YA Indie Carnival: What Being An Indie Has Done For Me
Today’s topic on the YA Indie Carnival is a very interesting one in the publishing world. A hotly-contested topic among publishers and authors. I don’t know that there’s any one right answer. I think that there are benefits to any way that an author wants to get their stuff out there. Whatever way you choose, the most important thing is to get it out there somehow. And however it happens, self-, indie, or big publisher, the big thing is that it’s not sitting in your closet. Someone somewhere is reading it. It’s not Schrodinger’s cat waiting for someone to open the box. Your voice is being heard.
Myself, since I recently became an author, I didn’t really become an indie from being something else. I started out as one. It appealed to me because it is very personal. I like that I have a pretty individual relationship with the publisher, and the other authors are also very accessible, though with my day job, it’s been hard to keep up with anyone, including my own family. I think there are pros and cons to both small indie publishing and big publishing house. The good things that I’ve discovered so far, being an indie is that:
- Being an indie, from my perspective is like being part of a community. I know and recognize fellow authors who pop up in my google chat status, I see them everywhere in the online world. There’s a lot of communication.
- I have a lot of choice in how things get published. My publisher is great about editing and tells me when something doesn’t work, but I am the one who figures out how to fix it. Both the publisher and I worked together on coming up with the cover art, and he had some great ideas.
As far as any other way, I don’t know, this is still the beginning of my publishing experience, so it’s a continuing journey.
Check out what my very experienced colleagues have to say about their experiences.
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