Book Reviews
Guest Author •
Aug 29, 2012 
Why I Went Indie
by Lenore Skomal
I am Indie. And I say it proudly and with gusto because I chose it. Perhaps that makes me different from other indie authors who find themselves pushed into the “indie way” because of a general lack of response from the profit-driven, long-suffering commercial publishing industry, which has been reduced to a passel of lost sheepherders trying to lead their readers without direction or vision. But that’s a subject for another blog post.
A little back story: I started writing books in 2001, following a long career as a broadcast reporter and a burgeoning career in print journalism. It is a career that took me four decades to finally get to. That first book (Keeper of Lime Rock, Running Press, 2001) spawned 16 other book deals with four separate publishing houses. I have hired and parted ways with two literary agents during the course of that time. And learned a lot about the industry in the process, much of which is not pretty or glamorous. Not counting advances, the conventional route of being published through a commercial publisher has, to date, netted me exactly zero dollars in royalties.
The lack of financial success isn’t the real reason I went indie. That goes much deeper, and it’s multi-fold. Indie appeals to me. I chose the indie way of life because it speaks to me and how I approach my life in general and, specifically, my art. While working within the traditional publishing hierarchy and producing mostly contracted books, I found myself in a lesser place, wrangling with base emotions. Rather than feeling exalted and amped up like I do when I am dancing with my muse, I was ugly. That lack of beauty was obvious through my moods and rash feelings of disgruntlement, frustration, shock, sadness, disheartenment and yearning. Always yearning.
My mind shifted from the creative to the competitive. And with that, my higher path dropped to the lowest of roads. I found myself bitter about other’s successes, jealous of those I considered lesser writers who had moved ahead, and greedy for my piece of the pie. This is not what being in the flow is about. I began to look at success in terms of dollars and more dollars. And I continued to plummet.
Dark days indeed, especially because I was continuing to write all that I didn’t want to write. My two novels and two other very important books that I had completed stay buried in my computer, waiting to be discovered by this same industry that had never proved fertile ground for my craft.
Simply put, discovering the independent book revolution saved my soul. I am a newbie, with only one plus years under my belt with my own imprint. But have found myself again. Through forging my own path to understand all the specifics of getting my work in print, my courage was steeled, my voice sharpened, confidence cranked up, and my imagination humming. This is no exaggeration.
Long ago I isolated the reason why I write. As one of seven kids, raised in a dysfunctional Catholic family during the tail end of the Hippie era, I discovered writing at a young age and found that it did something for me that nothing else could. It helped me make sense of my life. It also allowed me to be heard, which didn’t happen often in the chaos that was my childhood. And that is the primary reason that I write. Being schooled in that tradition for 12 years, I got very used to being told what to do, how to do it, and what to wear while doing it. I was primed for the publishing industry because I was such a good soldier. The problem was, I wasn’t happy and somewhere along the way, they wanted me to sell my soul. And I’m ashamed to say, for the right advance, I might just have done it. Thankfully, no one wanted my novels as they are written, so I remain with my spirituality intact.
I say all of this because it ultimately explains why I love indie publishing. No one is telling me what to do. And that is very freeing. In this ever-evolving movement where boundaries are still being defined and we are all pretty much making things up as we go along, there is plenty of room for all of us. And no one has to change plots or switch voices or add werewolves to their novels or make endings more politically correct, just because an editor or publisher tells us to. Experimental genres are just as legit as literary fiction, and we can all wear unmatched socks and go shirtless to fancy restaurants if we want. And make money at the same time.
You know why? Because we are now free to leave ourselves bare, just as we are, take us or leave us, for the only person that matters to decide: The reader. We cut out the fat middleman, the hierarchy, the chain of command—call it what you will. We go direct to the reader and let that person decide.
Whether you come to independent publishing by choice, like me, or by chance, it really doesn’t matter in the long run. You’re here. And because of that, you’re part of the future, whether you realize it or not. We’re not outside the industry.
We are the industry, redefined.
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Lenore Skomal is a veteran author with 15 commercially published books. Her best known book is Lighthouse Keepers’ Daughter: The Remarkable True Story of American Heroine Ida Lewis and was selected by the prestigious New York Public Library as one of its “Best Books for the Teen Age 2003″, an honor bestowed on only seven new titles in its category in 2003.
