THE GAME

Let's talk about why you're here reading these words.

Maybe you came across a dog-eared paperback I wrote, or a ratty old magazine with one of my stories in it, and you're wondering if this idiot is still alive.

Yes, the idiot is still alive.

(And congratulations on discovering this blog. Simply running a Google search for "Thomas Wylde" is likely to fill your browser's screen with links to a fashion line created a few years back by Paula Thomas. Stuff about "skull scarves" and suchlike.)

Others of you are not the least bit interested in who I am or what I'm up to, you just want to investigate independent publishing. You have questions like: Is this real? Can anybody do it? Should I do it?

The answers are yes, yes, and maybe.

(For some idea of how to do it, see my recent post HOW I WORK NOW.)

But let's take a look at the maybe.

If you just want to get a nice-looking trade paperback (or hardback) copy of your work to adorn your bookcase or coffee table, indie publication is ideal.

In the old days, you'd have to sign up with a vanity publishing outfit, supply them a ream of spoiled paper, and end with a garage full of boxes containing almost completely unsaleable books. A lot to go through if you merely want a couple copies to impress your friends and relatives.

Not to mention the annoyingly high price for this service.

In contrast, less than a day after uploading your book to Kindle Direct Publications you could be ordering POD copies at the author's discount price. EZ/PZ.

Pay nothing but the cost of the books ordered.

On the other hand, let's say you're a working writer wondering if it would make sense to step away from traditional publishing and go indie. The answer is far less clear.

If you produce nothing but scathing, too-hot-to-handle material no "real" publisher would ever touch, be advised: KDP has standards, too. Set up your camp too far beyond the pale, they might also decline to publish your stuff.

But suppose you write more mainstream artifacts of literary chatter.

The way I see it, the main reason to go indie is to take yourself out of the queues formed up in front of editors and agents—the gatekeepers. You could spend a lot of time in those lines, getting nowhere.

The people you have to impress may end up producing a lot of ordinary books, but not one of them is looking for ordinary books. They all demand extraordinary books. They'll tell you they need to fall in love with your manuscript, or it's not worth their time and effort. After all, their egos are on the line. Agents have personal relationships with editors, and editors all have bosses to please.

Indie pub lets you escape that gooey mess, but it adds a lot of other problems.

A trad publisher is a machine packed with elite professionals: editors, proofreaders, art directors, coders, printers, warehouse workers, distributors, advertisers, and sales staff. There's a budget set for manufacturing and selling your book, money that fuels the machine. These people know their stuff. They have guys who can pick up a finished book and tell you how many copies it's going to sell, based solely on the cover art.

You, on the other hand, have nothing. When you're indie pub, you're strictly on your own. Nobody but you has the least stake in whether or not your life's work finds even one reader. Your book will not be stacked face-out on a shelf in a local bookstore waiting for customers to stumble across.

Sounds a little bleak, doesn't it?

Well, if it makes you feel any better, the average trad-published writer may himself get scant help from that energetic publishing machine. Little or no advertising. Maybe half a dozen copies of your paperback shelved spine-out at bigger bookstores.

Assuming bookstores continue to exist in the future.

But at least the actual physical books will be out there, somewhere, for a little while, before having their covers torn off and the rest pulped or trucked to a landfill.

(Are you absolutely sure you want to be a writer?)

At this point, the words "don't quit your day job" seem fitting.

I'm old. I don't have a day job. Or more precisely, my day job is "being old." You may have different circumstances.

So, can anybody beat the odds in this game? Sure, it happens.

Next time: I propose a particular writing strategy for handling indie pub.