What does independent publishing mean to you?

Like traditional publishing, there is no getting away from the fact that independent publishing is something of a broad church. As more and more authors take the leap to indie publishing, what it incorporates and means continue to develop and grow.

This leads to the idea of independent publishing meaning different things to different people. To some, it means doing absolutely everything yourself. It means writing the book alone, editing and proofreading alone, and designing the cover alone. It means formatting the work, pricing it, publishing it and marketing it entirely as a one-person operation.

That’s one interpretation of it. To other people, independent publishing means something a little bit different. It might mean taking control and responsibility for the entire process in a similar way to above, but buying in resources as and when necessary. For example, it might mean hiring editing and design services to make a book as professional as possible, but still retaining full creative control and publishing as an independent.

To other people, independent publishing means publishing through a company specifically set up for the purpose. Other people might include small local presses that are classed as independent because they are set somewhat apart from the publishing mainstream.

There are plenty of different interpretations of what independent publishing actually is, and there is an interesting debate to be had about where we ought to draw the line when defining it. However, it seems to me that the one thing all of these definitions have in common is that they have a focus on giving creative control to the author. They let the author write what they want, how they want. Indie publishing is independent minded even if the whole process isn’t completed entirely independently.

But what do you think? How would you define independent publishing and what does it mean to you?