Her first indie book Burnt Toast won the humor category of the 2012 NEXT GENERATION INDIE BOOK AWARDS.
I loved reading your story and ours are very similar. I fortunately haven’t gone the route of the traditional publishing except for a few smaller items. I attribute my reason for avoiding that to having a entrepreneurial spirit. After my daughter was born, I became very tired of working dead end, low paying jobs. I wanted more for her and for us both so I started my own business as a financial services professional. Over the last few years I’ve owned three different businesses, all with some level of success but not quite as fulfilling as I would have liked. There was always something missing. Now however, I have two business ventures that are a perfect marriage of all my skills – Kountz Marketing Group which provides marketing solutions for small and medium size businesses as well as corporate consulting and Charity Kountz, Author which is my independent publishing I’m doing in conjunction with Kountz Marketing. I’m my own test case/portfolio/example because I’m marketing my own products and services for two different brands while still doing what I adore which is writing. My first indie book is being published as we speak – a children’s Christmas story for middle graders. So while I’ve avoided some of your experiences, I feel like the last five years have been preparing me for doing this. Great post and I’m excited to be a part of this direction for publishing.
Your comments resonated with me. I feel that the time has come for authors to write they way they ( and the people around them) think and speak. I was frustrated with well meaning editors seeking to change my ( admittedly terrible) prose – but that is the way I speak and the way I would tell it if you were sitting next to me. I resent being told to conform to some fashion of form of expression dictated by the grammar police.
More important. Although I am/was a dot.com pioneer and helped to build some of the things that we take for granted that have been enabled by the Internet- I am nevertheless enthralled by the freedom of choice self publishing has made The technical wizardry and the attention to detail is astounding. I was particularly taken with Amazon’s Createspace.
Long Live the Revolution!
Much of what you said resonated with me, though we crossed the same bridges at different times. I get the whole “raised Catholic” thing, for sure. I’m still in recovery. And writing also helped me to understand and make sense of the world around me, even though I didn’t stumble into it until college when I took a course in newspaper reporting. I tell folks that I wrote to serve one master or another for a large number of years–newspaper editors, magazine editors, law professors, writing to persuade appellate courts–but in the past five years when I started blogging essays for the sheer joy and necessity of it, and then self-published those essays in books for the sheer joy and excitement of it, I’ve never been happier to write! And as a side note, never had this much fun or opportunity with it either.
Thanks for you words.
If your books read as well as your blog, well done – royalties or no royalties…
I have to say that my experience thus far (and publication of my first book looms about a week away) has proved to be enlightening. I first stepped into the Print-on-Demand revolution in 2000. Back then it was cheaper and certainly undefined. They made all the decisions regarding the look of the book. I only uploaded the text. I ended up going through 3 different covers, the last of which was so boring even I wouldn’t buy my book, but at least it didn’t negate the story within like the previous 2 had. Now, with the freedom to choose the text font, the way the title page looks, the cover picture, the cover template (not quite savvy enough to do that on my own), I have accepted the power that all those choices bring. This is MY book, not someone else’s. My success or failure rides on me, not on someone else who never read the book and made assumptions and decisions based on its brief description. I have been proud of the quality of my writing for some time; now, I can revel in the thrill of a full-blown self-creation. Yes, we as independent publishers are the industry, redefined. Thank you, Lenore, for your insightful post.
Thanks for the positive responses. Yes, there are still a few areas that the traditional publishing industry holds as trump cards: marketing, distribution and the prestigious awards and reviewing publications. But I believe that is changing rapidly. Using one of the several indie marketing firms to promote your work is a great avenue. Distribution via online is also a huge advantage since we market directly to the reader. As for the big awards, those too wil have to open to us as we continue to show a stronger more sophisticated bank of authors who can’t be ignored. As more self published authors work to find ways to crack the foundations of traditional publishing houses the end point will be, as the song says, the walls will come tumblin down. Just keep on keeping on.
Great insights about a personal journey to indie publishing, but what about marketing, Being an established (and award winning) author via traditional publishing means becoming an indie author is less daunting marketing-wise because your reputation and reader-base is already established. Without that, I think the traditional publishing world still has a trump card in the marketing machine it can drive. Although maybe I’m wrong. I would love to hear your perspective on this.
Amen, Lenore. Your final line says it all. Thanks for the enjoyable read.
An excellent post. And I agree – writing is about creativity, not competition.