A Big Step for Indie Publishing

Yesterday, indie publishing leapt forward.  A New York Times best selling author of women's fiction, Allison Winn Scotch, published her fifth book independently, meaning, without the help of a publishing company.  She had previously been published by some big names -- like HarperCollins and Penguin. Her books sold, and they sold well.

After her last experience with traditional publishing, Allison reported, she started feeling burnt out. For a long time, she didn't write a thing, even stopped posting on her very popular blog, Ask Allison, where hopeful writers (like me) could ask questions aboutt he publishing biz, and get excellent answers from Allison herself.

Then she decided to write again, and in a few months, she had a book she was excited about.  That book is her new one, The Theory of Opposites, which came out yesterday.  She decided to publish it herself, she said, because she wanted to publish, publicize, and market a book on her own terms. And so she has. Last week, she announced that her book has been picked up by Jennifer Garner's production company for film.  Independent publishing has come a long way, baby.

Not that many years ago, self publishing (also known as indie publishing) was considered something you did in desperation, something you did when no one wanted you, something that most people assumed meant you had written a bad book.

But as the publishing landscape has changed, so have the options to publish. And aren't options wonderful?  What I find is that readers don't care where or how the book is published. They only care that the story is good.  But for authors, like me, in the past, how you've published has meant everything. It meant your credibility. For example, many reviewers and bloggers refuse to read self published books. Yesterday on Twitter I asked book reviewers whether they would agree to review Allison's book, knowing it is self published, because of their refusal in the past to read self published books. Not one answered me. Now they might not have seen my tweet, but they might also be beginning to see the quandary -- is every book that is self published bad? No, of course not. Is every book published by a traditional publishing company good? No, of course not.

What Allison (and other previously traditionally published authors) has done is say, I control my publishing destiny.  That's where I am, too.  In fact, one reason why I chose this way is because Allison is brave enough to do it.  Thanks, Allison, for giving me courage.