I have been debating the gender issues in the perception of books for a while now, and I have finally made a decision.

Joanna Penn is now J.F.Penn for thrillers/action-adventure/ anything I write that is in a genre that is dominated by men.

I will use Joanna Penn for my non-fiction and other works I have in the pipeline. Why am I doing this?

Feedback and reviews that I write like a man

Pentecost and Prophecy have some pretty violent scenes. I burn a nun to death on the funeral pyres of Varanasi and disembowel a psychiatric patient in the first few chapters.

It’s not horror but it is thriller with a high body count and I make no apologies for that.

I like action movies. I like Lee Child’s Jack Reacher. I love James Bond. In fact, one day, I’d like to be the first female writer to pen a Bond novel – move over Jeffrey Deaver! But apparently it’s worthy of comment when a woman writes this type of thing.

Here’s a comment I received by email about Pentecost.  ‘It seems funny knowing you – I would definitely have thought the book was written by a man…”

and a lovely review stated:

“…this kind of sprawling, globe trotting, religious themed, action adventure thriller is historically the province of men; retired marines, mercenaries or CIA analysts. Or Dan Brown. It’s what you expect. And Joanna is, self evidently to my well trained eye, a woman. So then my not entirely foolish expectation when perusing her first novel was of something a little more, you know, delicate in character….But wow, beneath her pleasant and chirpy demeanour lurks the black heart of a terrorist interrogator, a fearless adventurer.” [Thanks for the great review Phil!]

Thriller novelists need to know how to shoot!

I don’t mind being compared to a man. It doesn’t offend me. In fact, I find it kind of liberating.

But I don’t want any consideration of my gender to come up when someone reads my books. I want them to have a great fun read and escape the world for a time.

So if changing my name to initials stops any second thoughts, then it’s worth it.

Pentecost at #5 on Action Adventure list

Evidence that the categories I want to rank in are dominated by male names

As I write this, both Pentecost and Prophecy are in the Top 100 Action Adventure titles for the first time. (#5 and #82 respectively but you know it changes every hour!)

I’m excited as this is a category I like to rank in. I also rank consistently in Religious Fiction which is a more varied category.

Action Adventure is certainly male dominated. Stieg Larsson, George R.R. Martin, John Locke, Steve Berry, Clive Cussler, Lee Goldberg, Tom Anthony, J.A. Konrath… these are the names from the Top 20 as I read them right now. There are a few scattered female names but it’s an overwhelmingly male group.

I don’t know whether there are more male readers in this category. I certainly buy these authors but I don’t think women readers are that hung up on the gender of the author. But apparently men are and they are less likely to buy from a female name. Feel free to say otherwise, male blog readers!

Men also get more attention and reviews. But I won’t be changing my gender, for now at least!

Evidence of other female writers who use initials or male names

A number of women writers of successful women writers use initials. The reader doesn’t know who they are until they look behind the curtain which, I think, is how it should be.

• NYT bestselling thriller author C.J. Lyons
• Baroness P.D. James, whose honours come from services to literature and who is still putting books out aged 92. ‘Children of Men’ seriously rocked.
• J.K. Rowling. A woman in a man’s fantasy world.
• Romance author Nora Roberts turned into J.D.Robb for her suspense/crime novels, a more male dominated genre
• Others include M.J.Rose, J.T.Ellison…I could go on…

Using a male name is an option. A now-famous example in the blogging world is James Chartrand who came out as a woman on Copyblogger.com after years of writing as a man. Her business is ‘Men With Pens‘ and writing as a man totally changed her business. I’ll be interviewing James on the podcast and we’ll discuss this further.

Does it matter?

The author doesn’t matter. The reader matters.

The author’s gender shouldn’t impact the way the story is read so it’s best to make it a non-issue. Initials are neutral. They have no gender bias and I like that approach.

I know there will be some people who disagree. But I do consider myself a feminist in the truly inclusive sense of the word. Men and women are different but equal and we should all have the same opportunities. I want to be a bestselling, name brand author. This will clearly take some time but I don’t want my gender to be an issue either way as I write the books I want to write.

