Why Indie (For Me) Means NOT Having A Publisher
From author Steena Holmes Dan Holloway via How to Successfully Self-Publish:
We are increasingly hearing about the hybrid model, with authors deciding for which books and in what ways to engage publishers and/or agents, who then become partners, singing to the author’s tune.
Whilst I have to say a part of me wonders if there aren’t some elements of utopianism creeping in, it is certainly true that many agents and publishers are starting to change the way they view their relationships with authors. And I certainly think what writers are doing, taking the reins – or at least setting out to – in these relationships, is fabulous, and definitely in the indie spirit.
. . . .
My decision to self-publish was based largely on the fact I didn’t want a writing career. I would positively hatehaving a writing career. As I have said many times, I am very lucky. I have a day job. It’s a menial clerical job, and it doesn’t really pay the bills – there’s no way my wife and I will ever be able to afford to own a home, and on the wrong side of the cusp of our 40s we are still mired in debt that we’re not clearing. But for the time being we have food and shelter and I have a day job I can cope with, given my fragile mental health.
It has never really crossed my mind that I could make a living as a writer. I know that to do so I would have to write the kind of thing that just doesn’t come naturally to me.
. . . .
But writing it was like having my teeth pulled. And trying to write the sequel was like trying to conjure new teeth from the raw, bleeding pits where those teeth once were — and pulling them again.
I can’t do it.
I don’t enjoy it
And I’m not particularly good at it.
In other words, to make a career at writing I would have to turn it into a day job. And I won’t do that. Next to my wife, my cats, and my rats, writing is my great joy in life, and I want to keep it that way.
. . . .
Self-publishing gives me the freedom to do what I love and to push at any boundary I want with no considerations other than the writing. With nothing to pull me back, nothing to pull me to the centre of the bell curve.
. . . .
I think there is a tendency for large sections of the media, and many writers, to mistake a lack of concern for sales with both a lack of seriousness and a lack of ambition.
Link to the rest at How to Successfully Self-Publish
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PG,
This post is by Dan Holloway, in response to a post by Steena Holmes.
Thanks for the correction, William.
I think it is great that we have the choice.
“I want to change lives, to change societies even, with my words.” That says it all, for me. At 75, the last thing in the world I need is a career. I like my life just as it is because I can write what moves me and what I hope will move others. Self-publishing gives me the freedom to do that.
I’ve been saying for a long time that we are about to see the real Rise of the Amateur.
I myself am about to embark into a strange new world: I was laid off today. And I’ve spent such a long time building myself a net of small buffers that I can actually be a full-time amateur. That idea is almost freakier than getting laid off in the first place.
Sorry, Camille. I hope this turns into gold for you!
You and me both!
Good luck, Camille!
Thanks, PG.
And thanks to the other commenters. Camille, yes I really hope so. For too long a whole bunch of the arts have been in thrall to some kind of vague notion of “professionalism” to the extent that “amateur” has become a derogatory term. Already we are seeing this get reclaimed in other fields of the arts (actually the prime field in which it’s happening, in the UK at least, is food, with the rise of farmers’ markets and small, expert producers) with the rise of the single studio artisan. And places like etsy and folksy have turned that into very much a “labour of love” thing. It’s interesting though, that whilst many producers complain about the tidal wave of dross on etsy, just as many in the literary do about Amazon, the public appetite for the homemade and the lovingly crafted is growing and growing.
Yep, I’ve been talking about Artisan Writers a lot on my blog.
One thing I think is that a lot of people who were commercial writers will move into the artisan (“pro-am”) category now — they were professional because that was the only way to work in traditional publishing.
A few years ago, Michael Allen in his article “On the Survival of Rats in the Slushpile” coined a term that I believe sums up perfectly. Pro-Am (Professional Amateur). By this term, Allen meant that a writer can be an amateur or “hobbyist” who is not supported by an agent or commercial publisher; but still approaches his or her writing with professional standards of composition, editing, and formatting.
I agree for the overwhelming majority of types of book, but I think it’s really important that we divorce, at least in principle, even if almost never in practice, the idea of the quality of a book from “professional standards” and get out of the habit of automatically assuming that any book not professionally formatted would be “as good only better” if it were just proof-edited properly. I’ve spent a lot of time recently studying the alt lit scene, for example, and there that’s just not true. The notion of a “received English grammar”, even spelling is as redundant as it was in Chaucer’s day. I think a lot of this has to do with the way that literature now is returning, formally, to the oral-driven roots and the localisms (one of the most important things about the internet is not how it globalises but how it localises) and so the need for a “standard”, which arose from fixed, written culture where a text had to stand for the same thing in Manchester as Bournemouth, is fading.
It probably sounds like an esoteric position to take (and in some ways, rather unapologetically, it is) but I really think it’;s important that we as writers cast aside any and all assumptions about what a text is if we are really to drive forward the possibilities of what literature can be in the 21st century – and it was the prospect of doing that which led me to self-publish
Let me clarify. By professional formatting, editing, I was not referring to an “industry standard”. I meant an effort to spell correctly, format in a way that doesn’t make a reader go cross-eyed, and attention to basic grammatical rules such as not mixing verbal tenses. A writer certainly may do any of those things for effect but it should not be due to laziness or lack of skill that could diminish a reader’s enjoyment of the work.
I can’t speak for Dan, but read Dan as actually meaning spelling and grammar and I heartily concur. We didn’t always have standardized grammar and spelling rules at all. (Hence what he has said about historical texts.)
