probably without mortgaging your house to do it.

Give readers a high quality product. Give free samples, give free podcasts. Build trust in the reader by giving SOMETHING to them that lets them try before they buy. And maintain the trust you gain. Because while another writer may hear that you’re an indie and decide to compare you against every supposedly superior NY published book they’ve ever read, readers don’t do that.

Each book gets it’s own trial by a jury of readers. You’re innocent until proven guilty. Don’t be proven guilty. Create a great book. And build a reader base that trusts you. Then don’t betray that trust. Much harder than it sounds, I know. Still, if you wanted to do something easy, you would have taken up brain surgery, not publishing.