The following is a post I placed on a writers group in response to a report from a major event for romance writers and publishers in London.I am part of a movement which has a steeply uphill climb but I still think it is worthwhile for reasons I could wax eloquent about for hours.. indie or alternative publishing. It is in response to what the author was talking about, the narrow standards of corporate, for lack of a better term, publishers. Yes, the other term for what we are promoting is "self publishing" but it has in this era of the Internet a great deal of potential.
I and others in the alternative publishing movement feel that corporate publishers are doing a great disservice to readers, particularly readers of genre fiction. The very fact that writers are told that publishers will only consider books about historical women means that anyone out there who might like to read about purely fictional people who have modest everyday lives or about historical men of an era really gripes me. Maybe those books won't sell gazillions, but readers still want to read them. And self published does not automatically mean crap. Each book deserves to be judged individually.. and readers are the ones who should decide. That's what I believe.
So I published AN INVOLUNTARY KING myself. Of course there are disadvantages, but they are all disadvantages that can be overcome. That is why the organization Independent Authors Guild was formed and even more specifically why I set up a working committee yesterday to analyze book marketing opportunities for indie authors. If you are interested, here is the skinny. www.independentauthorsguild.org and http://groups.yahoo.com/group/indiebookmarketing/ .
For some reason the embracing of indie film making and indie music recording has not been extended to indie book publishing. That's part of the movement, to shift that situation. The latter group I mentioned was formed to look at only one aspect of indie publishing, how to improve book marketing for indie authors.. with any book getting the same space on, say, Amazon, as any other, it is purely getting the word out that keeps indie books at a disadvantage. We want to examine the tools and resources in a methodical way to see how we can get or make access for those whose work does not meet the corporate publishers sales criteria.
You know, one book I highly admire is Brandy Purdy's THE CONFESSION OF PIERS GAVESTON. She does things with first person narrative that made me sit up and look. She has little if any chance of having that book published unless she did it herself.. Even though her other book, which will now be called THE BOLEYN WIFE was actually picked up by a traditional publisher - female, historical, first person, and Tudor -- the publishers all say of GAVESTON that no one will reader a first person narrative by a man, especially a gay man. So this marvelous book would never see the light of day. Except.. the author had the courage to face the bias against self publishing. I thank the literary gods she did.
The publishers have to be realistic, especially these days, but since "these days" also shows an increase in library use, I am glad there are people who are creative enough and willing to be risk takers to get their work out there so readers aren't cheated. No one is going to get rich off this.. except maybe intellectually. So being a born problem solver I look not at regretfully bowing to the inevitable but instead to be part of the solution and find a way to strengthen the alternative. Power to the people and all that.
Will I publish DEATH IN EAST WELLOW as an indie book? I won't pretend that would be my first choice.. I will try to get an agent and a publisher, but my guess is that that will be a waste of time. If it works out, then wow, cool! If not, I will have,. I hope, helped level the playing field for indie authors.
Each of us has to choose.. though ultimately the choice is the publishing industry.. I honor whatever choices you each make.
Nan Hawthorne
http://nanhawthorne.blogspot.com
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