SKaeth - On Being an Indie Author

14 min read

**SKaeth is a writer, reader and maker. It’s a pleasure to have her on The Creator’s Roulette to talk about being an indie author.**

One of my main aims with the Creator’s Roulette is to be able to quench my curiosity. As one of the core team members on Write Hive, I have chatted with SKaeth a bit on and off but our passion for indie authors has led to a strong bond. We thought it would be good to see where this conversation takes us in learning more about the indie realm and maybe a bit of the book blogger perspective that I can help with. I am so excited to chat with her about being an indie author. Enjoy the conversation! SKaeth’s words are in italics.

Welcome to Creator’s Roulette, SKaeth! What is your first memory of writing?

Man, that’s a hard one. I remember doing those little writing exercises in school, but vaguely. My first clear storytelling memories involve me laying on the top bunk staring at the ceiling and telling my sister passive aggressive stories. I would have been 8 or younger at the time. I started really enjoying writing stories in high school though, and really beginning to focus on world building, plot, setting, characters, etc.

Who is an indie author? What made you decide to be one?

The way I understand it, an indie author is anyone who is independent of the big publishing houses of traditional publishing. Various people have various definitions excluding circles of people, but indie to me focuses on that independence. So for me, if you’re published through a small press, I still consider you indie. If you self published, you’re indie. If you published through a vanity press you’re indie, but don’t do that.

Why not? 😀

Vanity presses prey on people. They take your money or ask you to “contribute” to the publishing process while portraying themselves as an established publisher. Basically, instead of getting their profits from selling books, they get them from you, the author. It’s definitely something to be aware of, as the waters can get murky. There are lots of companies out there that offer self-publishing assistance and many are legitimate, but others are actually vanity presses.

On Indie and Non-Indie

How is the indie world different from the non-indie world?

I’ve never been “non-indie” so I’m only speaking from what I’ve heard from friends who are pursuing the traditional path. And let me take a moment here to say that I firmly believe neither is better than the other. We’re all just telling our stories and hoping they entertain or resonate with someone, after all. But one way or another might be better for you, and it’s a good idea to really do your research to find your own best path.

Mainly though, traditional publishing will provide some resources for you and some structure. They will provide editing resources, cover design, and a little marketing, and they will give you an advance. Small presses might do some of that as well, though you also might get more say. For a self-published author though, you have to pay for all those things yourself (no advance)–but you’re also in control of all those things. You’re also in charge of your release schedule. You can choose how far apart your books come out, and you keep you on track of that pace.

When we were collecting indie and small press books for our blog post for the indie book prompt on #ArmedWithABingo, we asked the authors why they chose to be indie and the one reply I remember was from Holly Ash:

I wanted to preserve the integrity of my characters and several agents I talked to wanted me to make some major changes I wasn’t alright with. I also like having control over my story and the length of the series.

This resonates with me so much.

It’s interesting that traditional publishing comes with its restrictions. It does have an automatic audience – I say that because I am part of 3 different publishers’ book blogger programs and I am still getting used to asking for books and getting them in the mail within weeks for no cost (talk about a reader’s dream), but it also limits the authors to present their book a certain way.

That does sound like a dream! It makes tons of sense that traditional publishing comes with restrictions, at least to me it does. I mean, they’re taking a gamble on each author making them money. They are putting forth the money not only in the advance they give to each author, but also paying for cover art (which can be amazingly expensive!) and editing and whatnot. That comes with its perks, of course, but there have to be downsides too. They want to make sure their gamble has a reasonable chance of paying off. That way, they can publish more books!

publishing restrictions - being an indie author

I was talking to my friend, Lauren, and we were wondering after reading the reading experience post whether authors change the beginning of a book to suit the end. Seeing Holly’s comment, it made me wonder how much of that decision is in the author’s hands if they are not indie…

From what I’ve heard from more established authors, there might be a slight difference in pressures too. A debut author as a rule needs to stay within word count guidelines as well as produce phenomenal work at the right time for traditional publishing. I’m not sure how it is for small presses, but I’ve heard from self-published authors using KU especially that they find more success with longer works, since they get paid by pages read for KU.

I cannot imagine being limited by word counts. Actually, school and assignments did enforce that but they were never creative work in the true sense, and ultimately as long as I wasn’t overdoing it, my teachers did not care about the word count.

