Once upon a time, in the far-off land of the Bronx, a high school English teacher told her class that it was important to know how to speak in public. So, she created a spell—I mean, she told everyone to create a two-minute speech on any topic they liked, and each of us would speak in front of the class.
I chose vampires.
Smoke: Tales Between Dark and Light
There’s a long, respected history of indie filmmakers and indie musicians. Now indie authors, too, can play with concepts that are on the edge. I love the ability to be a hybrid author—to traditionally publish some things while stretching into what is sometimes less-charted territory with other pieces. Indie entrepreneurship allows a collaboration that’s not always available otherwise. Our Penhead anthologies, Smoke and Hunger, arose from that kind of creative centrifuge.
For me, there are two kinds of time to being an indie author. The first is obvious—my timeline is my own. How long it takes me to write and edit and work with the people to create a cover and paperback formatting—all this happens when I’m ready to do it. But the other kind of time, the time I’m saving, is the speed with which I publish. I don’t need to wait to find an agent or publisher and then wait a year or more before my book goes public. That freedom is what I love about being an indie author.
There are advantages to being published traditionally, and having worked with several different houses, I know what those advantages are. But being an indie author gives you the freedom of doing what you feel is right for your book. I’m not impossible to please, but I do have strong feelings about things like layout, cover design, release dates, etc. As an indie author, I can make those decisions and work at my own pace to reach those goals. And, ultimately, I reap the majority of the rewards for my hard work.
I never set out to be an indie author. My vision was to travel the traditional route: traditional agent, traditional publisher. And, as a new author, I’m still trying to attain that. But I’m often tempted to ditch the whole traditional thing and go totally indie. The reason is this, and only this: Artistic freedom.
What I like about being an indie author is that you don’t have to answer to anyone but yourself—and maybe to your writer’s group if you have one, which can be an advantage to an indie writer. It’s an added bonus if you have a writer’s group that you trust. There are pros and cons to indie publishing, (read my fellow Penheads’ comments), but the element of trust is essential. And you don’t always have that with a publisher of your work, especially when you’re starting out. To me the biggest advantage to having a publisher rather than being a publisher is that the publisher already has an audience for you, presumably, whereas being an indie you have to do all the work of finding that audience.
Why do you love going indie?
Go to myBook.to/Smoke_Tales.
My story “In the Smoke,” was a stranger creation than I expected. I wrote some of it in a daze, fueled by blues music in the background. And only after it was completed and I reread it did I realize exactly what I had written about. (No, I’m not going to tell you. It will mean whatever you decide it will mean. That’s the joy of reading.)
May you emerge from the smoke into clarity and peace.
No, I’m not kidding. It took me two weeks straight to pull every final detail together so that I could get my book ready for publication (final proof, formatting for ebook and then reviewing them both) and I was wrecked at the end. Not to mention starting the process to make my ebook available on other venues and begin the process for audiobook. But that’s a different story.
Get a massage. Today I took my own advice and splurged on an aromatherapy massage with reflexology. Ninety minutes of bliss. I had no idea how tense and stressed my muscles were but now I know how my cat feels after I’m done massaging him.
Okay, it doesn’t have to be a massage. But you finished a gigantic project, a unique piece of work that no one else has done. Reward yourself with something meaningful, something that lifts your spirits after a job well done.
Swords are sharp and strong and you need to cut every single word that doesn’t help your story. Start off with bold, sweeping cuts, then change to a knife to give it the fine tuning it needs. What’s that? You’re publishing indie? Well, it’s true that there’s no publishing house ready to cut your darling words to shreds, so that means you can write whatever you want, right?
Wrong.
If anything, you need to be even more ruthless with your prose. This, by the way, pertains to all writers, even traditionally published ones. I once read a book that included a wedding scene so long and detailed, I felt I had been there but hadn’t gotten anything to eat. More to the point, the scene didn’t serve a purpose. Yes, I was waiting for those characters to wed (it was book four, after all), but that didn’t mean I needed to sit through it in real time.
