You are the boss! Yep, you are in charge! How does this sound to you? How does this make you feel?
However, this is only one side of the coin, the other one would be this: you have a book, it’s ready and you want to publish it. You get in touch with a publishing house and the answer you get is –“no or wait”. Then, long after that, you sign a contract with them and willingly you have agreed to follow THEIR rules about YOUR book- things like a book cover, book pricing, book marketing and more.
But the future is bright and it’s called self-publishing!
An indie author is an author who works independently, and who is responsible for his own piece of art. The term indie author stands for writers who self-publish their own work, control the rights and promote their own books.
It sounds like genuine freedom, right?
Nowadays freedom is the most precious and important thing in our lives. It is the right and the power we need in order to be able to speak, act or think.
That’s why the first thing that you should consider when you get to the point to choose which path you’d better take is only freedom.
Many will agree that in order to fully reach their potential and to become successful authors, they need creative freedom. And this is a state of mind which you could feel once you chose to become an indie author.
Let’s make it clear – you choose when to write and how to write. You choose your genre because there are no agents, who can tell you what is trendy and what is not acceptable.
Another great thing about going indie is the full control that you are going to gain. This means that you will be responsible for the promotions, digital rights, you get the chance to design the cover and to think about the title, also you decide when you want to publish. It is actually a lot of work, but at the same time, you gain control of your own manuscript. You have spent time and effort on writing your book, considering every word and page and the last thing you would like is someone else to come and trim your book, in order to fit into certain rules and perceptions. The power to control the process of publishing your own book gives you the ability to maneuver and change directions in order to reach the best results.
Now you’ve already gained control over your book, but there is a little secret – you control not only your book and the process of publishing it but also your time. You can publish immediately! You have edited your book, you have reviewed and you are now happy enough to publish – so go for it! This can happen within a night- you don’t need to contact a publishing house, waiting for them to get back to you, which might take months of desperate waiting.
However, let’s be realistic and mention money as well. As an indie author, whose dream is to publish a book, of course, money is something that matters. Therefore, as an indie author, you can access the sales data daily and check if your marketing strategy is working well for you or not. And you can change it, or come up with something new until you find the winning strategy!
A good point to mention is that as an indie author you can retain the copyrights of the work you have created. This simply means that you choose how to promote your book or the countries where you would like to publish and everything in between! Actually, you can decide that you want to publish your book again, years after it’s already reached marker once. This might be because you get that feeling that the trends have changed, or you would like to remind the readers about your book exactly at this time maybe. And the best thing is that you’re free to do so!
Publishing houses give the author a very little percentage of the profit they make. But as an indie author, you get everything!
Of course, there is always a downside - you alone have to do your editing, marketing, cover art, etc. That can be very costly. Finding the right editor and designer, creating successful marketing campaigns is time-consuming and pricey. But it is worth it. Even if you have to wait for a year before you find the right strategy - it will be worth it. Knowing you did everything by yourself is such a great feeling!
All in all, allow yourself to act and you will be surprised by the results you can reach! Of course, you can always ask for advice and different opinions, but in the end it would be your decision that matters!
What is now important is the freedom and the control we have over our actions! This gives us that feeling of standing up on our feet, facing the future, and let’s remember- the sky is the limit!