The Indie Writer Council Speaks

It’s a shame when indie writers are putting out better material than the big-time writers (who I call “Boom Writers”), but it’s happening. And my feeling is that it’s going to happen more and more. The digital age is unfolding like a spring-time blossom, revealing layer after layer as it does, giving us the content we want when we want it. The boom writers are still hogging all the profits and are thriving on the short tail, and in the current climate

Just today a fellow indie writer and frequent Tweeter (@KenMcConnell) who lives out west in Boise sent me a link to an article in a local (Birmingham) newspaper. My first thought was how interesting it was that he should be browsing Birmingham news, even though the article in question did mention Boise. Interesting because the newspaper industry is drowning right now and it doesn’t look like there’s going to be any life support around, and yet, that content is available to anyone who wants it, any time they want it. And at the same time they’re losing subscribers by the bucketful, daily.

And what does that mean for the book publishing industry? Not much. People will still read the writers they want to read, just like Ken found the article he was looking for when he wanted it, I will be able to buy the latest Charlie Huston when I want it, because I know what kind of work he does and I know it speaks to me. And that’s the main problem for indie writers. We don’t have a conglomerate backing us. We lack their resources.

But the short tail is getting longer, I think, and the long tail is getting shorter. It’s happening slowly, but that’s the direction we’re running in. Ken wrote an interesting post concerning how he’ll sell his books, and it’s a solid plan, I think. We can give away enough so people can see that it isn’t stinking pile of manure they’re buying, and if they like it, shouldn’t they buy it? I think in the long run people will be more eager to buy from indie writers than from conglomerates, because people will always feel that the conglomerate is somehow screwing them. But my little indie novel? I’ll put it in your hand myself, autograph it myself and give you a kiss on the cheek (or a shake of the hand) for buying it.

Slowly, the indie writer market is opening up. Why is it so slow? For the same reason that self-publishing has been sneered at for generations: because too much crap has seen print, and too many people have been burned by the self-published wad of snot someone called a novel.

In the old days you wrote the book and then, if you wanted to self-publish (which you wouldn’t, unless you’d already sunk your chances with every single publisher in the world), you spent an equal amount of time getting it published, and you took out a second mortgage to do it. Ten grand and a trunk full of books that you went peddling at the mill, or at the park, being told to hit the street by surly short-order cooks pointing at the “No Soliciting” sign in the window. You don’t get interviewed about your book. You’re stuck with four hundred sixty seven copies out of a five hundred copy print run. Yeah. Life pretty much sucked.

But my how times have changed.

Resources. Something self-publishers of yesteryear didn’t have, but something that indie writers of today do. We can publish our books through CreateSpace or Lulu. We can start a blog about our writing, our book, our journey. We can sell our books on Amazon, for cripe’s sake–if we can find a buyer, that is. We can give away ebook samples of our work, we can post it on Scribd for free if we want to. We can publish anthologies. The publishing road that once cost so much time and heartache can now be accomplished in a few hours on Sunday afternoon. Three days later your book arrives. You can order however many you want, you don’t have to meet a required print run. Gimme ten today, twenty five next week…if those sell I’ll buy some more.

The only thing lacking is an audience. And as more and more people find that they can go and get the content they want when they want it, that they don’t have bow to the conglomerates’ ordained material or do without, then they will. Especially when they find out that times have changed since the heady days of self publishing. That indie-published material is, in many cases, superior to what the conglomerates are publishing.

Right now most times we’re writing interesting failures. But all that could change very soon. The publishing industry is changing, the world is changing. But no matter what, so long as there are people in the world stories still will be told. And we’ll be the ones telling them.