Indie Author Life: Why I went Indie and chose Ingram Spark

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Indie Author Life: Why I went Indie and chose Ingram Spark

With the book—Swimming Sideways— that launched an Indie Author.

I’ve shared my writing journey in other posts (if you’re new to my journey, check my three part blog post called Emily Dickinson is Laughing here), so I won’t belabor the how and why and the dream of writing. Suffice it to say, becoming a working author is hardwired into my DNA. 2000 marked the point when I took my first baby steps to realize the dream with hopeful naivety and queried my first novel, which I was sure would be a hit with agents and publishers and readers. It wasn’t. It was rightfully rejected (hindsight is always 20/20). Another novel. Another series of rejections. Another novel. Another series of rejections. Another novel. Another series of rejections. Sixteen years later and another round of rejections on The Ugly Truth, I finally just thought: Why not Amazon? So I put it out there (and again: hindsight is 20/20. I shouldn’t have). All I heard was crickets (thankfully :) Then I decided—like a responsible grown up—that maybe my dream just wasn’t meant to be and that I should really focus on what I was good at: Teaching.

The Cantos Chronicles before the Rebrand; The Ugly Truth was the first one I wrote thinking it was a stand alone. Swimming Sideways was written second, but was the lead in to the whole series. Cover art matters (see the rebrand below).

One year later, 2017, my father died unexpectedly. It sent me into an emotional and identity tailspin. What an awful place to be and hangout (I don’t recommend it), but like all difficult places, somehow we find our way out of them. While climbing out, I heard Abby’s voice: I need you to finish my story; Seth’s voice: Don’t leave me down here (because at that point he was trapped in hell); and Gabe’s voice: I’m waiting for you. So I did. And queried again. And faced another round of rejections. And another round. And another round. So disheartened with now 17 years of rejection, I decided to just write the stories anyway, without thought to what would happen to them. I just needed to finish them. In the meantime, another indie author, Mike Walters (who is also my awesome cousin and writes mystery thrillers), read Swimming Sideways and asked, “Why isn’t this published?”

“I can’t get an agent. I’ve submitted it to 20-30 of them,” I said.

“Then why not go Independent? It’s too good not to put it out there.”

And so that’s what started me on the path as an Independent Author. I published on Amazon KDP Swimming Sideways in 2018, followed shortly after by a re-published revision of The Ugly Truth that same year, and then concluded the series in 2019 with The Bones of Who We Are. I was bolstered by the response of the Indie Book community. Reviews the stories received were strong, and I got some confidence back. That’s when I began to see that my dream could still happen, it might just look different than I’d initially imagined.

My next step: I tried to get them into local bookstores. A lovely human at Barnes & Noble, Honolulu said, “Bookstores don’t want to carry their competition,” and suddenly something in me clicked. While I could see the benefit of Amazon for a hobbyist, or someone who wasn’t in a financial place to take on the investment to publish, or someone who was content to publish exclusively for kindle, my goals as a writer diverged from that path. I realized I wasn’t doing my dream and my goals justice going about it the way I was. I had a choice before me about how I wanted to approach my author’s journey. The reality that I needed to see myself as a business and my books as my products was clear, and that’s when I switched over to IngramSpark/Lightning Source.

The Rebranded Hardcover versions of The Cantos Chronicles.

This switch meant that I was in control of the entire process and the financial investment. From writing the book, and editing it, but also formatting it, the cover, buying the ISBN, marketing it and publicizing it. Being that much in control isn’t for everyone. It’s a lot; I’m not going to lie, and time consuming, but I find it fulfilling. I like having the final say on the cover. I like having the final say on the interior. I like using my creative energy to publicize, market and engage (I love engaging with people even if marketing and publicity isn’t in my wheelhouse of skills). My success (or failure) then is in my hands, and I’m totally okay with that.