Promote You: Are You an Indie Author?

Natalie Bright

To better promote yourself, you need a clearer picture of the path you want to pursue.

The old west, history of the U.S. and the hardiness of the people from that time period has always fascinated me.  I ran across this quote from the Editor of the Cheyenne Valley News, Harry Lovald, who wrote: “The trouble with most of us is a restless spirit. Instead of making opportunity come to us, we are chasing our legs off running after it.”

That description of early pioneers perfectly describes today’s Indie Author.  This week, someone asked me, “What is the term you keep saying? Indie Author? What does that mean?” For me the choice is finally clear. After four years, I terminated the contract with a literary agency to become a proud Indie Author.

For those of you who are new to the creative art of writing and publishing your book, here is a quick review of today’s terms.

1. Indie Author: independently published author, meaning an author who not only is the creator of the work, but shoulders the cost for putting that work into production for the consumer and maintains complete control of the intellectual property. An Indie Author realizes there are many opportunities and paths to realize their goals. They can do everything themselves or put together a capable team of others to help.

2. Traditionally Published: an author who uses the traditional gatekeepers of publishing such as literary agents and editors of publishing companies. A traditional publishing contract transfers ownership of the intellectual property from author to publishing company.

3. Hybrid Authors:a fairly new type of author that has emerged meaning they are both traditionally and independently published. A) They may have obtained their rights back for their backlist of traditionally published books, and are now putting that work out themselves. Or,  B) they may have started as an Indie Author and realized great success in the rankings to garner a substantial fan base, and then was offered a deal from a traditional publisher.

Either way you look at it, it’s all good and it’s a wonderful time to be the creator of original content.

“It is a great responsibility to be pioneers in so great a world.” NARCISSA WHITMAN