Growing up my family moved around a lot. My Dad served in the Army and every 2-3 years he would get orders to a new base and we would pack all our things, load them on a big truck and move on to a new place. When I was about 13 or 14 my Dad was stationed at Fort Drum, in upstate New York and during our first winter we learned that "lake effect" snow isn't like any other snow we'd ever experienced before. The first time it snowed took my Mom, brother and I, the better part of three hours to shovel out our driveway. Of course, after all that work there was some serious fort building that followed. My brother and I quickly became the Official Snow Fort Engineers for the block.
Coincidentally, this was also the time in my life when I started writing. I wrote a story called “The Final Frontier” in a one-subject notebook with a red cover. I've kept it in a black briefcase and carried it around with me wherever I've moved. As you can see it was TOP SECRET, and it will remain as such. Likewise, its sequel “Armada” (which I also still have) will remained stored in an unmarked box in the garage. I never submitted these outstanding pieces of literary history--the market just wasn't ready for them. (And I had no idea where I'd submit them even if I'd wanted to.) Had I submitted them, I have no doubt they would have been picked up by any number of agents or publishers...and promptly thrown in the nearest dumpster.
Where was I?
Oh yeah, New York.
Unfortunately for our Snow Fort Engineering Career, winter doesn't last all year--even though sometimes it seemed that way and we had to find other ways to have fun. Luckily for us, warm weather brought with it baseball, and that meant plenty of afternoons watching the Watertown Indians play. This farm team for the Cleveland Indians, played in a small stadium, had a dirt parking lot and most importantly; had hot dogs that weren't $15.
The Minor Leagues were just as enjoyable as the Major League games we went to and we could go to a lot more simply because they were cheaper. Interestingly enough, in all the games I went to, I never heard anyone say they would rather be at a big league game or that they wouldn't come to another game or that the game-play was sub-par to the Majors. Sure, much of young talent still learning but they were honing their skills and putting the work in to get better.
For every Major League athlete making $50K a game, there are a hundred Minor League athletes making $100 a game. It doesn't necessarily mean they are worse players either; the right scout just hasn’t seen them at the right time. Indie authors, in my opinion, fit into this category.
For every big name author out there, there are hundreds of midlist writers just getting their start. Hell, some aren’t even on a list. They put their time in, sitting in front of blank computer screens, furiously typing away for hours before holding the backspace key down and deleting everything. Then they start again. The process is the same for Indie authors and traditional authors, well mostly. Write, edit, rewrite, edit, delete, write, edit, and publish.
There seems to be a lot of resentment of Indie authors, I read a blog post the other day that said independent authors shouldn’t call themselves “authors”. Really? I'm sure that every person playing on the Watertown Indians considers themselves a baseball player! It's not like they have to score a specific amount of home runs before they can call themselves a real baseball player.
What's difficult for me to understand about people not liking Indie authors is that the "indie scene" has been around for years. Ever heard of the Sundance Film Festival? I've seen many Independant Films that blow the socks off most of the movies coming out of Hollywood these days. That not good enough for you? How about music; I Googled "indie music festival" and only got around 114 MILLION hits. I’m sure, the person singing in a cover band downtown at your local bar considers themselves a singer. So why do so many people look down on Indie Authors? Even with the amount of Indies that publishers are picking up and the amount of midlist authors putting out great books, there is still this stigma surrounding it.
I don’t like the phrase “self-publish” because what we do is much more than just “publish,”, but I am a proud Indie. I also don’t like to call myself an author (not yet anyway, maybe someday); I’m a writer. But I'm a writer putting in work now so one day I can call myself an Indie Author, and when I do I'll be proud to do it.
The Minor leagues is a great place to be and with the tools and resources like CreateSpace and Amazon and Nook available right now, it’s a great time to be here. And most hot dogs (or books) are only $3 or less.
Below is a list of some great Indie Authors, writers that put in hard work and are creating great books, check them out and show your support!
www.journal.michealbunker.com
www.scottmoonwriter.com
www.samanthalafantasie.com
www.jasongurley.com
http://www.hughhowey.com/
http://www.jakonrath.com/
Coincidentally, this was also the time in my life when I started writing. I wrote a story called “The Final Frontier” in a one-subject notebook with a red cover. I've kept it in a black briefcase and carried it around with me wherever I've moved. As you can see it was TOP SECRET, and it will remain as such. Likewise, its sequel “Armada” (which I also still have) will remained stored in an unmarked box in the garage. I never submitted these outstanding pieces of literary history--the market just wasn't ready for them. (And I had no idea where I'd submit them even if I'd wanted to.) Had I submitted them, I have no doubt they would have been picked up by any number of agents or publishers...and promptly thrown in the nearest dumpster.
Where was I?
Oh yeah, New York.
Unfortunately for our Snow Fort Engineering Career, winter doesn't last all year--even though sometimes it seemed that way and we had to find other ways to have fun. Luckily for us, warm weather brought with it baseball, and that meant plenty of afternoons watching the Watertown Indians play. This farm team for the Cleveland Indians, played in a small stadium, had a dirt parking lot and most importantly; had hot dogs that weren't $15.
The Minor Leagues were just as enjoyable as the Major League games we went to and we could go to a lot more simply because they were cheaper. Interestingly enough, in all the games I went to, I never heard anyone say they would rather be at a big league game or that they wouldn't come to another game or that the game-play was sub-par to the Majors. Sure, much of young talent still learning but they were honing their skills and putting the work in to get better.
For every Major League athlete making $50K a game, there are a hundred Minor League athletes making $100 a game. It doesn't necessarily mean they are worse players either; the right scout just hasn’t seen them at the right time. Indie authors, in my opinion, fit into this category.
For every big name author out there, there are hundreds of midlist writers just getting their start. Hell, some aren’t even on a list. They put their time in, sitting in front of blank computer screens, furiously typing away for hours before holding the backspace key down and deleting everything. Then they start again. The process is the same for Indie authors and traditional authors, well mostly. Write, edit, rewrite, edit, delete, write, edit, and publish.
There seems to be a lot of resentment of Indie authors, I read a blog post the other day that said independent authors shouldn’t call themselves “authors”. Really? I'm sure that every person playing on the Watertown Indians considers themselves a baseball player! It's not like they have to score a specific amount of home runs before they can call themselves a real baseball player.
What's difficult for me to understand about people not liking Indie authors is that the "indie scene" has been around for years. Ever heard of the Sundance Film Festival? I've seen many Independant Films that blow the socks off most of the movies coming out of Hollywood these days. That not good enough for you? How about music; I Googled "indie music festival" and only got around 114 MILLION hits. I’m sure, the person singing in a cover band downtown at your local bar considers themselves a singer. So why do so many people look down on Indie Authors? Even with the amount of Indies that publishers are picking up and the amount of midlist authors putting out great books, there is still this stigma surrounding it.
I don’t like the phrase “self-publish” because what we do is much more than just “publish,”, but I am a proud Indie. I also don’t like to call myself an author (not yet anyway, maybe someday); I’m a writer. But I'm a writer putting in work now so one day I can call myself an Indie Author, and when I do I'll be proud to do it.
The Minor leagues is a great place to be and with the tools and resources like CreateSpace and Amazon and Nook available right now, it’s a great time to be here. And most hot dogs (or books) are only $3 or less.
Below is a list of some great Indie Authors, writers that put in hard work and are creating great books, check them out and show your support!
www.journal.michealbunker.com
www.scottmoonwriter.com
www.samanthalafantasie.com
www.jasongurley.com
http://www.hughhowey.com/
http://www.jakonrath.com/
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