Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Fearless and Frightened Female

Kind of an oxymoron, right? Fearless AND Frightened? 

I have written and deleted two other ideas for this blog.  All because I felt like talking about nonsense instead of what is really going on in my head.

Why force something  that should always come naturally?

I'm trying to make a decision. A big decision. A big, writer-ly decision.

Going Indie.

Now some of you nod your heads in understanding while others blink and say "What's that mean?"  Allow me to explain.
Going Indie means self-publishing, being completely independent, and forging the world in the "nontraditional" way.

Thing is, Indie is growing. It's becoming more of the "norm" as days go by. Publishing companies have to be picky in how they spend their money, especially since they're almost guaranteed to take a loss once they issue the advance (up to 95% of writers won't sell enough to match it, depending on the size).  There are those rare few - the J.K. Rowling, Suzanne Collins, and Stephanie Meyers, who manage to strike gold with their crafting, but how many amazing writers do you know of who no one else has heard of?



It happens, and Indie is a way for writers to take control.  They own the rights. They make the money (if any), and they take the risk.  Most notably of late is Hugh Howey, the author of WOOL - a NY Times best seller - who started with Amazon's Create Space and now is signed (keeping many of his rights) and even has a film adaptation in the works.

Karen Amanda Hooper is an Indie author I stumbled across who blew me away. I fell in love with TANGLED TIDES, her own take on mermaids. Man, does she deliver.

The fear, apart from the unknown, is (for me) putting out a book that isn't ready, isn't good enough, has mistakes.  That's not a name I want to make for myself.  Another fear would be no one being interested or wanting to read.

We've all seen those books - cheap or free on Amazon - that aren't very good. They're filled with grammatical mistakes, or even factual inaccuracies (that drive some crazy).  There is such a thing as "jumping the gun" and starting something too soon.

But that's something I have to face.  I don't plan to throw something out there unpolished and silly, and I hope people want to read.  I can't let fear dictate my life and keep me from my dreams, right?

I am lucky to have a ridiculously supportive family. They are fearless on my behalf in this endeavor, wanting to push me out into the world so everyone can see what they believe about me.
That I'm a writer.
A good one.

So we'll see where this goes.  We'll see if it's Indie or Traditional, but right now Indie has a good calling.

What say you, blog readers? What are your thoughts - from writers - on Indie VS Traditional?

For readers, what do you think about an author forging their own path? Are you up for supporting him/her?