What do you think about gender in publishing? Are initials acceptable for women to write under? Are male buyers influenced by a female author name?

Related posts:

1. Writing A Series: 7 Continuation Issues To Avoid If you want to construct a writing career that spans...
2. Protected: Novelist Academy Pro Writer Module 1: Traditional Publishing There is no excerpt because this is a protected post....

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

The indie publishing world continues in constant flux but a new strident voice has recently appeared on the scene. Today David Gaughran shares his story.

David Gaughran is the author of historical novel ‘A Storm Hits Valparaiso’ as well as several short story collections. He has also published ‘Let’s get digital: How to self-publish and why you should‘.  [Video at the end of the post]

• How David got started. He’s been writing for a long time but in 2005 he started seriously writing with the aim of publication. After a few attempts, he started historical novel A Storm Hits Valparaiso. He sent it out to agents and publishers as well as working on it to improve it over a number of years. After 18 months he was feeling quite down about the project and the continued rejection. In Christmas 2010, he heard from a NY agent who was interested, but then he never heard from him again. This is not an unusual story but David felt disappointed and in a negative place.

• It was around this time that Barry Eisler walked away from $0.5 million and then Amanda Hocking got her $2.5 million deal. This made David notice indie publishing and so he investigated further. On KindleBoards he found authors who weren’t household names but they were making a living from their books. Most of these authors were unpublished and unknown before going indie. Realizing one book is not enough, he started writing short stories and put them up on Kindle. He found the joy of writing again and decided that indie was the most empowering way.

• How David’s blog Let’s Get Digital has been his journey into indie and self-publishing. He started it at a time when self-publishing was going mainstream but his regular posts and strong opinions have made it a must read blog for those interested in the industry.

• On Amazon KDP Select. David personally doesn’t think it’s a good idea but for some writers, it is clearly a good thing.
  
• On subscription based reading. Readers will be offered a system for a monthly fee and they get a certain number of books for free. This will become a dominant model. It’s important to keep control of pricing as this is a key competitive advantage for indies. When we compete for the same amount in a pot we lose control of pricing and this is the bad side of KDP Select.

• Is anyone challenging Amazon at this point? Nook is up for sale but it may be bought by a company that can aggressively roll it out worldwide. Kobo was bought by a large Japanese company which is strong in places Amazon is weak. In the US, Amazon are pretty entrenched. But e-reading is bring a renaissance in reading as it’s so much easier to experience and generally cheaper.

Since David and I talked, Apple has come out with the iBooks Author program. It has excited some people but others have been upset about its terms and conditions.

• Europe and ebooks. There’s a huge difference between countries with a Kindle store and those that don’t. Also holding back the dominance of ebooks is VAT or sales tax. There isn’t tax on print books in many countries (UK included) but there is on ebooks. This means print can be cheaper. There’s also an additional cost if you don’t have a Kindle store for your country. But the ebook market is still growing at a phenomenal rate so the revolution will happen, it’s just a bit slower. I mention India again – Amazon are opening a distribution warehouseand often the next step is a Kindle store. We shall see! But Brazil will likely be before that. Back on the subscription model, David thinks there will be free devices if people sign up for the subscription, as we already see in cell phone packages.
  

  Cheap print books mean slower uptake of ebooks

• What are indie publishers still getting wrong? They are getting better but the basics are still wrong. People need to spend more money on editing and cover design. The blurb has to be good. The front matter needs to be in the back of the book. The reader needs to be grabbed in the sample. Don’t wait. People say they can’t afford $1000 for the professionals but you have to do it in order to have a quality product. Or barter or find some way to get the money. Don’t go into debt but you have to make sacrifices. You need a pro editor and a pro designer. You need fantastic blurb. It has to be perfect. Skimping on these things is the worst thing you can do. You’ll end up spending more later otherwise. You will lose readers unless you produce a professional product. Your competition is every other book on Amazon. It’s about reading time – why should they give it to you?