I find that while there are stressors in publishing no matter what route you choose, the stressors of indie publishing are things I’m better built for. I would stress so hard about not having a say in my cover design, or maybe having to change my title, or redesign a character arc for the market. While it’s difficult for me to invest the money in my books to make them professional quality while gambling I’ll get that money back (and there are times an advance looks really enticing), at the same time, I’m glad I don’t have to worry about someone else saying “Nope, your books aren’t doing well enough, so we aren’t going to pay for more stories from you”. If that decision ever comes, it’ll come from me, and that’s something I’m more comfortable with.

I think that is really important to know about yourself and what you would take on and where you would draw the line.

Really, I find that we have far more in common with each other than we have differences. For instance, we all have to figure out marketing strategies that’ll work for us and our books. We’re all working to hone our craft, stressing over the details, agonizing over word choices, and working hard to get those words out and polished and ready to go.

Agreed! That’s true for any sort of writing and creative work. What can we do to raise awareness about indie authors?

I think the biggest thing is to read indie books! There are all sorts of amazing stories out there, and there’s definitely a story for you. There are so many authors crafting their stories and choosing indie as their path for the freedom and the control, but there’s still a stigma especially against self-published authors. Can anyone just throw up a first draft and publish it? Of course they can. But serious self-published authors are investing in the editing and formatting and cover design just like small press and traditional authors are.

On Publishers and Reviewers

What role to publishers and reviewers play in an author’s life?

Publishers don’t play a huge role for me. My husband and I actually formed our own imprint because we were serious about making a go of this and we wanted to showcase that. For a small press or a traditionally published author though, that role becomes increasingly important.

Reviewers, though, are important to us all. Books that have no reviews are going to be more likely to be passed over vs books with a lot of mostly positive reviews. And getting those initial reviews can be a struggle. You want reviews so that potential readers can see what they’re getting in for, can tell if they might like it. Every story has fans and people who hate it–you can’t please everyone. So the reviews are really important for the reader. As you get more reviews, you become more visible, too, in a cycle that helps to propel some books to the top.

Reviews are so important that there are gobs and gobs of articles teaching authors how to get them, as well as services that will offer paid reviews, etc. I’ve not done as much research into marketing and getting reviews as I really should, because I’ve been focused on finishing my books instead, but I do plan on contacting book bloggers about Windward, and the very thought makes my palms sweat!

Haha! Do I stress you out?

Haha! Not now that I know you some, but when we first chatted, I was like “Oh my goodness, oh my goodness, oh my goodness. She’s not gonna like me!” Plus you haven’t read my words- there’s a whole ‘nother level of anxiety that comes when you’re waiting for the verdict to come back about something you’ve worked so long and hard on!

I have defended a thesis before so I know how that feels. At least the defense committee usually comes up with a decision within half an hour. Reviewers take months because of the long TBR.

the never ending to-be-read pile of a book blogger

Yes! Which makes sense. But when you’re waiting, especially with this mentality that this could be a huge boost or a huge giant waterslide down into the pits of nothingness based on what the book bloggers think of your work… It’s one of those “Go work on another project and pretend you didn’t just ask that question/send out that book for a while” things. At least for me, it is!

Reviewing is it’s own animal and I say that because I am a reviewer. As open as I want to be able to read every book that comes my way, prior interactions with authors can cloud how I feel about taking on new books. All reviewers I know who are serious about it, will have a review policy and I highly recommend reading it before approaching one. Do not send out a mass email. Do not attach your book. Those are the two things to not do and as a logical person, you would already know that. 🙂

Yes, from what I’ve read, authors should treat book bloggers much as they do agents if they’re querying. It’s a business proposition. It’s not something to get bent out of shape about if they decline or don’t answer- you move on to the next thing. That said, when I was querying, I spent hours researching and reviewing guidelines before sending the queries- and this is after polishing my query to a shine, again and again- which is totally normal for the process. So when I get a chance to do this research, I plan to approach it with the same mentality (and that’s how I did it when I was researching for sending out ARCs, too).

