I Am Just An Author
If there's one thing I'm learning, it's that there's a HUGE schism between those who advocate self-publishing and those who advocate traditional publishing. While I've never been drawn into those debates, I'm baffled about how passionate people are for either side.
Me? I am just an author.
When I do tell people I have a book, I never tell them I published it myself unless they ask. It's not important and to be frank, readers don't care who publishes it. They just want a good story for a reasonable price.
Here are the questions people do ask when I tell them I have a book:
1. What's it about?
2. How much is it?
3. Where can I buy it?
They never ask if I published it myself. Readers don't care about publishers, so why should writers?
The pro-traditional people want the validation of their agents and publishers. That's really important to them. Some people believe that the publishers will do a lot for them, but unless you have a name, they won't. You're going to have to do a lot of the marketing and promoting yourself and the only people who you should care about are your readers.
The pro-indie people are tired of getting rejected. They want to take destiny into their own hands. While I like that, they have to remember they can't do everything by themselves, and should hire people. They also tend to rush things, instead of taking their time.
The only time I let people know I'm an indie author are for those sites that specially promote indie authors. I use it to my advantage. It's very similar to when I queried agents or publishers and didn't let them know that I'm querying other people when they wanted to be exclusive. But I never go out of my way to scream, "I'm an indie author!" I don't see the point and odds are, I won't be that successful to be an indie author figurehead.
Yes, I'm straddling the fence even though I am an indie author. I can see both sides and both have valid points. There's no us vs. them. We all love to write and we all love stories. I just want to write my stories, have lots of readers, and hope they love my work. I'm betting that both sides want that too.
I'm many things–businessman, entrepreneur, publisher, but most importantly, I am just an author.
Marc Johnson
