Why Indie Author?

Lately, I’ve been reading the term “indie author” to describe self-publishing. I find it interesting that none of the authors on the professional authors e-publishing loop I referred to last week use the term. They just say self-publishing, or re-releasing their back list in ebook form (self-publishing is a shorter way of saying that). I’m interested in why the use of “indie author” has come about. Is it because “self-published” has a negative connotation when it comes to fiction? Or to differentiate that you haven’t paid a vanity press to print your book, or to get you reviews, etc? Vanity press being, in my point of view, a printer who calls themselves a publisher who will print anything sent to them. They don’t care as long as they’re getting paid. Compared to, say, paying for your own editing services (or swapping editing services) to one individual, paying for your cover art (or creating it yourself) from probably another individual, and uploading the book to e-book venues yourself (or, again, paying someone else to do it). To ME, that’s self-publishing. When you’re really doing it all yourself instead of paying a vanity press usually way more money than necessary to do it for you.

The thing I don’t understand is that all authors are “independent authors,” because we’re independent contractors. I guess if you have a 5-book contract with a major publisher…no, I would still consider that author as running her own business (which she is). Even Nora. So…isn’t Nora an indie author?

Unless you’re an employee of a publishing house, you’re independent as far as I can tell.

So…is “indie author” used to differentiate from “published with a major house?” To differentiate from “being under contract”? If that’s the case, I’m very much an indie author. Because I haven’t sold to a major publishing house and I’ve never sold a 2+ book contract. Yet I’m not an indie author, according to how I’ve seen the term used, because I’m not self-published.

What am I missing?

Educate me!

Subsidiary Rights Fun

I had another post planned for this week, but researching agents and problems with my shoulder have waylaid me. The “Internets” says I might have shoulder bursitis, brought on by all that damn outside painting I did this summer and fall. However, I can’t get in to see my doctor until next week, so for now I’m postponing more massage therapy and have stopped one of the exercises the chiropractor gave me. It just makes the pain worse. The Internets says not to do anything to make the pain worse, but not to sit like a lump, either. So I am curtailing a lot of computer time and doing basic stretching exercises several times a day. Plus, I succumbed to taking an anti-inflammatory yesterday and might again today.

That doesn’t sound like Subsidiary Rights Fun, does it? Well, this will.

I’m in the midst of proofing the audiobook files for HEAD OVER HEELS, which will releaese from Audiolark…I’m not quite sure yet. I’m having a blast proofing the files, but, wow, it takes a lot longer to proof while listening to your book than to proof reading your book. Each chapter takes at least half an hour to listen to. I’m down to the last three chapters and will have the files back to my publisher by Monday.

At first, it was really strange to hear my book being read into my headphones. The narrator has a very pleasant voice and she does an excellent job of relaying different character voices while not coming off sounding like a cartoon movie. The voices are just different enough to clarify. Some of you who have read HEAD OVER HEELS will remember that the story features two English secondary characters, Kate and Nate Willoughby. I laughed out loud when I heard the narrator’s rendition of their voices. She was spot on! I didn’t know when I submitted the pronunciation guide if she would make their voices sound English or just let the narration relate that they have English accents. So to hear these two voices especially tickled me pink. I’m hoping that the fact that my own audiobook is giving me many fits of the giggles means that the humor will come through in the “hearing” for readers other than myself. I’m very excited to have this opportunity.

Oh, and guess what? The narrator for HEAD OVER HEELS, I have been told also narrated Sue Monk Kidd’s THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES. That’s kind of cool.

I also heard from the agent in Japan who handled the Japanese Manga rights sale of HEAD OVER HEELS to Ohzora. The Japanese translation is now complete and the publisher is in the process of assigning an illustrator. Very exciting! I’ll probably next hear from the agent in Japan when the Manga version has a release date, and you can be sure I’ll mention it here. I can’t wait to see the illustrations in anime. What fun!

Back List EBook Authors

I belong to a loop of multi-published authors who are interested in self-publishing their back lists on Kindle, Smashwords, and the like. I heard about the loop as a result of my Novelists, Inc. membership and joined while the loop was in its infancy. I joined because I would like to self-publish my out-of-print short story, DECEIVING DEREK, on Kindle (I’d say which publisher previously had it up for sale, but they didn’t pay me my due royalties, so I don’t want to give them the credit, and, besides, they’re out of business). You know, when I have the time. Plus, while I sold library edition hardcover rights and other rights to my upcoming contemporary romance, WHERE SHE BELONGS, to Five Star Expressions (December 2011), Five Star doesn’t buy electronic rights. So, eventually, I will self-publish the ebook version of WHERE SHE BELONGS, as well. My Five Star contract states I can’t publish the ebook until 12 months following the hardcover release, which means you won’t see the ebook until at least December 2012. But I’m a Capricorn. I like to prepare. And so I joined the e-loop, which was the brainchild of multi-published contemporary romance author, Julie Ortolon. She also designs ebook covers. Multi-talented, that Julie.

It’s a very busy loop as the authors learn the ins and outs of self-publishing their back lists and help each other along. In case you’re not a writer, by “back list” I mean books previously published by traditional publishers or small publishers, or the odd e-publisher. Books for which the rights have reverted to the authors. Or the authors are in the process of getting the rights reverted to them, usually because the contracts didn’t stipulate ebook rights. But other cases also apply.

The e-loop grew very big very quickly. As someone only published by small press and e-publishers, I’m definitely in the minority. Although I’m not alone. There are a few more like me on the loop, who also probably gained entrance through membership in Novelists, Inc.

Some of the more industrious authors on the e-loop have banded together to form the Back List EBooks website. If you visit, the site that’s there now is temporary. The group is currently getting a site professionally designed (depending when you read this, it might be up by now). If you buy books from this site, you are assured that the books are not pirated (pirating is bad, very bad). You are supporting the authors who put in the hard work of writing the books, not some schlep who thinks it’s okay to scan books into his computer, create ebooks from them, and sell them (that’s illegal). Or even someone who has bought an ebook and then thinks it’s okay to upload it to a file-sharing site or sell it (again, illegal, because you could feasibly sell 1000 or more copies of an ebook, whereas, when you buy a paper book and then take it to a used bookstore and they sell it, sooner or later that book will fall apart and need replacing, so it’s a different ball of wax). Yes, anyone who has downloaded an ebook for free, or even paid for it, from a file-sharing site or, yes, places like eBay, you are not supporting the authors. You are supporting an ebook pirate. For shame. Most authors struggle to earn even a part time income from their writing. Don’t make their lives harder by paying pirates for books!!

Ahem. Back on topic.

Here’s some info from the Back List EBooks site:

Backlist Ebooks is a brand new venture designed to help ebook readers find quality fiction from established authors who have e-released their out-of-print novels. Participating authors must have self-published one or more backlist titles that were originally published traditionally, in print, by a major professional publishing house (as we define it).

Note the “as we define it.” Their website, their definition of a major professional publishing house. I have no problem with it. For more details, check out the About Joining Us section on their website. (Hint, it’s on the Resources tab).

They also have a Facebook page.