Introduction
Indie publishing is the next topic in the discussion of the final step in publishing. Last time, we discussed publishing with Amazon and focused mainly on self-publishing. Indie publishing is a little bit different. It’s often used to refer to both publishing with a small independent press and publishing yourself with Amazon. But for our purposes, we’re only talking about publishing with a small independent press here. There are some important things to consider if you want to go this route, so let’s go over the key points.
Indie Publishing – The Query
With indie publishing, you now start getting into dealing with gatekeepers. Gatekeepers are the ones who will read through your query package and, usually only if they find that promising, your manuscript to decide if your work is good enough and fits well with what they’re looking for at that company. Both traditional and indie publishers do this, and it makes your query very important.
Generally, queries will include some sort of query letter, which has the hook (why they would want your story specifically as opposed to any of the thousands of others vying for the same place in their catalog) and information regarding the book. I may get into writing a query letter and other querying steps at a later date, but a lot of information is available regarding this process. The key things you need to remember are to research and make sure you submit to the people who would be most likely to want your book, to remain professional while also providing unique content that will make them take notice, and to be genuine.
Agents and publishers have far more query letters and manuscripts than they can possibly go through, so you want to avoid giving them an excuse to chuck yours in the trash. Putting it on flashy stationary or doing similarly unprofessional things will not help your cause. Think of it like you would a resume and a cover letter. You don’t use flashy, ornate paper. You focus on the content and give them a good reason to want to talk to you. This is the exact same idea. The only thing that changes is the content and the precise way you choose to present it in your letter.
Indie Publishing – Precautionary Tales
One major thing you need to understand about indie publishing is how easy it is to accidentally get stuck with the wrong kind of publisher. By this, I mean that it’s easy for newbies and even established authors who are newer to indie publishers to accidentally end up with a vanity press.
At best, a vanity press will publish your work for you, but they charge you hefty up front fees and do very little to help you with the book or sales. My recommendation? If a publishing company is asking you for money up front, you should be running the other way. That said, there are a few reasons why it would be acceptable for a company you’re working with to ask you to pay them for a book that will go into their catalog.
One major reason is that they’re not technically going to publish the book. For example, I’m currently part of a group of authors who are writing for the Children of Chaos series hosted by Indie/pendent Book Services. They aren’t technically a publishing company, but the books, though published by the individual who wrote them, are all in their website’s catalog of books for the CoC series. This means that I as an author get extra exposure from both the company’s promotion of their hosted series on the website and from the marketing efforts of other authors in the series. They required us to pay a $20 upfront fee for each book publishing slot we claimed for paying the cover designer to do the covers for each book. This was reasonable not only because that’s an extremely low price for a well-designed cover but also because they’re not making any money off the royalties on each individual book and have no rights to the book beyond the right to have the author keep it published indefinitely.
Anthologies are another one where I’ve seen small indie presses ask authors to contribute some small amount toward the costs of the book. It all depends on the press. But if they’re asking you for anything more than $100, I would be questioning why, particularly if they’re going to end up with rights or money from the sales the book makes. Essentially, be extremely wary of any publisher that asks you for money.
As I said earlier, best case scenario? They charge you a lot and produce the book but don’t do much to help you get it out there. Worst case scenario? They charge you and never deliver at all. Either way, it’s a scam, and it’s going to cost you a lot for no reason at all. Just don’t do it no matter how excited you are that someone accepted you and your manuscript. Con artists and scammers are more than happy to prey on your desire to be a successful, published author.
Indie Publishing Advantages
The advantages to indie publishing, of course, are fairly obvious. You get an editor, a cover designer, and help with the marketing. Depending on the company, you’ll get more or less of this, but it’s nice to have someone else on your team. Why go it alone if you can get a team to help?
But besides the obvious, another advantage of indie publishing is that you may have more reach than you would alone and you also get practice pitching your work to editors and agents. That will prove invaluable if you want to later take another series or book to a traditional publisher. Learning here is a good place to do it.
The other major advantage is that, if you find the right fit for you, it can come to feel more like a support network than just a publisher. I know authors working with small publishers and indie presses who have said their group feels more like family than just agents, editors, and publishing staff. Your book also may get more focus and attention from your editors and publishing staff than it would at a bigger company. This isn’t guaranteed, and the quality of the editors still has to be factored in, but the likelihood of getting closer attention to detail and polishing is still higher.
Indie Publishing Disadvantages
Besides the possibility of cons, the most prominent disadvantage with indie publishing or traditional publishing is the control you give up. Of course, chances are, if you’re looking for a publisher after going it alone with self-publishing you’re more than happy to give up control of every little detail in order to gain the advantages a publisher can offer. But if you’re new to the process of publishing, know that you will give up a lot of the control you have over it.
The publisher will dictate how you can use the book outside the publishing contract, they can typically make pricing changes without asking first (though some will ask anyway), and your royalties will be negotiated differently than they would if you did things directly through Amazon. What that looks like really depends on the publisher, though. Furthermore, they are the ones who do the cover design, often control marketing efforts (though most will expect you to pitch in on the promotion of the book), and handle many other areas of the publishing process. What your publisher decides to do depends strongly on the contract that the two of you negotiated.
Bottom line? Read your contract very, very carefully. Pay attention to what rights you’re giving them and make an informed decision before signing with any given indie publisher. You don’t want to regret the decision later after all the work you’ll put into the book.
Conclusion
In the end, what you choose to do with your book is your decision. There are advantages and disadvantages regardless of which you choose to go with, and you need to know what those are before you decide. Read the contract, make an informed decision, and go for it. Expect to be rejected as the norm, not the exception, because smaller presses only have a set number of people they can publish within their budget, just as big name publishers do, and their selection is typically smaller. But if indie publishing is the direction you want to head, don’t give up! Keep submitting and use the feedback you get from one publisher (if any) to improve for the next one you choose to query.