• On marketing. It’s the old saying, 50% of marketing works, but you don’t know which 50%. You have to try a bit of everything and see what happens. Look at what others are doing. You don’t have to do everything and nothing guarantees success. See what works for you and your readers. Pricing is different in the genres. One thing is important – set up Google Alerts on your name, book title and more. Using free is a great marketing tool so definitely have that in your arsenal. It’s gives you more exposure.

• In 2012, David sees the traditional publishers following suit with indie tactics e.g. pricing cheap or free. They are now getting to grips with pricing as a tool rather than the emotional value vs price. Subscription models and e-readers priced at zero if they include ads. Everything will get cheaper but the average price of self-published work is now going up, so we’ll see what happens. Indie is a bit like day trading now with calculations on free and when to enter price points and leave them again. It’s an exciting time, there are new people entering the market all the time.

• ‘A Storm Hits Valparaiso’ has now been indie published and is available on Kindle. Yeah! David has no interest in a traditional publishing deal for digital as he wants to see what he can achieve on his own. However, we are both interested in a print deal or a foreign rights deal, but for ebooks, it’s worth trying alone

You can find David at his site Let’s Get Digital and on twitter @davidgaughran

Related posts:

1. Six Figure Indie Publishing With Robin Sullivan Robin Sullivan is one of the indie publishing evangelists who...
2. The Importance Of Indie Books With Indie Reader Amy Edelman Earlier this week, I defined what I think an indie...
3. Self-Publishing And The Definition Of An Indie Author I’ve been at two publishing conferences in the last week...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

In the first podcast of the 2012, I discuss The Domino Project with Ishita Gupta who has worked with Seth Godin on this exciting publishing experiment. [Video version at the end of the post along with notes].

In the introduction, I also announce the publication of my latest novel, Prophecy. It’s currently in ‘soft launch’ phase as I gather reviews. Other achievements in 2011 include: The Creative Penn made the Top 10 Blogs for Writers for the 2nd year running. Pentecost has sold over 16,000 copies. I have moved continents from Australia to London and also quit my consulting job for full-time author-entrepreneur status. I also discuss some of my goals for 2012 and some publishing rumours about Apple.

Ishita Gupta has helped create 6 bestselling books as Head of Hoopla for The Domino Project, Seth Godin’s publishing experiment. She also runs Fear.less online magazine, described as Fast Company meets Oprah.

• How Ishita got started with her online magazine, Fearless, and as a participant in Seth Godin’s alternative MBA course. She had previously learned about stories and how powerful they can be. The alternative MBA introduced her to all the real-world necessities for running a business online. There are so many aspects to a business: personal initiative, writing, marketing, sales and much more. Working with Seth meant things took off.

• Ishita and I wax lyrical about the opportunities of the internet these days. We’re both so excited!

• On the Domino Project, a publishing experiment. It was a short project and here’s Seth’s post on lessons learned from it (must read!) It was powered by Amazon so they partnered with Seth to publish the books which were all short, inspiring business books. The main difference was the internet which means speed and targeted marketing as well as mass distribution. They produced a book a month and brought them to market much more swiftly than traditional publisher. But Domino was still a ‘traditional’ publisher in terms of curation, editing, design, marketing etc.

• Domino targeted Seth’s tribe by writing books for them – entrepreneurs, marketers, business people. The aim was to make books that people want to buy, aimed at that market and building in the ideas of the internet. [Note: this tribe includes me - I bought most of the Domino books & have all Seth's books, so I know this works!]

• Failure is hugely important in order to push the envelope on what you can achieve. Domino was trying to teach that there is not only one way to publish. Embracing change is important in publishing but people are scared of their system disappearing. Authors do have more power these days. They can create their own lists, they can be their own sales & marketing force, you can speak directly to readers. It does beg the question – what can a traditional publisher provide? If that’s the question, you have to be able to differentiate yourself. [Note: we love publishing in all its forms and we want to help them through!]

Quote from Seth from his lessons learned post: “If you’re an author, pick yourself. Don’t wait for a publisher to pick you. And if you work for a big publishing house, think really hard about the economics of starting your own permission-based ebook publisher. Now’s the time.”

