Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Indie Life

Second Wednesday Each Month
 
Today’s the second Wednesday in December, making it Indie time. I’ve been in this whole writing/publishing/editing thing for a little over five years now, and in that time I’ve seen a lot of changes, mainly thanks to the Indie movement. When I first started writing I went to two NYC SCBWI conferences. It was a good time, but the tone was undoubtedly snooty towards those wanting to self-publish. I was told, and I quote: “There are no self-published books, only self-printed books, because, in essence, that’s all they’re actually doing.” What a change five years have made. Now self-published books are everywhere, taking the world by storm. I’ve seen those same editors who made the above statement make major changes to their policies. SCBWI has made changes as well; they now have an entire section of their magazine devoted solely to Indie/self-publishing. And I have a feeling the changes have just begun.  

7 comments:

  1. Amen to all that. The same attitude has been directed toward self-publishing. Years ago right after I signed a contract with a small press, I had a very successful author tell me I was ruining my career. Times are a'changing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. They needed to change. Just took a few big successes to show them it was a viable and valid option.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yes, and let the changes keep happening! A book is a book, no matter who published it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. That's true, so many authors choose to self publish now and they're succeeding! Good for them!

    ReplyDelete
  5. It's an exciting time to be part of the self publishing wave. I must say I'm glad I made the leap. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  6. I remember back in the 90s when it was called e-publishing. If someone came to one of our RWA meetings and said they were published and named an e-publisher, we instantly downgraded how impressed we were to pretty much nothing! Oh how it's changed over the past decade and a half!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I've heard of self-published authors who have done very well for themselves; I've heard they like it because they have more control over the whole process.

    ReplyDelete