Independent and Proud

If you are already an indie author, you may have been asked if you are looking for a ‘proper’ publisher. You may have found people taking your work less seriously than if you had been traditionally published. As my Coming Back to Cornwall series started to sell, people were pleased to see my success, but I felt sometimes missed the point, suggesting it might result in me securing a ‘proper’ publishing deal. It always irks me, because it suggests that what I am already doing is less valid than if my books had been published by a large company. Of course, historically, self-publishing has been cast as ‘vanity publishing’, and people have been sniffy about it. But in the last decade or more, some self-publishing authors have risen to be stars in their field, and are taking full advantage of the ability to manage their own work, to their own schedule, and reap all the benefits financially. It is a revolution in the publishing world and it’s exciting! I love it, and have met so many great, generous and interesting people who work in this world.

Personally, I find working this way suits me. I have a young family, and a busy life, and a million ideas for books which swirl around my mind. I can change my mind about the book I am working on. I can start a new book if an idea occurs, and I can write to my own schedule. It suits me very well not ot be managed by anybody else, or tied to anyone else’s business plan.

It is very hard work, and marketing and sales are my own responsibility, as well as managing websites, online profiles, etc, but I suspect that many traditionally published authors also have to do a lot of this themselves as well. It is also hard work finding a publishing deal and you might spend an awful lot of your time contacting agents and trying to find a publisher, when you could be publishing your work and getting writing again. But a word of caution – before you self-publish, take your time, do your research, and make sure your book is the best it can be. At Heddon, we can help you with that.

N.B. I would also like to make it clear that I am not looking to criticise anyone who takes the traditional publishing route, and the benefits of that are many as well, not least having some real marketing strength behind you. Plus, of course, the validation that being published by a bigger company brings.

I believe there is plenty of room for all of us. Just as we should not judge authors by the genre they write, neither should we judge them for the publishing path they take. I firmly believe all of us deserve to be proud of ourselves!