The whole concept of “laziness” is inapplicable – because that’s not what’s really going on – and what constitutes “skill” is about to change radically.
Publishing is locked in an old mindset, and whether we like it or not, it’s going to catch up with blogging and social media or die.
That’s exactly how I meant it. Some of the most talented people I know wouldn’t know a capital letter if it hit them in the face (or you’d think so reading them), and you can let that bother you (I will freely confess to being a gun-toting grammar pedant in many ways – heck, I’ve even written articles about the necessity of the Oxford comma) or go with it – and the thing is, highly appreciative readers do go with it. The reasons for what seems like such sloppiness are actually often more complicated. Just as the Asian phenomenon of the cell phone novel, with 400 character chapters, actually arose from the fact they were originally written by texts on mobile phones in the days when technology would only allow texts to be 400 characters long, so a lot of smartphone-based formatting with its lack of punctuation, its capitalisation and its abbreviation is based on a desire to write quickly to capture a moment (a perfectly legitimate creative aim) coupled with the technical limitations of virtual keypads that 1. require you to toggloe around to use punctuation and capitals and 2. have tiny keys that you can’t always hit right the first time – to go back and correct would radically alter the creative nature of what you’re doing. It’s really no different from artists in the middle ages needing to find a way to work with fresco that could cope with the fact that plaster dries very quickly in Mediterranean climates
I would be remiss if I did not urge all of the PG readers to check out Dan’s novel, The Company of Fellows, if only to experience what a true “amateur” is capable of.
Pete, bless you. I have actually withdrawn The Company of Fellows because I wasn’t happy with the standard of it – for a thriller it just isn’t taut enough, nor does it marry the gothic and the suspenseulin the way Thomas Harris does.
On the other hand, my literary novels Songs from the Other Side of the Wall and The Man Who Painted Agnieszka’s Shoes I am truly proud of.
I had to post on that external link because it really resonated with me. I was never one of those people that would have fit in with the commercial world. The commercial publishers produce works that I read, but they don’t hit all my oddly shaped buttons. With self-publishing, I can produce the fiction that does–and hopefully satisfy a few other readers like me too. I would like to know I’m not alone, after all. Thanks for the link!
Jodi
“but they don’t hit all my oddly shaped buttons”
That’s a brilliant way of putting it!
I very much like this article, and I like the term coined above: “Artisan Writer”. I read once there are two types of writers, those that do it for the money and those that do it for artistic expression. Both are valid.
Those who are in this for money are being very vocal right now, which is fine. I think indie publishing has given those who want to make a living at writing a huge degree of freedom (finally!), and the opportunity to take back the money hoarded by the Industry. So you hear about the excitement, as well as the trials and tribulations.
But I’m very glad Dan wrote this to represent those who are not doing this for livelihood, but for Art. That doesn’t make their work less important or meaningful. They contribute to the culture in their own way. Art is powerful. And indie publishing is very important to them, because they have had a harder time meeting the Industries expectations. So, they have access to the market now, where before they were often shut-out.
I think it’s important to know what type of writer you are. I’m the Artisan type; I realized long ago that I needed to separate out money and writing, or my writing would be changed by my desire to make money. I really don’t think you can write for the market and write for your muse at the same time. I think there are some lucky souls where those things naturally intersect, but I think that’s rare. I might be wrong about that, but it seems to me those things are very different.
A writer’s process is unique. It’s something to be nurtured and guarded, because what works for me won’t work for anyone else. What works for me is structure, collaboration and concrete deadlines. I’ve self-published one book and have three out through a traditional publisher and what I’ve discovered so far is that, in many ways, I prefer working with a publisher. It’s nice to have total control of a book, but I missed working with my publisher’s team of editors and marketing people. Will I continue to self-publish? Yes. Will I continue to work with a publisher? Yes. Will I try to influence other writers to follow in my footsteps? No. I can only relate my experiences and how I feel about them. I can only give other writers information and let them make the decision for themselves. No one path to publication is perfect or better than another.
I would LOVE a full time career in writing novels but then again I’m also twenty years still in college and still living with my mom so at this point I don’t have too many bills and my day job is part time.
I think Dan made a great distinction there in his ‘rebuttal’ to my original post. We are both doing this for different reasons. We both retain the same passion and creative joy for writing, except I’ve decided to make this a career for me and he hasn’t. Part of my career model is being both self published and traditionally published – this is my choice. I recognize it’s not the same choice for everyone, and there is nothing wrong with that.
Mira made a good comment about knowing the type of writer you are. Exactly.
The important thing is to recognize what you’re doing and why. There is no right or wrong on this journey but simply what helps each of us meet our personal needs and goals. Sounds like you’ve both found your way to that. Well done.
Julie, yes, and I think that’s something a lot of advice blogs miss – what we can do is lay out our story and help people find what’s right for them – but ultimately that has to be based in them listening very closely less to us and more to themselves
Shaquanda – I very much hope you make it. I’d love to have a career writing, but only writing what I have to write. I was talking to a writers’ group about self-publishing tonight, and the most important thing I could tell them was never lose sight of why you write, and never go down a path that will kill the joy – a career writing isn’t worth that.
Steena – yes, it was less a rebuttal, more an alternative perspective and that you’ve managed to keep the joy is fabulous, and shows that it is possible, and that one size doesn’t ever fit all.
Louise, yes, it’s self-knowledge again, right at the heart of it