The Frustrations of Being a Writer and Reader of Indie Books

Indie book world is not for everyone, as a writer or as a reader. I've had this on my mind lately for a few reasons. I was trying to explain to someone why it was so hard for indie authors to make a significant amount of money not too long ago. She was convinced that, as long as you have good marketing skills, there's no way you could fail.

To be fair, she did have a good point. When I first jumped into the indie author pool, I had no idea that more than just writing was involved. Indie authors really do have to be their own marketers, and it's something that I hate. I'm not good at selling myself, ESPECIALLY when I first started publishing books (the impostor syndrome is real). Unless you have a team behind you, then if you don't put your book in front of eyes, no one will.

However, the frustrating thing that I was attempting to explain to this person is that, even if you have decent marketing skills, there are other barriers standing in your way.

The market of independently published books is oversaturated, and the quality of those books varies wildly. The sheer amount of indie books out there is already working against you, but if readers have been burned by a few poorly written books in the past, they might not be willing to try another indie author.

Your book might be one of the well-written, well-edited ones, but you could still turn readers away by a poorly designed cover. Or maybe your book lacks the formatting that readers are used to seeing. Unless you hire a designer, a marketer, etc., then you as an independent author need to wear multiple hats. It's also pretty expensive, which is why some authors try to cut corners (hence the quality issues).

It gets frustrating after a while, when you've put a lot of work into your books and it seems like no one even knows they exist. This is the time when doubts are able to wiggle their way in. You start to wonder whether writing is worth the effort. Whether you're good enough. Whether you're wasting your time. It's difficult to climb out of that mindset.

There are perils of being an indie book reader as well. There are so many gems out there, but they can be hard to find. Two of my favorites that I discovered years ago are The Emperor's Edge by Lindsay Buroker and Nameless by A.C. Williams, which both led to series that I thoroughly enjoyed. But for every one of those books, there are at least 20 that are just okay or downright bad. Despite the challenges of finding good indie books (self-published or produced by a small company), I still think it's important to find those indie authors that create works you enjoy and to support them.

There's my little rant. If anyone else wants to rant about books, you're more than welcome to join in. Now, it's back to writing for me!