For a long time I’ve struggled over the fact that, the more “indie” (and therefore, mainstream publishing view unacceptable) I become, the more I will likely alienate traditionally published authors, or those on a STRONG trad published author track, from my blog.

I’m working on my indie site, and I figured I could just “keep the indie talk” over there. And here, I’d just talk more about writing in general. And it would be fine. I could be everything to everyone. (Yep, that’s an Everclear song.)

But I really can’t be. I will and do have some blog readers who are on the trad train. And they read and post to me cause they like me anyway. ;) Or they’re interested to watch my journey and see where it goes (if anywhere) even if it isn’t the right journey for them.

And that’s cool.

And then there are those doing a little bit of both. They have some indie spirit, but they are also, simultaneously working the trad path. And I think that’s very smart and strategic.

More and more as I walk down this path, I relate less and less with the trad path. I don’t think it’s “wrong” but at the same time, I’m not going to talk about the same things that trad published authors talk about, anymore than they will spend all their blogging time talking about indie publishing (except for the random occasional “self publishing is bad, don’t do it” posts.)

This closely mirrors my recent struggle with: “Should I hide behind my imprint or should I just be honest about being indie?”

No matter what, I have to be honest. And the primary reason comes from my favorite book: “How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World” by Harry Browne (Yep, we’re back to that, hahaha.)

Anyway… he talks in the book about how you shouldn’t conform to meet the standards of those who are on different paths from you, but that instead you should strive to be as authentically honest about who you are as possible, because doing so draws to you the people who “get you” and are in some way Kindred.

And I used that term, not him. It’s kind of vampy terminology, but it’s also how I feel about the indie community. Indies are Kindred. When I run into other writers, it’s cool, and awesome, and I do share things in common with them. Sometimes the things we share in common aren’t even directly “writing related, per se.”

But when I talk to another indie, I’m home. These are my people. And I won’t run from that. Because there are a bunch of us out there, growing by the day. And we need community and friendship and the ability to just be who we are.

I truly believe there is a movement forming, a quiet revolution (mostly quiet because of the stigma) of indie authors. Just like indie musicians did. There was a time when the assumption was, if you created your own record, you “couldn’t get a record label” and your music must therefore suck, or not be “commercially viable.”

Little by little, the quality level of indie musicians raised to the point that nobody thinks that anymore. Same thing happened with film, and the same thing is beginning to happen in writing. Like it or not, indies are here to stay. We’re going to get smarter, savvier, better, and more competitive. And the last vestige of: “Well what about the gatekeepers?” Or “You’re not a “real author” like me.” Or “You just simply cannot accomplish the difficult things publishers must do and you cannot reach an audience.” Is going to sound more and more like panic, and less and less like sound reasoning.

Think about this: Has 1-800-Flowers ever concerned themselves with whether or not mom and pop flower shops exist? No. Because they pose absolutely no threat to them. Yet a growing attitude that the gatekeepers are not needed, at least not to start out, is threatening. If for no other reason, it’s threatening because suddenly there are people who don’t automatically think that validation comes from the hands of a tiny few, but from every single reader who reads your work and loves it.

It’s also threatening because as quality levels raise, and as barriers continue to lower, more and more fiction produced independently becomes competition. No, it’s not competition for Stephen King, or others that we all know and have heard of, but new authors, just starting out with their publisher? Maybe so.

This isn’t going away. And any flaws the indie movement currently has, are growing pains. Very soon I believe there will be a wide division between serious indie authors, and those who have been used as the “examples of poor self publishing” up to this point.

And I think some indies get very bitter. And I don’t want to be that way. The bitterness starts to come from almost a constant struggle to have your point of view even understood. There is this endless whacky loop that goes on.

1. You mention the people who are succeeding with indie
2. Trad author mentions this is rare.
3. You go back to pulling out your hair.

And number three is true, because number 2 continually reinforces this idea that publishers are “magic” and even though people have reached big audiences or even respectable but smaller audiences on the internet, somehow this was luck and had nothing to do with the quality of the work, or the author’s ability to market.

It’s RARE to succeed, period. The statistics are bad for getting an agent, then worse for getting a NY publisher, then worse for staying published for more than one or two books, then worse for staying on the midlist, then worse for breaking out of the list to bestseller. Yet, everybody is on that path, practically.

I don’t see the odds difference here, I truly don’t. So the short version of that is, it’s harder and harder for me to relate to that way of thinking. Because to me, it’s ALL bad odds, but going the way I’m going, at least I’m doing something hugely proactive, and I will build “some” reader base, even if it’s just 100 people.

And so this is all a very long way of saying… my blog is me. It’s who I am, it’s what I’m about. My philosophies on life.

I’m not Republican. I’m not Democrat. I’m Libertarian.

I’m not mainstream in ANY way you can imagine. And I don’t do this in order to be counter-culture for the sake of it, but because this is who I am as a person. Not everybody likes that, and that’s cool. Not everybody likes anything. I can cope with that reality.

So this blog is going to be a lot of indie type focus. And I’m done apologizing for that. I know that I will alienate some readers, but I will attract others like me, or who are at least interested in watching what I’m doing, even if it’s not for them. Both types of readers are welcome.

And those readers who are also writers seeking publishing the traditional way, don’t worry, I don’t think you’re wrong. And you absolutely don’t have to defend your position to me. I respect it, and hell, everybody else in the world thinks it’s valid. ;) You’re welcome here, but not every post will apply to you directly.

But that doesn’t mean there is nothing for the trad author here. I’ll still be talking about writing in general, and marketing (especially as I get more into that myself as it pertains to fiction.) I won’t be talking about “how to get an agent” (unless it’s tied into the platform building indie way), or “how to write a query” etc.

I will be talking about indie stuff, writing, marketing, the publishing industry in general, ebooks, podcasts, POD, etc. If any of that interests you even peripherally, awesome. If it doesn’t, that really sucks, but, there’s so much I want to talk about that I can’t if I’m only “halfway in” on my blog.

Part of it is, I don’t want to sound like I’m evangelizing, and I’m not. The indie movement doesn’t need authors who don’t really want to be in it. If it’s for you, you know it. If it’s not, you know that too. And either way is fine by me. But since when I talk indie talk, I’m speaking mostly either to people who are like me, or who are well on that road to becoming so, I can’t qualify every statement to reassure non-indies that I’m not looking for converts. That’s exhausting.

So I apologize to those I offend or piss off, or annoy, or whatever with my indie way, but … hey, the internet is big. If I annoy you that badly there are masses of people who support your view. That’s why it’s called the mainstream view.

Go find them.

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