Breaking All the Rules-What Indie Authors Can Do That Traditionally Published Authors Can’t

I have a short story anthology being released next month called Sometimes the Angels Weep. It’s being released under my own imprint, DangerBoy Books, which means, in essence, it’s being self-published.

My adult fiction is usually put out by Kensington Publishing Corp. in New York. They will be releasing Dream with Little Angels next July. Dream with Little Angels is a mystery novel set in a small town in Alabama in the late 1980s. So far, critical reaction to it has been wonderful. We’ve got an incredible blurb from New York Times bestseller Deborah Crombie comparing it to Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize winning book To Kill a Mockingbird, believe it or not.

So, why am I self-publishing the short story collection? For a couple of reasons. First, I decided a while ago that I wanted to have the control that Indie Publishing gives me for at least some aspect of my career (I guess I’m a slight control freak). I chose to restrain it to my young adult titles and any short story anthologies I might want to release. Short story anthologies generally aren’t tremendously big sellers, so, if they’re put out by a traditional publisher, they can hit the remainder pile pretty quickly. If I release one, though, I can keep it in publication as long as I want.

The second reason is a little more subtle. Publishers don’t like you to “genre hop.” They feel your books (especially your first books) build up specific fan bases that will want and expect certain things from the author. In my case, there will be the expectation of me being a mystery writer (even though, in reality, most of my writing probably doesn’t fall under the “mystery” category at all, and, in a lot of ways, Dream with Little Angels is more of a coming-of-age title hidden inside a mystery than it is a mystery wrapped around a coming-of-age story. If that makes any sense.

I do tend to write a lot of coming-of-age stories, so it makes perfect sense to me.

My young adult books are like this. They fall completely outside the realm of mysteries, and would feel strange to Kensington if I were to propose they release them along with Dream with Little Angels. So, by publishing them under my own imprint, DangerBoy Books, I can brand myself differently for the young adult aspect of my writing career.

Now, the short story anthology, Sometimes the Angels Weep, is another thing entirely because it breaks all the rules. It changes genres within the book itself. There are mystery stories inside this book. One is probably the most successful story I’ve ever written: My Lame Summer Journal by Brandon Harris Grade 7 won the Surrey International Writers’ Festival Storyteller Award, and was later listed as one of the top fifty most distinguished stories published that year by Joyce Carol Oates in The Best American Mystery Stories.

I chose to open the anthology with that story.

But along with that one, there are also quirky stories written in completely different genres. Some are unclassifiable. They’re like romantic comedies, maybe. There’s a few fantasy stories, including a novella-length piece about learning to find love again in the face of death, and a story poem (in the sort of style that Neil Gaiman sometimes writes in) about the tooth fairy. That one was listed in a volume of The Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror. Also included is an almost-novella-length military science fiction piece I am rather fond of.

The collection bookends with another Surrey International Writers’ Conference Storyteller Award winner, a rather tender and touching story called But Not Forgotten.

In other words, I’ve packed this book full of the best ten short stories that, in my opinion, I’ve ever written (I had about eighty to choose from). I cherry picked without caring about genre. I went only for quality.

In the eyes of publishers, I think this would be definitely frowned upon. In my eyes, I think it was a good decision.

Time will decide if I am right.

If you’re interested, Sometimes the Angels Weep will be available in mid-January from Amazon and will retail for $ 10.95 U.S.

Michael out.