Blogging is a new concept for me. I’ve only been doing it for a couple of months, and I still have so much to learn. The first few posts I made were very personal. I wanted to put myself out there so potential readers could learn about me. I also wanted to challenge myself, a self-proclaimed introvert, to take a chance. It wasn’t easy sharing so much about my life knowing I could be rejected, but I did it. 

I will still occasionally make personal posts, but as I approach the date of publishing my first novel, Nicca’s Light, I want to share more about my writing endeavors.

Today I want to talk about why I chose indie publishing instead of traditional. 

I’ll be completely honest. When I began my journey of publishing a novel, I assumed I would go the traditional route. I knew, instinctively, that indie publishing would require a lot of self-marketing, and as already stated, I’m a raging introvert. I knew I wouldn’t be good at the social aspect of marketing my own work. 

When I finished my first book and handed it over to a developmental editor, I was very nervous and needed to distract myself, so I researched my next steps and found some things I didn’t expect.

• You still need a large social presence, even if you publish traditionally. Many publishers check to see you already have a large following before taking a chance on your manuscript.
• If you are lucky enough to be picked up by a traditional publisher, you will probably still do the bulk of your own marketing. I read so many accounts of people claiming publishers use the bulk of their marketing budget on a few special authors. Usually, they’re authors that already have a large fan base or are very famous already. The rest get a basic bare-bones marketing package that doesn’t come close to what you need to be successful. It really is still up to you, the author, to market yourself. 

After learning this, I realized I needed to look at the fine print and analyze my options. Publishing a book is a scary, daunting event. After laboring over it, sometimes for years, it’s hard to give it over to the world for judgment. It’s important to choose the way that works best for you. There’s enough stress already, so why add more by picking a way that will ruin the experience for you?

I joined Facebook groups, read blogs, watched YouTube videos, and scoured the internet for articles. I wanted to get as complete a picture as possible, so I did my best to talk to people with both good and bad publishing experiences. I interacted with people who loved and hated both, then I looked at my personal needs and chose the route that fit best.

After a certain amount of research, I noticed a pattern. The same few issues popped up repeatedly. It led me to believe there must be some truth to them. One was the marketing expectations I already discussed above, but below are a few other things that stuck out to me.

• If you want to publish traditionally with a reputable publisher, it takes a lot of time and patience. You should expect a lot of rejections as very few manuscripts make it past the query letter. Even if your manuscript is brilliant, it could simply mean it doesn’t fit the particular story they are looking for at that moment. 
• Many publishers won’t even accept manuscripts from individuals; they work only with agents. If you want to get in the door with those publishers, you will first have to convince an agent with connections to represent you. 
• When you sign with a publisher, you give your rights away. They can cut, change, and rewrite whatever they want. They also will put the cover they want on it. I talked to some that said they were given a couple of options, but you really don’t have much room to comment. You hand your story over to a business, and they will reshape it to fit the market. That is fine for some, but others, such as myself, find this loss of control mortifying. Why you write will probably play a big role here.
• You may receive an advance from a publisher, but it’s entirely possible that’s the last you get for that book. If your book gets buried, and you are unable to do the marketing on your own, you may never make enough on the book to get beyond the advance. I talked with a handful of people who thought they had “made” it after getting their first advance, spent most of it advertising, and never saw another penny. 

This post is biased toward indie publishing because it fits my needs better, but I will acknowledge that there are good things with traditional publishing. If you are lucky enough to be picked, there’s a definite advantage to having someone else take care of the publishing details: professional editing, book covers, formatting, and distribution. A reputable publisher will also have connections with brick and mortar stores and up your chances of seeing your book on a bookshelf. 

However, after everything I read, indie publishing is the most logical route for me. I am forty-five. Writing a novel is a bucket list thing for me. I’m not writing for fame or even for money. I just had a story and wanted to share it. I would love people to enjoy it, of course, but if they don’t, that’s ok too. 

Control means a lot to me. It’s my story, and I want it to remain that way. I’m not willing to compromise any of it. My novel is not written to market, so I know a publisher would want to change a lot. It doesn’t fit the formula for a best-seller. A publisher would say it’s lacking tension and action–and it is… book one, anyway. But it’s my story, and I want it told this way. The only reason traditional publishing appealed to me was their marketing power, and now that I know I would still be largely responsible, traditional lost its appeal for me.

Success for me is simply having the story published. I’m not setting my sights on bestsellers lists or top ratings. I would love those things, for sure, but that would just be a bonus and not the goal. Publishing traditionally would help reach those lists, but again, I have to be willing to let them change my story to fit the market.

For those reasons, I am going the indie route. Maybe some of you that have published both ways could offer real-life advice to those of us still learning. I’m certain some people publish traditionally, and it works well for them. I would love to hear more good things about it or some advice on how to have a better overall experience.