• On permission marketing and having your own list. A lot of the authors for Domino had their own list already and it is a critical part of book marketing. However, clearly people can achieve without a huge list but in general, you need a communication channel to your readership. But it shouldn’t be me, me, me; it should be more attraction marketing when you create value and people come to you. That is the asset of a list or a blog. You can then see how word of mouth makes a difference these days. Specificity is everywhere on the internet so you have so much choice. People need a way to find things, so be useful and people will come to you. Time and attention are scarce and your recommendations can cut through the noise if you build your list. [Check out How you can build your own email list here]

• Other book marketing techniques. The online media tour / virtual book tour means you schedule online appearances in a specific period. Ishita talks about the process and you can see Seth’s Book 2.0 media tour here from Linchpin. Traditional media was used but mainly picked up the stories from the web. The default was web first, you can control, measure and see direct results. [You can see my slightly smaller launch for Pentecost here.]
  

• Creating an opt-in list specific to books is also a good idea, even before you have the book ready. [I did this for Prophecy, check out how to do it here]

• Ishita is now working with authors on book marketing and will definitely be staying in publishing. She has some information products coming out. She is also continuing to build Fearless magazine which has morphed over the years but tackles these difficult issues.

You can find Ishita at IshitaGupta.com and at FearlessStories.com and on Twitter @ishitagupta

Related posts:

1. The Future Of Books And Publishing In the last week there have been two great audio...
2. The Flinch, Newsjacking And Digital Publishing The Flinch is the instinct to draw back and shrink...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Independent publishing is partly about how we creatively express our words in print. In this video interview, I discuss the brilliant ways in which adventurer Alastair Humphreys has published his latest travel book, There Are Other Rivers.

Alastair Humphreys is an adventurer, an author and motivational speaker. This year he has been nominated for National Geographic’s Adventurer of the Year.

• Alastair talks about his trip across southern India following a holy river. The book is more of a rumination on traveling and the journey. I loved the book and absolutely recommend it if you have wanderlust.

• Alastair discusses the reasons why he became an adventurer. The personal challenge and achievement as well as the fun.

• The various incarnations of the book: it’s a full size map, a paperback, a hardback photography coffee table book as well as an ebook and app plus print on demand.

• Alastair used FoldedSheet.com to produce the map and you can buy one here. He used Blurb.com for the coffee table book and iPad app, and Createspace for the paperback. I am totally inspired by this and want to make one myself I really believe the future of print is beautiful limited edition pieces.

• How Alastair has been anti-ebooks until recently but has now converted to a Kindle. He’s even taking one on his row across the Atlantic in January. Why ebooks are great value for money.

• How Alastair has moved from traditional publishing into self-publishing for this book and will blend the two in the future. It was about a truly independent project from the walk alone through the publishing process alone. The various creative print options were also easier alone and much faster than working with a traditional publisher.

• Planning for 2012. Alastair is leaving next week to row across the Atlantic and is taking his Kindle with him. He’s also planning to make it to the South Pole. You can follow his journeys on his site and also on Twitter. Yes, Al is available for inspirational speaking globally!

You can find Alastair at his site AlastairHumphreys.com and also on twitter @Al_Humphreys

Related posts:

1. Print On Demand Publishing Empowers Creation In the last few months I have helped my 9...
2. Ebook or Print Book? Why Do You Have to Choose? This is a guest post from Susan Daffron, The Book...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

We all need mentors, people who inspire us and help us along the journey. Mine have often been within the pages of books and I have journals of notes from their collective wisdom over the years. But now I have one in person!

I have followed Orna Ross on her Creative Intelligence blog and then amazingly we bumped into each other in The London Library, a great creative space to work. In only a short time, she has helped me find some clarity about my own writing as well as kicking my butt in her truly wonderful Irish style. I’m excited to introduce you to her today!

Orna Ross is a novelist, non-fiction writer and poet. Previously published by Penguin, she is now exploring the delights of being an indie author of fiction, nonfiction and poetry, as well as adapting her last novel for screen. Her research interest is in creative intelligence – what it is and how to cultivate it.

