The indie author industry is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before. It’s like a big family. There is so much amazing support for new authors in this community. I wouldn’t be anywhere today without the help and encouragement from other indies. I know lately the community has been torn a bit. There has been more than average amount of drama revolving around book stuffers, trademarks, and scammers. It really showed that if we pull together as a group, we can accomplish amazing things.
I’ve met some amazing professionals in this industry, both in person and online. It’s chock full of talented writers, bloggers, editors, graphic artists, formatters; the list goes on. The stigma of years past that indie authors weren’t real authors is disappearing. Indies are hitting the NYT bestseller list. Indies are being featured in book stores also. There are a few Indie only bookstores I’ve heard of too.
I’m a hybrid author, which means I am both self and traditionally published. This is becoming more and more common. It’s great to see the lines between indie and traditional blurring and fading away. When you get right down to it, we are ALL authors. It doesn’t matter which avenue we take to publish our books, whether we have an agent or not, if you’re with the Big Five or a small press like I am. We are all artists. Unlike most other industries, we have a product in books that makes it so we don’t have the level of competition that other products do. Readers aren’t going to stop reading. They don’t care if your book is from a big New York City publisher or if you just clicked publish on Amazon. They care about your book, your story, and your characters. Readers don’t only buy from one author. That’s what I love about this industry. We can help one another without fear of it ruining our own bottom line. Since we don’t have to compete for customers we can focus on putting out an amazing book for our readers to enjoy. What could be a cut-throat business has instead became a far-reaching family, one I am fortunate enough to be part of.
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