Welcome to Blogging A to Z! My theme this year is Going Indie. I hope you enjoy it. Don't forget to check out the other participating blogs.
One reason I've gone indie in my writing life is that I'm looking to up my game--to move from a sometimes-profitable hobby to a full-blown career.
I've been working with small publishers for a decade now, and I have seen some good income and career building opportunities during this time, but—what was it Carrie Fisher said? Instant gratification takes too long? — yeah, I'm impatient.
See, I'm full of ideas. Bursting actually. And trad publishing is sloooooooooow. The distance between "I finished my book!" and "Readers can get my book!" can be one to five years, depending on the circumstances, and whether you already have a publisher relationship or if you're in the submission trenches.
Part of the power going indie gives me is control over my timelines. I can go as fast as I can go! So, that gives me a better chance of getting more of my imaginary friends out there in the world where you can meet them.
I'm also in charge of marketing, pricing, distribution choices, etc. And I get the data from everything I try faster.
So, going indie is definitely putting more work on my plate, but the payoffs are already worth it.
There are some indie authors that I follow on Bluesky (I followed them on Twitter in the before times) who make a decent living at being indie. They were putting out a lot of books very quickly. And they had a huge social media following. It can be done.
ReplyDeleteIf it works for you, go for it. You have so much energy, I look forward to seeing how high your rocket can fly.
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