Indie Publishing, the Path of Least Resistance
Author of Infatuation and Disappear, Love
Thanks to print on demand and digital publishing, the Indie book market is finally flourishing. Fewer authors are going the traditional route, some finding success and bigger profit margins through unconventional publishing methods and niche genres. Even with sales merely trickling in, many authors are satisfied with the freedom indie publishing offers. In the past, authors solicited all-too-exclusive publishing houses and literary agents but often saw their manuscripts rejected or unread. Sometimes, publishers felt the material wasn’t “commercial” enough and were unwilling to put money behind it even if they liked the material. Sometimes the author was unknown or publishers believed the material would not appeal to a particular demographic. In some cases, the book simply sucked. Whatever the reasons, what authors disliked most was having their material dismissed without so much as a glance beyond the title page.
Authors today are taking the path of least resistance, along with their careers, into their own hands. Indie publishing not only saves time, but untold amounts of money and postage.
While getting ones book to print or digitized is no longer an uphill battle, Indie publishers must confront a huge obstacle, which is the marketing of their published books.
For authors today, especially an Indie author lacking marketing budgets only commercial publishers can afford, building a sufficient online presence can be a monumental task. To accomplish this goal, authors will need to build a web site, a blog, and direct marketing campaigns through social networking channels like Facebook or Twitter. Some authors or their representatives are also uploading book trailers to Youtube. It’s also important for authors to move their name and titles to the front page of search engine results or readers won’t find them. A high volume of online searches will increase the author’s page rank and prominence in search engines like Google, Bing, or Yahoo. The number of web sites featuring information about the author is also important. So authors should work on building as many profiles or topics as possible about their titles.
Writing a book is merely the first step to being an author. Publishing and marketing will soon become a second career for the Indie publisher, so the path of least resistance, isn’t necessarily the easiest. But like water, when faced with an obstacle, many will find a way around to reach their goals.
(Comments and questions are always welcome)
Novels by E. Hughes: