What is an Independent Author?

This is a question that has a lot of answers, depending on who you ask. 

The direct answer is this:  an independent author is a writer who self-publishes their work and retains control and publishing rights of said work. Independent authors often refer to themselves as “indie” authors, and the trend of self-publishing is growing in popularity as the traditional publishing industry moves away from supporting new authors. 

The indie author community is full of supportive, vibrant, and creative people, and it’s one that I’m proud to consider myself a part of! 

What Does an Indie Author Do? 

The life of an independent author is not easy. Indie authors not only have to write their books, but they have to handle everything that comes after that. Edits (endless rounds of edits), rewrites, more edits, formatting their manuscript, designing and/or hiring a designer for their cover, writing the blurb for the back cover, deciding on whether or not to purchase an ISBN, finalizing design, deciding where to self-publish (Amazon KDP, Barnes & Noble, Ingram Spark, Draft2Digital, etc.), and actually publishing the dang thing! Then, the ongoing work of marketing, which most indie authors agree is the hardest part. 

Why Do Authors Choose to Self-Publish? 

The answers are varied, but it usually comes down to maintaining creative control over the work. Not only is it a loooong road to getting your book traditionally published, but once you sign a contract with a major publishing house, they own the copyright to the work, meaning they have final say on most if not all creative decisions as well as international deals, movie options, and more. With self-publishing, all of that stays with the author. 

Yes, it is inherently more work. And it can be expensive if the author chooses to pay for a professional editor (which I honestly highly recommend, even if it’s just a proofread to fix any glaring issues), designer, character art, or any number of other services to give their book sales a boost. However, unless you are a big name author with proven success and name recognition, the marketing is going to fall onto the author anyway. So why not keep creative control, at that point? In addition, indie authors tend to keep a larger percentage of sales and royalties than traditionally published authors. 

Are Self-Published Books Good? 

When self-publishing first became an option, not every book was great. Or even good. It created a reputation for self-published authors that was…hard to get past. However, over the years, most of that levelled out as authors gained access to better resources. Then Covid hit and everyone was at home making up stories in their heads and decided to write them down. Which I, personally, have no issue with! The more stories out in the world, the better! Storytelling is how humans connect with each other. That being said, a lot of these Covid stories were put out hastily and without editing, so the quality wasn’t the best. Which put a stigma back on self-published authors that had started to fade. But I’ve read some absolutely incredible indie books - some of my current favs include The Oracles by Christy Skidmore and As Above, So Below by D.M. Darcy. 

I might be biased (I'm definitely biased), but I believe that independent authors are wildly creative, brave, and strong. They knew the amount of work, time, dedication, and utter slogging that comes with being an indie author and chose to do it anyway. 

How Can I Support an Indie Author? 

The obvious answer is buy their book! 

Beyond that, one of the most helpful and supportive things you can do for indie authors is to leave reviews of their book once you’ve read it. Couple of caveats there: 

• If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. Their book might not be for you, but it could become someone else’s favorite book, and a negative review might be more hurtful than helpful. 

• Write at least a sentence about the book. Reviews with words are more helpful for algorithms and attracting new readers than just leaving stars. 

• Leave reviews in multiple places. Amazon is obviously helpful, but places like Goodreads and Fable are also great places to leave reviews for other readers. 

Recommending the book to people in your circle also helps. You can request that your library stock it or choose an indie author for your book club.  There are a lot of ways to support indie authors! And if you have a favorite author but aren’t sure how to support them, you can always reach out to them and ask!

Find Independent Authors in Your Area

Check out your local bookstores - a lot of times they will highlight local authors with shelf blurbs. So many indie authors are online as well - TikTok, Instagram, Facebook - name the social app and you can find a community of indie authors just waiting for you to discover their work. You never know - you might just find your next favorite book!