Why I chose indie publishing

Hello!

Today, a divisive topic: Why I chose indie publishing instead of traditional publishing.

Okay, maybe it's not that divisive. After all, I'm talking about why I chose indie publishing, not why you or anyone else should choose it (or not choose it).

First, a quick reminder: I prefer the term "indie publishing" rather than "self-publishing". In my opinion (so, your mileage may vary), "self-publishing" has the connotation that an author only did it because he/she/they couldn't get published through a traditional publishing house. In contrast, "indie publishing" has the connotation that an author wanted to remain independent and chose that route on purpose, not because he/she/they had no other options.

And that last part is true for me. I have never, not once, queried a manuscript to literary agents or to any publishing houses.^{1, 2}

So, why have I chosen this indie publishing path?

But first a quick aside: A lot of the below items are specific to me, my personality, and my goals. There is also no concrete data listed here. For a more thorough analysis of traditional versus indie publishing, see this article from The Creative Penn, one of my favorite indie publishing resources in general and especially when you're just getting started.

1. Marketing

From what I read back in 2014³, traditional publishers expected you to do most of the marketing on your own, except for the very rare exception that was almost like winning the lottery for a new author whom no one knows⁴. 

So, if I had to learn how to market my books anyway, why should I also learn how to query and all that? I might as well learn how to market my books as an indie author if I have to do all or most of the marketing either way.

2. Control

I also read about authors losing the ability to keep writing their series due to a publisher retaining their rights³. 

And not in a "this is popular so you may only write it for us" sense.

But in a "this wasn't popular enough for us to keep publishing it but you also can't publish it yourself or with anyone else" sense.

Which seems blatantly unfair.

And as an Enneagram Type 1, anything blatantly unfair gets me all riled up, lol.

Now, there are usually things you can do to get back your rights, etc. And I never verified the veracity of those stories. If not for #1 above (how, most likely, you're going to have to market the books yourself anyway), maybe I would have considered traditional publishing despite this issue.

That said, I love being able to promise my readers that I will finish a series if it's at all in my power to do so (and it vastly is, with the exception mostly being weird life stuff).⁵

So there you have it. Why I chose indie publishing over traditional publishing.

Next time: Why I love indie publishing.

Happy reading as always,

Betsy

The epic list of side notes and digressions:

1. This doesn't mean I won't ever do this. Traditional publishing houses reach a good amount of readers I can all-but-never hope to reach as an indie author! But I'd rather be in a good negotiating position where I don't need them to publish my books and I can pick and choose which books and series I'm willing to give them, i.e. be a hybrid author. That said, I also may never do this. I'm not in the business of predicting the future.
2. I apologize if I got any of the wording wrong! I honestly didn't look into the traditional publishing route for long.
3. I don't have the sources for these takeaways anymore. Sorry! But since this research was done in 2014, it has very likely changed in general.
4. I'm not saying that those authors, new or veteran, who do get huge traditional publishing deals with awesome marketing don't deserve it or that their books aren't amazing. I am saying that there are also amazing books that didn't get those big marketing budgets from traditional publishing houses, were rejected from traditional publishing altogether, and/or were independently published.
5. And yes, I'm sure there are ways in contracts to make sure I could finish even a traditionally published series. But again, I'd rather be in a better negotiating position to ensure this than I would be as a newbie author nobody knows, see (1) above.