In the video interview, we discuss:

• How Orna’s publishing career progressed from being traditionally published with Penguin, a #2 bestseller and sold in the supermarkets to taking control of her books by going independent.

• How the publishing business has changed in the last 15 years so that it isn’t so great for midlist authors. When traditionally published, creative control was taken away and particularly with supermarket sales, the author’s opinion isn’t taken into account. It was more about chasing the bottom line rather than investing in a writer over the longer term. Orna felt the book wasn’t branded in the way the book was actually written. So it’s very exciting to be able to independently publish now so she can reach the people who will enjoy the book.

• How Orna started with a meditation book and a poetry book in order to practice with the self-publishing formats, and now she is indie publishing Lover’s Hollow which is now called ‘After the Rising’ and will be out on the Kindle soon. It’s focused on what happened after Ireland gained independence from Britain and the problems of a small village. It’s part murder mystery, part love story that spans three generations. It explores silence and liberation, what happens after the moment of revolution and the story spans Ireland and San Francisco. It’s literary in the tradition of great language, serious themes and a long time in the considered writing but the main aim was to write a good story which the reviews did bear out.

• Orna also writes a lot about creativity – check out her Creative Intelligence blog. The bond with the inner self is critical. You have to protect that side of yourself and nurture that. We are all creative, it’s a human given. The key to more creativity is to understand what you need in order to feel connected to your inner life. Meditation is one effective way of doing that. Our education system is still grounded in the industrial revolution but we’re now in the information age and we need to change the way we view creativity. Luckily we now have a lot of ways to learn online so we can change our patterns.

• What Orna has learned about marketing now she has to do it all herself. She started with blogging and has found it to be the most revolutionising thing she’s done as a writer so far and it’s been brilliant. It has given her a community and readers who get what she is about. She also loves Twitter @ornaross. But even as a traditionally published author, she did have to do a lot herself. Orna will do a slow 3 month launch process. It’s great as an indie to be entirely in charge so she’s going to launch the book in San Francisco as well as Dublin and London.

• Indie is so important because of the long tail and the fact nothing ever goes out of print and you can keep selling. This didn’t happen before. A launch period is not so important when discovery can happen over time now and you can still be found years later.  

You can find Orna at her website & blog www.OrnaRoss.com and on Twitter @ornaross

You can buy ‘After The Rising’ on Amazon.com & Amazon.co.uk now as well as Orna’s poetry and other books.

My review from Amazon:

The book opens as Jo Devereux arrives in a little village in Ireland for her mother’s funeral. She hasn’t been back for 20 years and the internal conflict Jo faces mark the start of this saga than spans generations. This is a beautifully written story that will draw you in and make you desperate for the sequel.

Why read this book?
* You want to know Jo’s story as the setting flicks from her years growing up in Mucknamore, her doomed love for Rory and her escape from the claustrophobic Irish village. Jo’s need for independence resonated with me and her anguish in the present timeframe makes for compelling reading.
* There are mysteries in the book, open loops in the lives of the players that fascinate and make you read on.
* I’m not Irish and my knowledge of Ireland’s civil war is practically non-existent. This is, in part, a historical novel about a time in Ireland that few speak of so it was fascinating to read more about it from the perspectives of the characters involved. I also appreciated the effective use of language which is accessible to non-Irish readers but still gives a lovely cadence to the read. The dialogue is expertly done.
Recommended if you enjoy contemporary fiction with a historical thread.

Related posts:

1. Six Figure Indie Publishing With Robin Sullivan Robin Sullivan is one of the indie publishing evangelists who...
2. On Leaving Traditional Publishing For EBook Sales Success With LJ Sellers It’s exciting to hear about independent authors making a living...
3. Self-Publishing And The Definition Of An Indie Author I’ve been at two publishing conferences in the last week...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Earlier this week, I defined what I think an indie author is and in today’s interview we further explore what indie books are. In the intro I discuss how my next novel Prophecy is going as well as some of the takeaways from the #FutureBook conference that authors will find interesting.

