Boxed Red Wine and Nebulas

Jun 11, 2021 11:21 pm

Why being an indie author means I will buy my own steaks.

"She's Taking Her Tits to the Grave" on page 357, right next to Neil Gaiman: my best-selling short story, but still not quite enough for SFWA Membership

My friend and I have had this bet since we were at Clarion together years and years ago. Whichever of us won a Hugo Award or a Nebula Award first, the other would buy her a steak dinner. It’s been almost fifteen years since we made this bet, and neither of us have had to pay out yet.

I was told, when I originally started writing, that the key to becoming a published novelist was to start writing short fiction and get a name for yourself by getting in the well-known magazines. I dutifully did this, though I prefer novels to short stories. Ironically, even though I had a short story in an anthology that got on the bestseller list, I don’t think I ever quite met the cience Fiction Writers Association (SFWA) membership requirements.

Back when I first started writing novels, I submitted my manuscripts to traditional publishing houses. The thing I hated most about this process was that after you shipped a ream of printed manuscript to a publisher, you could wait YEARS to get a hastily scrawled “no thanks” from some hapless intern. YEARS. The average response for “no thanks, we don’t want to buy this” was so long that if you got pregnant the day you shipped it off to the publisher, your child would have outgrown some of its layette before you got your answer. It goes faster with an agent, but when my agent was shopping my books around, it was 2008, and the publishing industry was tanking (probably due at least in part to a business model that takes years to respond to an inquiry email).

That's just the first delay. I was told it can take 18-24 months from contract signing until the book is on the bookstore shelf. And that’s not because traditional publishers provide so many services--the author still does their own editing, publicity, and proofreading--it’s just that they’re that inefficient. Indie publishing means I can finish a book and have it available to readers in just a few months. I don't know if I can ever go back to the old way.

But there are trade-offs to this path. Even now, some people think of indie-published books as being as undrinkable as boxed wine. Which is, I think, the perfect analogy, because the box-wine packaging keeps the wine fresher, and you can get terrible wine in a bottle just as easily as terrible wine in a box. But this stigma about packaging means there are some awards and some recognitions indie works will never be nominated for. Some people will never read indie work because they’ll assume it can’t possibly be as good because the professional writer and editor works for herself instead of a giant corporation.

Since you’re on this newsletter list, it means you are a more savvy reader who looks beyond the imprint logo on the spine. Your taste is superb. My request is this: will you tell another reader about my books? If you’re on social media, make a little TikTok video telling people about one of my books, blog it, share a cover on Instagram. Post a link to my author page or forward the giveaways from my Twitter page and tell people to look for Witch’s Jewel. Or just tell a friend.

I may never get a Nebula or a Hugo, since I chose a different path, but if I can get my books in the hands of readers who enjoy the stories and are moved by them, it will be worth it.

P.S. I’m working on book 10 of Kit Melbourne. You'll have it soon after it's done.