The Indie - Amateurism and daring to try

The fundamental difference between the Indie writer/publisher and the commercial publisher is quite simply amateurism.

I can almost hear the squawks of protest from many indie writers and publishers who claim their quality is no different to that of commercial publishing houses, and this may well be true, but that is not what I am talking about.

Commercial publishing is professional in the sense that it incorporates a body of experience and knowledge about its market which it applies to every new project that comes along. It holds that this wisdom, this knowledge, is the key to commercial survival and if a project does not fit within the expectations of that template then it is best avoided.

Commercial publishers look for the qualities they have succeeded with in the past. The bigger ones are now recognising that the world has changed and are treating the Indie world as a slush pile so that they can bring their skills to bear on the works that are already succeeding in the market. But the point is commercial publishers are not interested in authors as unique little snowflakes they are interested in authors the same way oil companies are interested in places where oil seeps out of the ground. They see authors as sources of potential revenue once they have developed the field into a commercial resource.

Inside the commercial publishing house new recruits are inducted into the ways of that publisher. Like any new recruit they individually will make mistakes. Normally their colleagues and superiors will explain why what they are doing is mistaken and the error will be found and corrected. The house protects its brand by educating, controlling and sanctioning until the recruit becomes a "professional" within that branded organisation.

The Indie author is a completely different creature. They don't start out with a brand or a body of knowledge. They don't see themselves as a source of revenue, they see their projects as a source of self expression and revenue. The Indie is an explorer and an artist who, by comparison) is only playing in the world of commercial publishing.The Indie does not have a body of professional experience and knowledge. They are simply following their noses and their stars - a very small fish in a very big sea.

This amateurism means they have a lot to learn about the world of commercial publishing.
Some have to learn how to write. This is no small thing, because I don't mean simply how to string a sentence together. I mean how to write a large textual structure. How to tell an interesting story, or mount a convincing argument. For people who have not written over 50,000 words at a time (and that is most) this is a challenge.

Having learned how to write the Indie must learn production. This can be contracted out, but in many cases the cost of doing so is simply uneconomic. To recover two thousand dollars on a book may be more than the gamble of producing the book is worth. Story editing, copy editing, fact checking, all of these skills are absolutely essential to the production of a quality text. They don't come easily either. Many points of grammar are arcane, and style fashions change over the years. A grammatical construction which may have been acceptable twenty years ago may be quite unacceptable now.
Book and cover design is another complex art. Yes, many either buy standard templates or hire the skills but others learn the arts themselves. That too is a slow and difficult process. It can include learning the finer points of image licensing and model releases. It can mean licensing fonts. Presenting a clear look and feel for a project is a critical part of its branding.

Bringing all this together for different platforms is no small task either. Learning how Kindle files differ from ePub files, and how the layout and design of printed books differs entirely from electronic ones reveals a world of work.

Then there is the question of distribution. Electronic books have a number of global platforms to choose from. Many simply leave everything to Smashwords but others are more hands on, developing versions for the strengths of the different platforms. In print distribution is both difficult and expensive and working out a pricing model that is affordable and does not involve a huge debt for stock is difficult. While organising distribution the Indie has to learn the ins and outs of ISBN numbering and finding the right BISAC codes to classify the new work with.

If print distribution isn't complex enough then the non-US Indie also has to navigate the American tax system. This involves some for of registration, and a link to the Indie's own home tax jurisdiction.

Finally there is marketing and discoverability. The trick here is to get your book in front of people who like your kind of work. This involves website design, social media campaigning, sales props, and advertising on promotional sites. It means trying to find book reviewers. It means designing ads: visual; audio and video. Working out the rate of return on various marketing campaigns can be a seat of the pants exercise or a scientifically managed one.

For some people this huge work challenge is simply too much, but for the true Indie it is a vast and fascinating world of discovery. And this is where the word amateur comes to play.

Nobody sprang out of the ground knowing everything about all these complex careers. It isn't reasonable to expect the Indie to know all about every aspect of publishing from the get go. Like everyone entering a new career they will make mistakes and have regrets. This is only to be expected.

But like any adventurer they must be allowed to learn from their mistakes. They must be given the same chance to learn and make mistakes as the "professional" hidden away inside the institutions commercial publishing has also had.

To expect perfection from an indie producing the first edition of a new book as they stagger into the world of publishing is simply plain unfair. Indies, unlike professionals don't learn in secret behind the walls of a commercial brand. They learn in the public gaze.

For some people any sign of weakness is a good excuse to attack. To write savaging reviews full of spite and bile. Some do this to defend their own patch. Some do this to assert the importance of their own skill set. But the effect is simply the same, to deride the newcomer, the person who dared to try.

This blog is for those who dare to try. Those who can tolerate the humiliation of learning in the public gaze. I don't pretend to have all the answers. I don't pretend to be all that successful either. But what I am prepared to do is stand up for the right of people to try things, learn, fail, and try again, while all those who carp and catcall laugh in the background and don't try anything themselves.