To Indie or not to Indie

     My friend J.K. Kelley published a blog entry called Some cold realities about getting published, for your information yesterday. In it, he outlined the options a hopeful writer has if they want to publish a book. In a nutshell, those options are "The Big Six" publishers in New York, the "small press" publishers and self-publishing.     Until very recently, self-publishing was looked down upon, tainted by the concept of the "vanity press." The idea was that if you weren't good enough to get by the Gatekeepers of the publishing world, then you were probably just publishing for the ego of the whole thing. You had a book, but you weren't "really" published.      When I started writing my book I was calling A Perfect Fit in 2006, I was completely intent on landing an agent and waiting by the mailbox for the inevitable  rejection letters to start piling up. I studied the art of writing a query letter, polishing and re-polishing my first few chapters in the hope someone in the publishing industry would be willing to read them.     Then, the Kindle came along and changed the world. Companies had been pushing various e-readers for years, but nothing captured the marketplace until the Kindle. Did you know that there are now more e-books sold than there are printed books?     By the time I had typed "The End" on the last page of what I was now calling Feels Like the First Time, I had no interest in publishing the conventional route. I am an Indie through and through.     Why? J.K. did a good job of covering the reasons in his blog, but here are my own:      If I had sought a conventional publisher, my manuscript would *maybe* (if I was lucky) be sitting on some agent's desk, who might or might not ever get around to reading it. No publisher, and no person outside my friends and family would even be aware it existed.  Instead, it's out in the world, and guess what?  It's selling!  People are buying copies of it every day, which thrills me and makes me feel so grateful. And, people are enjoying it, which is the most gratifying thing of all - it has an average five star rating with 15 reviews on Amazon.     If I had managed to have a publisher take a look at the book, they almost certainly wouldn't have been interested. "It's a memoir, and you don't have a platform" they would have sniffed. "What bestseller is your book like?" they would have asked. None, really, would have been my answer. I don't know of any bestselling books that tell a gentle, innocent true love story.     Also, if they had offered me a contract, the terms would have been onerous at best. I would have signed all my rights away, and even if they decided they didn't want to print any more copies, it would have been very difficult for me to get those rights back. Then there's the financial aspect. As an unknown author, I would have received a very small up-front payment, and the chances are exceptionally high that I never would have seen another cent. Instead, I take all the risk and claim the rewards if there are any. I like that.     In exchange for all that, they would have theoretically given me some "promotion" to help me get my book off the ground. The reI talk to other writers who are published every day, and I'm going to tell you, that ain't gonna happen. They expect authors (or at least lesser-known authors) to do their own promotions and publicity.     So, what do you get if you sign a contract with a big publisher?  You get to say "My book is published by Penguin." Or McMillan, or whoever. From my perspective, that's all you get, and the ego-stroke of that just isn't enough, not even close.     Instead, when I typed "The End," I got busy. I contacted a great editor, cover artist and proofreader.  We worked on the book together for four more months before it was ready to be put out in the world. It was a collaborative effort, and it was fun. Since I hit "publish" on September 4th, I've been my own publicist, and that's been fun too.     If I ever sell enough to attract the attention of a publisher, they would honestly have to change their whole business model before I would be interested in talking to them. I'm aware that's not going to happen, and I'm good with that.  I love everything about being an Indie.