Amy Edelman is the author of 3 books and the founder of IndieReader.com, the essential guide to self-published books and the people who write them. She has also started the Indie Reader Discovery Awards.

In this interview, we discuss:

• How Amy got started with her own books. She had an agent but originally self-published The Fashion Industry Resource Book and then The Little Black Dress, a fashion history book, was published by Simon & Schuster. “It was the best of times and it was the worst of times” in terms of experiences with traditional publishing. Amy has also written a memoir/novel but her day-job has been PR & marketing.

• She started Indie Reader after reading about the state of self-publishing and the growth in the market. There are obviously good books to be found but traditional publishing houses weren’t picking them up. Branding an entire category of books as ‘not worthy’ seemed short-sighted especially based on the success of indie film and indie music, so indie books were just waiting to happen. Indie books needed to be branded in a way so that the book lover could see that incredible books are available but in a separate category. It’s different but not inferior.
• The site is designed as more of a consumer guide to self-published books. The main goal is to be a Rolling Stone magazine for indie books. It’s not just mainstream fiction but also art books, comics and lots of other types of books. Indie is a wide field full of people who are creating.

• Indie is really about control. You get to decide what you want as the cover and how you market it. People should feel empowered. Traditional publishing does offer new authors a lot but it isn’t the fantasy of huge advances and book tours, fame and fortune. A lot of indie authors are working very hard and doing the PR & marketing themselves, taking the risks themselves.
• An indie book is when an author has published it themselves. The book can’t have been published before as that means a lot of help has already been given. A traditionally published author with a new indie book is still indie.

• Has the stigma of self-publishing gone away yet? People couldn’t tell you who publishes the books they read, they don’t care but they would still decide it was bad if they knew it was self-published. Claiming the word ‘indie’ is better as ‘self-publishing’ as a term is forever tainted. Within the ‘indie’ group there are also lots of differences – there are writers who understand you need editing, it helps if you have a great cover – there are certain things you need to do, not just write. The quality is unbelievable for those indies taking it seriously.

• Great indie books are the same as any other type of good book. Indie Reader is looking for books that aren’t the same as traditionally published books but there are also a lot of books that could be found on any bookstore shelf. There is quality across the board. Good writing, strong characters, imaginative story is the same whatever. IndieReader is aiming to aid discovery of great books that others might not know about.

• Readers don’t know anymore who is publishing the book. The consumer doesn’t know or care what is indie. The NY Times list contains indie books but they seem not to notice.

• Media don’t cover self-published books as there is no money in it. Traditional publishers advertise so it comes down to money. Mainstream media need the dollars. But the consumer wants a good book.

• On the Indie Reader discovery awards. The thing that makes the competition stand out are the judges who are the top people in the industry including agents, publishers, book reviewers. The important thing is discoverability and this gives authors a chance. Most indies are interested in a traditional deal, they want to be offered it even if they wouldn’t accept it.

• On discoverability and marketing. It’s so hard to get attention. Even if you get some really big media, it might not result in sales. It’s important for everything to look professional and you need to have author contact information available. There’s lots of things that aren’t worth paying for, like a book trailer. It doesn’t cost anything to build a large twitter or facebook following. You can’t just be a writer anymore, even if you’re traditionally published. You need to be a business person and a PR person as well as a writer these days.

• Not every writer can be as prolific as John Locke. It’s a different kind of success than a literary novel that takes a lot of years with no backup novel coming up soon after. The multi-book model doesn’t work for everyone. You need to define your own success. I talk about meeting the financial amount that I would have got (potentially) as an advance but I made it my way. As an indie, you end up with a book that is all your vision. There is no bad genre. It’s about what book lovers will enjoy.

• Amy talks about how she has discovered the Kindle recently and how the next 6-12 months will take ebook reading mainstream as it reaches a market who may have been resistant before. Print books won’t go away but ebooks will continue the march onwards.

You can find Amy at IndieReader.com and on Twitter @indiereader.

