Indie author – a good alternative

I’ve been away

I have been away for a while now but it was not because I did not like it here anymore… on the contrary, since I created this place to get the writing freedom I needed. There are two reasons why I do not post as often as I would like, not actually there are three. First, there are only 24 hours in a day and I like my “beauty-sleep” or should I say, I kinda need to sleep in order to write well; second, I had the happy visit of my parents (from France) so we’ve been strolling around a lot for a week; third, I have been busy self-publishing my work and I am not done yet.

Self-publishing: a forgotten promise

In 2005, I have self-published my first collection of poems “A New Season” written – & published – in French and in English. In other words, I paid a great deal to have my book in print. I became very dissatisfied with the publisher and put an end to the contract. I then discovered a Canadian publishing company that did not charge a penny to publish… they were, then, using the services of Lulu.com. I was new to all this business and enrolled myself with that company. I made friends with poets (mostly from France and Canada because the main language was French). After a few months, I grew tired of it all and left in order to publish directly with Lulu.com… I have learnt a great deal, but ultimately, poetry does not sell so the thrill of publishing my work went “bye-bye”. I had promised myself that next time I’d publish, it would be through traditional channels… Ironic…

Catching up to new technologies

A good friend of mine, Vincent Moore, published his work on Amazon.com in the Kindle format. It is then that I realized how far behind I was; not regarding my publishing but regarding technologies. I am good with computers and many software/programs; I learn fast because I am interested – if you want something to be done the proper way, better do it yourself (my personal motto). I built websites (mostly my own – offline now though); I created my own book cover (for my newly published book) and so on. I had not realized that computers were that outdated… okay, this is pushing it but not so far from the truth I believe. Teens nowadays do not buy CDs anymore, they listen to music on their phones… they listen to streaming music like Swedish DRM Spotify and read books on tablets and e-readers. I had no idea it became that big, though here it is… I am dumbfounded by the extension of these devices, yet I have to adapt and fast.

Proud to be an Indie Author

Publishing an eBook is not the same as publishing a book for print. The formatting is not the same… I do all myself and let me tell you: MS Word is freaking annoyingly annoying! (and I am restraining myself in order to remain polite). I have downloaded free programs such as Calibre, MobiPocket, Kindle Viewer, eCub so that I could work with the right tools. Well, if it were that easy every baboon in the world could do it… More than all this, I finally realized why I had such troubles to format my eBook to the prerequisites guidelines – other than, I skipped reading them thinking that I already knew (yeah! big head this head of mine…): I was reticent to change my ways. From that point on, things went smoother. I published “Paintings of Life” on Amazon.com and it is available for your Kindle now for only $2.99 (+taxes). I then read the short guidelines on Lulu.com in order to format my book and publish it as an EPUB… I actually gave up and turned to Smashwords.com. I printed their guidelines and my work is available in more than just EPUB. I fixed the price to the same as amazon, it is only fair “Paintings of Life” on Smashwords will be distributed more widely as well. I still have a lot to learn but I am proud to be an Indie Author because I know that I put the time and efforts required in my work for it to be a part of the good self-published “stuff”.

Ebook versus Print

I am not saying that I am not going to publish my work on paper… I love books too much to do such a thing. However, times change and with it the book market. Before, I could make my book available to download as a PDF and it was a great option for those who could not afford to buy the “real” thing… so I thought. Now, an eBook is just as real and prestigious to have published as a printed book. It is all free to self-publish and it gives great and equal opportunities to everybody… as time goes, authors put more and more efforts into their work to offer quality books to their readers.

Making money

Finally, I need to specify this. Being a writer is difficult enough and very few make a living out of it. Being a published author is even more difficult to become if you want to be a “Philip Pullman”, a “Norman Miller” or a “J. K. Rowling”… Being an Indie Author is… well… tough love; therefore being an Indie poet… it is suicidal to expect making any money out of it. No! The reason I self-publish is to get more people to read my work (and I do not expect more than just a few, but am always ready to be surprised…)

Related articles

• My sales and marketing tips – August 2011 (alchemyofscrawl.wordpress.com)
• eBooks as the new mass market paperback and don’t be Buridan’s Ass. (writeitforward.wordpress.com)
• Giving Indie Authors Their Due (eyeonbooks.com)
• Share your Smashwords Smarts, Earn a Shiny Mug (smashwords.com)
• Indie Authors, Good Editing Will Sell More Ebooks (via How to Make, Market and Sell Ebooks – All for Free) (asanto.wordpress.com)

Writing is like breathing

When I was about fourteen of age, I discovered an important world: the one of writing. I was not very good at it, but I enjoyed it very much. I must have felt quite lonely back then because I used to create worlds where I was getting saved by a ‘hero’ type man; of course, I was never saying that I was the one needing saving, but it was fairly obvious. They were pretty dark tales and I was proud of them. I wanted to go on, however, I knew I could improve ten folds or more, so I sought advice with a teacher. She read my stories, looked at me in a loathing stare and told me to give it up, that I had no talent and that nobody would read anything I’d write. My mother read them too, and I guess she got spooked because she kindly suggested that I should find something else to do. Fourteen… I did not stand a chance!

I started writing again two years later: mainly poetry because I had encountered my ‘first love’. He was writing too and we exchanged poems for a year. I stopped writing again when I put an end to that relationship. I buried my quill that day and dug it up eleven years later.

My style had changed and improved; but because I had such a relationship with French words, I started writing in English instead. I had lived in Ireland for a year, so my English was pretty good, although still poor and grammatically hopeless. Nonetheless, nobody told me to give it up; my words were touching people. They were coming alive and were travelling around the world. I had no idea then of the importance of my writing; but I knew I had found something potentially ‘life-changing’. I wrote free verse poetry and some kind of poetic prose. I was proud and in a hurry. My grandfather was about to leave us: I had felt it for some time; so in 2005, I decided to self-publish what I had written and give him some peace of mind. It worked… I think.

I went on writing poetry for a couple of years, both in English and in French – my mother tongue being, most of the time, just a translation of my English work. I took part in a Canadian community of Poets and re-published my improved work and new work in two volumes. Ultimately though, I wrote less and less until I completely stopped in mid-2008. I was happy, but I was not feeling good inside and I needed to focus on that somehow. My writing was a hindrance to it.

While I was not writing, I started reading English literature: Jane Austen, Susanna Clarke (whom I highly recommend), J. R. R. Tolkien, J. K. Rowling, and many others. If I could not afford to buy books, I would read again those I had already read. I became quite obsessed with the English language – and still am -… always hungry for it.

When 2011 started, I began feeling something strange. I would dream shapeless words; I would dream myself writing at a desk I did not have. So when I dug out my quill and began writing, it felt like the weight sitting on my chest all these years had lifted. I was writing again and it was good… no matter what came out, it had become better quality, and as one of my blog readers said, I have found my voice.

In the end, writing is like breathing.