L J Ross | ‘I love all of [being self-published], right down to the granular elements’

This content has been archived. It may no longer be accurate or relevant.

From The Bookseller:

You were due to be very busy at LBF, with six events scheduled across the three days. What is the pull of the fair?

I have been to LBF most years since I started publishing five years ago. This year I was planning on bringing more of my Dark Skies Publishing books to the trade. I had a packed diary of LBF events lined up; I hoped to talk about a lot of the same issues: what being an empowered author means, and discussing the various ways you can futureproof yourself as an author. I think this crosses boundaries, too, because whether you are an indie author, a hybrid, or you choose to publish solely with a traditional publisher, every one of us has to think about a number of things: marketing, connecting with your audience in the best possible way, and what is unique to you—how you can use your unique selling point to stand out in what is quite a saturated market.

. . . .

Were you not tempted to do physical publishing with a big house?

At some point or another my agent [United Agents’ Millie Hoskins] and I have had conversations with some big publishers—if not all of them. I have always approached them with an open mind, and I would never say never. But I always take what I think is the best option at the time. At this stage of my experience, and after being so long as an indie author, it is difficult to think about changing. Maybe this just comes down to a personality thing. Some authors would quite reasonably not want to take on managing all the systems and processes. It’s the difference of being self-employed or not. But I love running my own business and have access and oversight to all of those processes. 

It has been a learning curve [with Dark Skies] and we had to learn a lot about all our new partners: the distributors, the booksellers, sales teams. But all of that is quite exciting. Could I hand over all of that? I’m not sure. I love all of it, right down to the granular elements—the data, working with the designers—and some people might not like it.

Link to the rest at The Bookseller