Indie Blues

Sometimes, I sit down at my computer, ready to write, ready to immerse myself into the world I’ve created, ready to finish another book…

Then a thought haunts me, “does anyone even care?”

Sure, my books sell pretty well, but the low self-esteem part of me always wonders if people buy my books because there’s nothing else to read, or because they really want to? It’s always a thrill to see a review from a complete stranger and have them gush over my book, but the thrill can turn to depression when someone else says how much they dislike it. I’m human, it effects me either way. I’ve definitely toughened up over the years, but a one-star still guts me a little, even if it’s only for a few minutes as opposed to when I first started out and it would effect me for days.

It can be frustrating being an Indie author for the simple fact that you’re playing all the roles: writer, cover designer, layout designer, publisher, editor, marketer etc. Granted, I hire editors for the final version of my book, but the first few drafts I try to catch as many errors as I can.

It just feels that no matter how many times I read it (aloud even, word for word) or have other people read it (including 2 professional editors) there are still mistakes. Normally, I wouldn’t worry about it considering I catch typos and grammatical errors in some of the biggest books on the market (Percy Jackson, Game of Thrones, to name a couple) But no one seems to care about errors in traditionally published books, they only want to be irate about them in the indie world. It’s a no-win situation.

There’s only so much anyone can do to catch every little mistake, but reality is: things are going to get missed. I guess the plus side of indie publishing is that if someone points out a glaring error to you, you can fix it and upload the new draft immediately. Traditionally published books probably wouldn’t waste the time. But it can still be a disheartening process.

No one wants to release a novel with mistakes in it. No one. It’s not like the author is aware of these typos and decides to release the book despite them. Trust me, I have at least twenty people read my novels for errors including professional editors before I publish. But things get missed. It happens.

There’s also the uphill battle dealing with the snobs of the industry as well. I’ve run into a lot of people who feel that if you’re self-published it doesn’t count. They act as if you can only be a true author if you are traditionally published, as if you need to have an outside source approve of your book to validate you. It’s as if it doesn’t matter to them that an author makes a solid living publishing their own books. To them, if it wasn’t published by an outside source it’s not real, it’s somehow make-believe.

This can be demeaning, frustrating, depressing and just plain annoying to an indie author.

I can’t speak for everyone, but for me, I just want to tell stories that people enjoy. I’ve been writing since I was five and I never wanted to do anything else.

But in the end, I’m an indie author and I’m proud of it. I make a good living writing books. I love it. I hope readers can pick up on all the passion I feel when they read my novels, but if they can’t, I have no control over that.

I can only do so much and hope for the best. The important thing is to keep on writing…