Why I Went Indie (which is not the same as Going Rogue)

I'm not planning on doing regular blog posts (I don't have much interesting to say on a daily basis unless you want to hear about my Real Housewives obsession), but on the eve of my self-publishing debut I did want to say a few words about my decision to enter this brave new world.

Ten years ago (almost to the day) I threw a particularly poorly-written novel against the wall and proclaimed "Even I can write better crap than that". And then I thought, "Why yes, maybe I can write better crap than that." And the journey began.

I started writing, and more importantly, I started learning. I joined the national branch and local chapter of Romance Writers of America. I went to conferences and workshops and I soaked in everything from craft to business model facts. The turning point was finding my two critique partners, Holli Bertram and Colleen Gleason. Honestly, I'm not sure I'd still be at it if I hadn't met them. Support. Knowledge. Camaraderie. Spot on critique. And the occasional kick in the ass. I couldn't ask for more. Oh, and cocktails! We mustn't forget the cocktails.

I started pursuing a publishing contract, first with my small town contemporary romances, then with my romantic mystery series. I got an agent (Writers House's Jodi Reamer) and went out on submission. And I got lovely, lovely rejection letters.

But even better - but mostly worse - I got "I tried to buy it but my marketing department doesn't know how to position it" letters. A few of them. They are even harder to take than rejection letters, and yet made me believe that even though my books were not something that a retailer could easily "shelf", knowledgeable people thought they were publishable.

So we waited, and I kept writing, and we sent them out again. Same thing, only this time the "I tried to buy it" lines were slightly geared more toward "I tried to buy it, but in this market, with such limited shelf space, we just can't find a spot for a debut author".

In the meantime, the ebook world exploded and there became a place for books like mine. ("There's a place for us. Somewhere, a place for us".) Several published author friends were putting up their backlists and pre-published books and doing well with them.

And yes, it is a bit of apples and oranges because these authors already had a following of readers and had the "legitimacy" of being published, but as the ebook revolution took hold, those 2 factors blurred a little bit more. I decided to find a shelf space of my own—in the virtual world.

But you see, dear reader, even as I put forth that the self-publishing stigma has fallen, I obviously found it necessary to tell you that I was thisclose to a contract, and to name-drop my agent (oh, did I mention that it's Jodi Reamer - agent to John Green and Stephenie Meyer?). So perhaps there's still a little of the insecure writer left even in this brave new world?

But really, isn't there a little insecurity in every writer?

Happy reading, all!