WHY I
SUPPORT INDIE WRITERS
You may
well have seen the term 'Indie writers' and thought 'huh –
couldn't find a publisher, can't be any good' or 'they used to
call it vanity publishing, can't be any good'.
Oh dear!
How wrong you are! For over three years now I have been reviewing
books, almost all of them written by Indie writers. Okay – not all
are good (and some are downright awful), but you can find books no
better than these on the shelves of Waterstones, WH Smith etc. What
you won't find on those same shelves are far superior books by Indie
writers! Why? Because Indies don't have the clout of a publisher
behind them and booksellers are reluctant to place unknown authors on
their shelves unless backed by the publisher!
So what
is the process? You write your book, tout it to as many publishing
houses as you can until you are fed up and discouraged by so many
comments of 'It doesn’t suit our catalogue', 'We don't
think it is good enough', 'We have just accepted another book
on the same subject and don't want them to clash' and, possibly
worst of all, 'We really liked your book and have enclosed a
contract. But as you are unknown and it us we who are taking a risk,
we will require a fee of £x thousand to cover our costs.' (Trust
me, I have this twice already!)
Let us
suppose that you do get lucky - even if you have to pay two and half
grand for the privilege -
you will
(or should) be assigned an editor to work exclusively with you. Yeah,
right. Said editor will then send you copious notes, memos, mails and
messages to 'cut this', 'rewrite that', 'too
graphic, can you tone it down?' and so on. My author friends
will have seen all those – and more! Some suggestions may well be
good, but many will be eating at the heart of your book, taking away
the impact you intended to make.
And then
these publishers don't always produce your perfect book properly. A
friend of mine was commissioned to write a factual book about pirates
and when the hardback eventually came out in hardback, it contained
over 250 typos!!! And this damages the author more than the
publisher. Later, when working on another factual book about
smugglers, she was asked, at the last minute to cut the word count by
some 15,000 swords! If you'll pardon the pun, even being accepted by
a publisher is not plain sailing …..Oh – and that beautiful cover
designed by your cousin's best friend will almost certainly be
discarded in favour of whatever the publisher has decided is more
appropriate. You have no choice.
So the
alternative is to go Indie. What does this mean? Probably that
writing your book has been the easiest part so far. First, get it
proof/beta read, Employ a private but professional editor. If you
have used illustrations are they copyright free?. Employ a
professional cover designer. Organise printing of a hard/paperback
and ensure the formatting of e-books. Set a reasonable price. Get it
onto Amazon.
Obviously
this will cost money – probably at least as much as you might have
paid to a publisher. But there is one major difference: you have
complete control over the content of your book.
And if
that is not enough, then you will be responsible for all publicity
essentials. In this day and age, we can thank Social Media for
existence. A Facebook page, continual tweets ad a personal Blog
where you can pug to your heart's content. All of the authors I knew
have these and use it. But, you see, there is a 'network' of Indie
authors – you promote them and their books and they will advertise
yours with just as much enthusiasm.
That's
why I support Indie authors. They do it all and stick together. I
admire them immensely and, you know what? They are all actually nice
people!
And now I
am wholeheartedly, unapologetically and unashamedly going to mark
your card with a list of those author's who have really impressed me
with the standard of their books. I will point out that these are
authors of historical fiction as that is my 'field', but that covers
anything from Ancient Greece to World War II.
All of
these authors can be found on Amazon and there are links to their
Blogs on my 'LINKS' page.
So here's
the list:
Helen
Hollick – best known for her Sea Witch pirate
adventure series but also a trilogy about King Arthur, two books of
events around 1066 and two factual books about Pirates and Smugglers.
Annie
Whitehead – author of three wonderful books of Anglo Saxon
England and a factual book tracing the history of Mercia.
Anna
Belfrage – 3 different series; two involve 'timeslip'
adventures and a third tackling the difficult times of Edward II,
Mortimer, Dispenser and Edward III
Alison
Morton – creator of the fabulous Roma Nova series, a
small republic somewhere in Europe run by descendants of the
survivors of the old Roman Empire
Mercedes
Rochelle – author of the Sons of Godwin series and a new
trilogy about Richard II
Susan
Grossey – The Sam Plank series of about a magistrates
constable set in London just before the formation of the Metropolitan
Police.
Lucienne
Boyce – Dan Foster is a Bow street runner in this great series
Wendy
Percival – Family History investigator. Set in present times
but has a lot of historical content.
Kara
Pohlkamp – Dark and mysterious fantasy set in Tudor times
Derek
Birks – Wars of the Roses expert and author of the Ned Elder
series
Philip
Allan – author of the Alexander Clay series, in the
style of Hornblower, Bolitho etc.
N L
Collier – great series about WWI as seen from the German side
of things
JG
Harlond – Political intrigue and skulduggery in her Chosen
Man series
Deborah
Swift – series about the ladies in the life of Mr Pepys
Matthew
Harffy – His Bernicia Chronicles have been taken up by a
publisher although the first books were Indie published. As good as
Cornwall? Find out!
Apologies
to anyone I have missed – there are just so many of you great
writers out there!
And some
individual books I heartily recommend:
Kimberley
Jordan Reeman – Coronach, Gritty, no punches pulled
story of life in the Highlands following the Clearances. My personal
Book of 2019. *see my Review Page
Paul
Marriner – The Blue Bench. Post WWI story of a man
struggling with disfigurement from the trenches, set in the seaside
town of Margate *see my Review Page
Marla
Skidmore – Renaissance. A very different take on the
story of Richard III and how he copes with death *see my Review Page
Jan
Harvey – The Slow Death of Maxwell Carrick. Dual
timeline mystery story
James
Remmer – Out of Mecklenberg. Thriller set in Germany
during World War II
Shaun
Ivory – Friends of my Father. Tense thriller set in
Ireland in 1942 *see my Review Page
Elizabeth
Chadwick – The Greatest Knight. Fabulous story of
William Marshall, faithful servant to four Kings of England
This is
but a mere handful, hopefully to whet your appetites. All of these
(and many many more) have been reviewed on Discovering Diamonds Blog
Spot
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