A successful independent writer/illustrator
If you’re under – say – fifty, you know how the music world is in a maelstrom of change. Not new news; independent labels have always been around, but the emergence of artists who not only write and record their own material (Beatles) but record, produce, and distribute it themselves (Radiohead) is a burgeoning phenomenon that has tipped, if not turned over, the music industry.
There are more bands in more genres than ever. If you love grunge-polka or acapella heavy metal, your bands are out there. Programs like Garage Band have thoroughly democratized at least the recording end of the business. Big music corporations still have the lion’s share of sales, and can now wait, like lions, for an indie band to blow up BEFORE signing them to their label. But this is changing. Check out David Byrne’s article on Music Biz.
And the same sea-change is taking place in the book world. Vanity presses have given way to self-publishing. Amazon.com, the world’s biggest everything, has a print-on-demand (POD) division that directly links to their sales and Kindle divisions. And there are a multitude of other POD companies.
Like music, the number of books available has exploded. All kinds of books with all kinds of niches; how-to make mud, porn memoir, troll romance, fantasy, and children’s books without end. Amazon’s CreateSpace, lists over 400,000 self-published books!
Of course, the big publishing houses (of which there are fewer every year) do the same as the big music labels (ditto) – while promoting their usual stable of stars, they’ll let the indies do their own development and pick them up when the indies don’t really need them any more.
But being published by one of the dinosaurs brings the Caché of Arrival, Acceptance, Approval, and Welcome ( or CAAAW!). You don’t get reviewed, “best sellered” or allowed to put that sticker on your cover unless HarperCollins, Penguin, or Simon and Schuster bring you into their fold.
For me, as a prolific, impatient, elder writer/illustrator, self-publishing is the way to go. I tried the Writer’s Digest approach years ago; had some nibbles, but found it was personal contact that sold books, whether one-on-one or to bookstores. When it comes to marketing, you are your own best salesman. Sorry, but true. The bigger rock, or the more little rocks you throw in the pond, the bigger the waves that spread out. There are 7.6 billion people in the world. 1/1000th percent of that is 76 thousand people. Do you think one in a hundred thousand people will love what you do? I do.
So get started.