Still a Stigma? -- Indie Life & ROW80

It's hump day, and time for my monthly posting for  Indie Life .

What is Indie Life?
How: Sign up on the Linky at the bottom of this page
When: Post on the second Wednesday of the month (starting 1/9/2013)
What: Write anything indie related: something that will inspire or help a fellow indie; something that celebrates a release or a milestone; something that talks about the ups and downs, joys and heartaches of Being Indie.
Grab: The banner to include in your posts!
 
On any given day, I see articles talking about traditional versus independent publishing. Although I think indie has come a long way, there is still a faction of readers who think only traditional books are legit.

Why? As a reader, do you really want other people (publishing houses and their staff) deciding what books are acceptable for public consumption?

Let's consider independent films. They are often labeled as artsy and are usually critics' darlings. But independent books get blasted for low quality and not having a publishing house's stamp of approval. Why then should we think an independent movie is hip if Twentieth Century Fox turned it down?

Yes, there are independent books out there that are low quality. But there are traditionally published books that are simply awful. Have I loved every indie book I've ever read? Of course not, but I haven't loved every William Morrow book I've ever read either.

Do you know how many times JK Rowling got turned down for Harry Potter? 12! The Help? 60! Publishing houses can be, and often are, wrong.

So indie authors, please hold your heads high and be proud. If we all continue to put out high quality, exciting books, people will start to change their minds. I've seen a huge turnaround in opinion since I published my first book in late 2010.

What will it take for more readers to consider indie?

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A Round of Words in 80 Days (ROW80) Update

How is it that we are almost halfway through November already? Almost halfway through NaNo, and my word count is: 25,068 (as of last night).

I'm trying to front load my words, because my parents are coming for Thanksgiving (their first time out to our CA home). Other than writing, I'm just trying to keep up with my sponsor duties, blogging (thankfully I wrote several blog posts before 11/1), and some social media interaction.

How are my NaNo buddies doing? And my non-NaNo buddies?