That’s great! As an author, you are able to draw up the parallel between book bloggers and agents. Most of us though have no idea about that because we just do it for fun. Most of us do not have any certifications and highly unlikely to even have a degree in critical thinking if that is a thing. It is a business proposition but it’s also just potentially the start of a new relationship. I have not been reviewing long but thinking back to all the New Year messages I sent out, there are 32 new connections I made that I completed reviewing in 2019 and I would say, I made good friends with at least 10 of these authors. Most approached me to review their book but others I connected to through agents.

I love this way of connections growing and changing over time. But I want to say, I don’t think book bloggers need to have tons of certifications or degrees. While approaching book bloggers has parallels to approaching agents (at least in my mind it does!) the two relationships have their different qualities. An author approaches a book blogger not for professional advice, but for their thoughts on the product they put into the world, as a reader. The thing is, your response to a story is your authentic response to that story. Authors want to know what readers are going to think of the stories and characters and worlds they’ve created, and that’s exactly what book bloggers offer. Do you think, as a book blogger, that book bloggers need to have any criteria short of an enthusiastic love for books (and maybe a large audience to perhaps spread author’s books out there into more hands)? Because that hasn’t been my impression.

I mention the certification because I suspect agents do. I love what you said about the authenticity of the book experience that a reviewer brings as a reader. Book lovers become reviewers in my experience because they love books and reading. It expands into more like building an audience, learning how to promote a book (maybe by word of mouth or using social media), staging the books and growing the audience further. It’s a cycle and the fact that brings up the variety of reviewers out there. Not all of us do author interviews regularly or have instagram. Some are not even open to requests. It’s so easy to accept books and then have a mountain of commitments (which I am personally trying not to look at this way).

Definitely, and you wouldn’t want to have such a packed schedule that you’re no longer enjoying the read, either. I suspect book bloggers are as susceptible to burn out as any of us, after all.

Haha have you seen the Twitter accounts with ‘Hiatus’ in the title? That’s burn out book bloggers for you.

I have occasionally- clearly I need to follow more book bloggers- and it doesn’t surprise me at all!

I honestly have no idea how many people read a book because I read it and posted about it on my website. I would say my influence is only on the people I regularly interact with and I know, like my family and friends to whom I can lend physical books, and online friends who are avid readers or need some advice. As much as we hope that people will be influenced by pretty pictures on instagram and book analysis, I do not know how much that affects why people pick up a book. Maybe goodreads ratings help people find a book but you and I both know how _ they are.

I think that it might be hard to track, too. I mean, maybe someone reads your post about book ABC. And then a few days later they see ABC on Twitter, or on Reddit, or whatnot. And then a few days later a friend mentions ABC and they go and buy it. Well, which one of those exposures was the “reason” they bought the book? Probably all of them helped, together. And if that person likes it, they might tell a friend, who may or may not also read ABC, either right then or later on down the road. These metrics feel really murky to me because of that.

Yes with social media, as possible as it is to track this if we really wanted to, it brings up the question must we? As an author, do you care who the first person of contact was? As a book blogger, do I care who is following my reviews truly? Don’t we have many other important things to do like write? 🙂

From my perspective, I don’t really care, nope. But I’m not great at details like metric tracking anyway. I’d prefer to spend my time writing, and I’m the type of person who likes to grow things more naturally. So for me, while I get a more increased thrill when someone with 10k followers retweets my book or something than someone with less followers, I still get a thrill even when someone with 50 followers retweets my book because it means, to me, that something resonated in them, at least a little. A lot of marketing advice encourages tracking things though, so my approach may not be the best one- I sure don’t know! It’s the way I grew my business (I’m self-employed, too)–organically, through word of mouth–and so it’s an approach that I know is something I can do.

I have gone down the tracking rabbit hole and it is so easy to get caught up in it. Best to do it when you need it and with a purpose in mind. Anyway, I really enjoyed our chat about indie publishing, book blogging, the expertise that every professional involved in the writing and reading process brings to the experience. Did you want to offer one last bit of advice to someone considering indie publishing, before we end for today (you’ll be back here again I know it!) ?

Sure! The main thing is to do your research.

It’s a hard road to follow, and you want to choose the publishing path that will work best for you. Jane Friedman has a great listing of various paths to get you started on your research: https://www.janefriedman.com/key-book-publishing-path/ .