Why Indie Authors Are Our Heroes

There was a recent kerfuffle amongst Indie authors on X/Twitter when a well-known, trad published, author (I won’t name her, the posts are all there if you want to look) suggested that Indie authors take the “easy route” by self-publishing.
 
She actually said it on Instagram or TikTok, or one of those platforms, but the kerfuffle was on X/Twitter.
 
Naturally, this is not a view we share. And we are pretty sure that it isn’t true anyway.

I know for a fact that Selfishgenie Publishing wasn’t the first choice for any of our authors. Nor were we their second choice, or their third. In fact, if we made it into their top 100 choices we would feel quite proud.
 
Those authors came to us because they felt they had nowhere else to go. It most certainly wasn’t an easy choice for them to make, we know that. Our authors came to us for three reasons:

---

1. We were willing to give them a chance.
2. We were able to provide skills that they didn't have.
3. Unlike vanity publishers, we didn’t make any upfront charges for our services. 
 
Now, you may be wondering why, as publishers, we lump ourselves in with Indie authors.
 
It is because that in many ways we function in exactly the same way as the indie author functions. We may be publishers, but we are also authors ourselves. Our company exists because we started doing for other people what we were already doing for ourselves.
 
And, just like many other indie authors, self-publishing wasn’t our first choice.
 
But it wasn’t really a choice we made for ourselves anyway. It was made for us by others.
 
For many self-pubbed authors, there is a three step process. Let’s just go through it to see if it rings any bells.

---

Step One – Querying.
 
Sending out queries to agent after agent and getting knocked back every time.

How many letters are sent and over what time scale varies from author to author, depending on their resilience. But in the end the author finally admits that it isn’t going to happen for them and stops sending out query letters.
 
The decision to do that isn’t one the author makes voluntarily. The author has just come to the realisation that none of these agents are going to offer to sign them, so it isn’t actually a decision at all.

---

Step Two – Pitching to smaller publishers.
 
There are some smaller publishers that accept submissions direct from the author, not via an agent (they do accept submissions via agents as well, of course).
 
After working through the lists of publishers who will accept those submissions and once again getting knocked back every time, the author once again realises that those publishers aren’t going to sign them.
 
Again, the decision isn’t really being made by the author. It is being made by the publisher. The author is just accepting the reality of their position.
 
Let’s face, getting a trad publishing deal is a numbers game. Using the old iceberg analogy, it is only the authors that represent the tip of the iceberg that get a publishing deal. The vast majority that sit below the waterline don’t get one. They are probably around 95% of all authors writing today. They can’t all be bad. In fact most of them are pretty good.

---

Step Three – Self Publishing.
 
When the author decides to self-publish, they are making a choice.

The alternative is not to publish their work at all and, sadly, some authors do make that decision. Their talent will be forever lost to readers simply because they are worn out from trying.
 
So, what part of steps one and two were easy, do you think?
 
Is it easy to get rejection after rejection?
 
No, it isn’t. Every rejection feels like a dagger through the heart.
 
Is it easy to get back on the horse and try again, and again, and again?
 
No, it isn’t. Yet we kept sending out those queries, even though we knew we would get more stab wounds.

---

The author who thinks it is easy to go self-pubbed is speaking from a highly privileged position. They got their agent before their resilience ran out.

​They got their publishing contract. Every time they submit a new MS to their agent, they know that the agent is very likely to go into raptures of appreciation for it, because they know that another pay-day is approaching.
 
And when the agent puts the MS forward to publishers, they know there is a very high probability that it will be accepted for publication.
 
That is privilege indeed.
 
But, apparently, we Indies are the ones who take the easy route.
 
So, what does that easy route look like? Aside from getting stabbed repeatedly, of course.

---

​Learning new skills, that we never imagined we would ever have to learn when we first sat down to write our book.

​Not writing skills - we knew we might have to learn a few of those.
 
No, we have to learn to edit, to proofread, to format, to use new platforms so we can upload and distribute our books. We have to learn how to spot the fakes and the scammers who want to take our money. But most of all we have to learn how to market our books.
 
This really is the biggest challenge for the author. Nobody is going to buy a book they don’t know exists and marketing is the way we get the book out in front of readers so that they know about it.
 

• It isn’t easy to learn how to market effectively.
• It is time consuming activity.
• It is hard work, and
• It is a never ending process.

 
So, how can any of that be the easy option?
 
The only easy option is to not market the book and accept that it isn’t going to sell.

---

I suspect that the author in question, like so many trad published authors, simply has no idea what an Indie author actually goes through, or the amount of work they have to do, not just today, but every day until they either give up or they die.
 
If that is the case then they should understand the risks of talking about things of which they have no knowledge. They should also be aware that they are perpetuating the prejudice that being self-published is somehow second rate.
 
It isn’t.
 
We are self-published because no agent or publisher would take a chance on us. That doesn’t mean our work isn’t any good. Agents and publishers want guaranteed best sellers. There is no room for risk in that equation and new authors are risky.

---

We know that because quite a few authors do get book deals with trad publishers, but when their book doesn’t sell as expected, the publisher drops them. And when the publisher drops them, so does their agent.
 
And they end up here with us indies.
 
But we also know our books are good because, providing we get the marketing right, we are able to sell our books. And some of us even sell them in quantities that some trad published authors can only dream about.
 
So, to all you indies out there, we want to tell you that you are our heroes. You are the people we admire. We admire you far more than we admire trad pubbed authors, because we know what it has taken for you to get where you are today. Because we have travelled the same road and we know how hard the journey is.
 
We wish you well. Keep fighting the good fight.
 
If you have enjoyed this blog, or found it informative, then make sure you don’t miss future editions. Just click on the button below to sign up for our newsletter. We’ll even send you a free ebook for doing so.

---

Newsletter