So, cut. Slice every single word that doesn’t serve a purpose, that doesn’t move the story along, and that wouldn’t be missed if you removed it.
You’ve done that, you say. And then you went over it a few more times and cut even more. Great. Now hand it to an editor. And be prepared to be shocked. I suggest keeping a supply of high-grade chocolate nearby when you get the corrections back. Because there will be corrections despite your best efforts.
I can hear the howls when those pages return to you. It’s as if that sword sliced through you instead of the work. Walk away and take deep breaths. Vigorous physical activity can help. When you’re calmer, return to the pages.
Be honest. Read the sections and leave out the parts the editor suggested you cut. Did you even notice they were missing?
Because it’s indie, you will have the final say. You might agree with some cuts and ignore others. That’s fine. It’s your story. Just make sure it’s the very best it can be.
When I was a little kid, I’d fantasize about being the hero with superpowers. Who didn’t want to be a Superman? But as I got older, it became harder to put myself in the same situations that my fantasy superheroes on TV and in books and movies went through because when I did—well, I croaked. Or was captured. I couldn’t fly or read minds or have the strength of ten people or—well, you get the idea.
So I looked for other types of stories to immerse myself in the genre of fantasy. I discovered that I love the ones where the hero is vulnerable.
The other day I peeled wallpaper off my bathroom walls. (The harder part of removing the backing and glue will be done by someone with the right tools. I’m not crazy.)
I was surprised at how much fun I found it, pulling the strips from the walls and ceiling. My arms stretched and flexed in ways that washing dishes or sweeping the floor don’t require. And then I sat down and went back to looking over my final proof pages with renewed interest.
Sadly, this is the final part of my time spent at Phoenix Comicon.
I loved watching people in costume. One woman floated down a long staircase wearing a blue gown from Frozen but I wasn’t quick enough with my camera.
As before, I enjoyed chatting with the authors. They were very patient as I tried to get a good photo of each of them. 😉
Matthew O. Duncan, author of The New Terra Sagas.
Erin Quinn, author of The Mists of Ireland Series and The Beyond Series. I adored her tee shirt and need that message on a mug.
Mark Rude, artist and author of The Cindra Corrina Chronicles.
And finally, another taste of the goodies for sale. I had to keep reminding myself about the size of my suitcase (not to mention closet space).
I was glad to have attended. May you all get to go!
Okay, yes, I was tempted. But really, there’s no room to swing a light saber in my house and somehow I didn’t think the airline would have been too happy. So I took this photo, drooled, and moved on.
Continuing from last week’s post, it’s a pleasure to feature the authors I met at the Con. They were welcoming and generous with their time and I enjoyed talking with them. I thought this was going to be a two-part entry but decided that there will be another post about the Con and the authors I met so stay tuned. 🙂
Mimi Sebastian, author of the Necromancer Books. (I certainly have a lot of books to check out from the Con!)
Joseph Nassise, who gave me the publisher’s copy of Urban Allies, and autographed it, as well as:
Weston Ochse, who autographed it as well! I love anthologies because it helps me find new authors to read.
KC Klein, whose card reads, “Writing Love Letters to the World One Book at a Time.”
And what would Comicon be without costumes? Here’s a cool one, also from the Star Wars universe:
(I didn’t catch his name but I did get his permission.)
See you next week!
While I wasn’t there for long, I did have a blast. This year, Phoenix Comicon supported Kids Need to Read. Their booth was staffed by enthusiastic volunteers:
And of course I stopped by the rows of authors–both indie and traditionally published, to chat and take photos. Here are a few of the authors I spoke with (more next week):
Arabella Thorne, author of I Swear My Roommate is a Vampire and The Elf Lord’s Revenge, as well as others.
Howard Tayler, writer and illustrator and Michael Stackpole, author of many, many books.
Alan Black, author of the Metal Boxes series.
I couldn’t help taking a picture of this sewing machine (courtesy of Xaos Studios) creating a patch with no human hands. As a friend quipped, “The original 3-D printer.”
Stay tuned for more from the Con next week.
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