Last month, I went to Powell's City of Books. Its an entire city block of prime real estate devoted entirely to books, authors, and the cute stuff bookstores sell, like cards. Its a treat, in my city, to go to Powell's and its never a let down to the shoppers inside.
I went to a reading, but, I did not think I was going to a reading. The event description read: Independent Publishers' Forum - or something to that effect. It ended up to be a reading by many different authors whose books were Independently Published. Its an annual event. Once I was settled in and actually listening to the first, very humorous author, I remembered that I had gone to that same forum the year before. I remembered this because the author was actually reading from the same book he'd read from the year before. Although very funny, it woke me from my 'horse back to the barn' type stupor, and I thought to myself - that's it! This year, I do not look down upon myself as though the very, very fine line between self-published and Indie published is going to:
I went to a reading, but, I did not think I was going to a reading. The event description read: Independent Publishers' Forum - or something to that effect. It ended up to be a reading by many different authors whose books were Independently Published. Its an annual event. Once I was settled in and actually listening to the first, very humorous author, I remembered that I had gone to that same forum the year before. I remembered this because the author was actually reading from the same book he'd read from the year before. Although very funny, it woke me from my 'horse back to the barn' type stupor, and I thought to myself - that's it! This year, I do not look down upon myself as though the very, very fine line between self-published and Indie published is going to:
- hurt my feelings, anymore
- lower my prices, authenticity, or cause me to make excuse-sort-of-talk about my being an author
- I AM going to begin defining myself as Independently Published, period.
Up until the repeat author readings and the absence of any Q&A about Independent Publishing (also noted in the year before) I had called myself a self-published author. Occassionally, I even muttered, Print-
on-Demand, as though a closet full of expensive, hardback books was keeping me apart from Self-Published Authors who had one of those, stocked, at home. Like my vampire books for middle readers, the publishing arena had become a dark Underworld Castle with Traditional Publishers in the Conservatory, Indie Publishers in the Foyer, regular Self-Published in the Basement, and Print-on-Demand in the Dungeon. STOP!! I became an author to release myself from dungeons - dark and light.
on-Demand, as though a closet full of expensive, hardback books was keeping me apart from Self-Published Authors who had one of those, stocked, at home. Like my vampire books for middle readers, the publishing arena had become a dark Underworld Castle with Traditional Publishers in the Conservatory, Indie Publishers in the Foyer, regular Self-Published in the Basement, and Print-on-Demand in the Dungeon. STOP!! I became an author to release myself from dungeons - dark and light.
So dears, here, I have decided to actually utilize this blog to define - in my opinion - the differences between the publishing magic doors - which lead to selling books - and get on with the business of doing so.
