The Value of Reading Indie Authors

   For years traditional publishing houses have dictated what the masses will read and who will write the books. They have made it almost impossible for just anyone to publish. That is until now. Because the internet has opened up a new way of looking at the world and accomplishing dreams now those who have been forced to hide in the shadows due to rejections are coming to the light.

  These wonderful people are known as Indie Authors. Indie Authors are those authors who find their own way, publish their own work and control their destiny. They are not dependant on someone else to do it for them. Sadly in this industry, the author is the lost on the food chain when it comes to getting paid. The house gets paid first, then the distributer, the agents, the cover artist, the underlings and anyone else who wants a piece of the pie. Contrary to popular belief, authors only get paid about .80 per book after all is said and done. 

   In return for that .80 per book they agree to give up all control of their book. The have no say in how the content is chopped up by the editor, what cover art is used, or anything else that might pretain to the work. They are no even allowed to determine the venues they would like to appear at. To add to this control, if an author is paid an advance by the house and doesn’t sell enough books to cover that advance in a year all the advance money must be paid back.

   Indie Authors on the other hand, have complete control over their work, they determine the content, the cover art and yes even the pricing. They are not bound by a contract telling them they cannot appear at a certain venue. They also control their own marketing. No matter what anyone tells you a Publishing house does not market your work. That is supposed to be the job of an agent that is if you can find one who “likes” your work. Again, agents are biased, they will only read and push work they find interesting they will not push something they personally do not like.

   Indie Authors are coming into their own. Most are not in stores because box stores will not stock their books. The reason is simple. Box stores have limited space. They will order a load of books off the new release list which they get from the Traditional Houses and they only look for “Well Known” traditional authors. They will then stock those books for 30 days, any books that are not sold are returned to the distributor who in turn charges the house back and they in turn charge back the author his royality. Indie authors don’t have to worry about charge backs. They are paid per sale because they have made the internet their friend.

    Indie authors don’t have to worry about distributing houses like Baker and Taylor or Lightening Source, their books are printed as needed so there is no warehousing. Indie’s have very little overhead so they can afford to charge less. It doesn’t mean their work is bad it just means they can afford to pass the savings on the their readers.

    There is a stigma in the publishing world that Indie Authors are not credible authors. This is not true - There are some very good indie authors out there and there are some very bad tradtitional authors out there. Don’t be fooled by those who disparage indie’s if you do you are cheating yourself out of some excellent reading.  Don’t be fooled by the New York Times Best Seller List either. Those books are picked by box stores when they get the list of new releases. They just mark the authors they like and send it back in.

    Indie Authors have arrived and are staying, many traditional authors have finally learned the lesson we learned a while back, there is more money when you do it yourself. Jackie Collins comes to mind as one who has crossed over. So do yourself a favor expand your reading check out an indie author.