Indie Life and Self-Publishing: Wouldn’t you Rather be Writing?

What’s Up Wednesday!

Indie Life

A couple weeks ago, I came across an interesting post on The Passive Voice. (Granted, most of the posts PG links to are interesting) Writer Unboxed posted an article by Meg Clayton on the five reasons why traditional publishing is the better idea.

I’ll wait for the hackles to settle.

I read the article, and it was well written and respectful of indie publishers, which is always a plus. I disagreed with all her points for various reasons, but number five was the one that struck me. In her exact words: Writing Time Is the Best Time.

I hear this argument a lot from people who want to be traditionally published. “I just want to right, not spend time promoting, or editing and formatting, or designing cover art. Thing is, hate to burst anyone’s bubble, but going traditional will leave you with about the same amount of writing time.

This goes beyond the common argument that big publishers now (yeah, like for the last fifteen years) expect their authors to promote their own work. Being traditionally published means getting the attention of an agent or editor who will make that publishing deal happen. And all the effort of getting their attention is time away from writing.

I spent about a year trying to get traditionally published. I researched agents and editors, workshopped query letters, synopses, and hooks, and sent out email after email. (I refused to waste money, paper and ink on agents or publishers who had yet to join the 21st century and accept email submissions.)

All of that was time I could have spent writing. Maybe it gets easier once you get accepted by a publisher. But then self-publishing gets easier once you make enough money to afford to hire out things like cover art and formatting. Neither one is better or worse, just different. And carving out time to write will always be a chore, until you’re lucky enough to be able to quit your day job.