You can find the Indie Reader Discovery Awards here.

Related posts:

1. Self-Publishing And The Definition Of An Indie Author I’ve been at two publishing conferences in the last week...
2. Six Figure Indie Publishing With Robin Sullivan Robin Sullivan is one of the indie publishing evangelists who...
3. Why Should The Reader Care About Your Story? It’s almost NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and I hope...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

I’ve been at two publishing conferences in the last week and it’s evident that myths and misconceptions abound when it comes to independent authors and self-publishing.

Book Machine’s Publishing Now even had a debate on the motion “Self-publishing is devaluing publishing.” In a heated discussion afterwards, I could see that the definition of ‘indie’ as it applies to authors is still misunderstood. Of course, when mainstream publishers like Penguin announce their own self-publishing arms, it can be difficult to know what the hell is going on!

This is further demonstrated in the leaked Hachette internal memo on the relevance of publishing companies where they equate self-publishing with just digital distribution, which we (hopefully) all know is only the final step in the process. Joe Konrath & Barry Eisler respond with their comments here which is worth a read.

Eisler defines self-publishing: ‘it means you keep the rights to your book and publish it yourself using distributor/retailers like Amazon, Apple, B&N, Kobo, Smashwords, and Sony, typically retaining 70% of the cover price instead of the 17.5% offered by legacy publishers (for digital editions). This isn’t what “most people” mean when they say self-publishing; it’s what everybody means when they say self-publishing.

But it’s true that to many people self-publishing means bad quality books with no editing published by one of the vanity presses and the main concern is that this crap is flooding the world and readers can’t find quality in the mass of rubbish. I know these books do exist but I hope you agree that we can do a lot better than that these days. I also believe that readers are the new gatekeepers so sales online, reviews and rankings will ensure that the cream rises and bad stuff drops out of the picture.

The term ‘indie author’ has been increasingly claimed by authors who want a new label, one that does justice to the work involved.

This is my take on the subject but please add your comments and thoughts as it is definitely a moving target and no doubt there will be continued debate on it. I do mean for this to be an inclusive definition and you may sit somewhere on the spectrum of indie or you may be traditionally published. People have different aims for their books and their writing careers and I respect your choices, I just wanted to add to the debate!

Indie author means truly independent

At its most basic, indie means there is no separate publisher involved. Many indies may have setup their own micro-press, so their books still have a publisher name that is not the author’s name but the publisher is not one of the author services companies. The indie author most likely owns their own ISBNs. The indie pays the bills and is paid by the distributors e.g. Amazon/Smashwords directly. The only middleman is the distributor.

There has been a blurring of the line between indie author and indie publisher that seems to be mostly related to size and scope of the business. I am an indie publisher of my own books so it’s basically the same thing as being an indie author, but there are small & midsize independent publishing houses who don’t like the term indie being used for people like me. However, there are increasing numbers of micro-businesses being set up by authors who also publish other author’s books so these perhaps count as indie publishers.

Indies are entrepreneurs and business-people

The Creative Penn is a limited company. My books and this site as well as my speaking are a business. I have an accountant and I do monthly accounts. I monitor cash-flow, income and expenses. Indie authors may not all have such a developed business but they treat their writing and publishing in a business-like manner. That means they have to think about financials but also sales & marketing as well as production on top of the creative side. They basically act like a small press and can be defined as micro-entrepreneurs.

This entrepreneurial attitude also spills into why people go indie in the first place. We like speed and we like control. Taking action and seeing what works comes naturally, and jumping into new media, new technologies and opportunities is part of what we do. By the time I had written my first novel, I already had a platform so it was worth the experiment to publish immediately and see what happened. As the great entrepreneurs say, fail fast, fail often and then go with what works.

Indies employ professionals as publishing involves teamwork

We all need editors!

I understand how the term self-publishing can be judged as a misnomer because we don’t do it all ourselves. We have a team in the same way big publishers do.

One of the biggest criticisms of self-publishing is the poor quality of the finished product which is why it’s important to take these extra steps.

As indies, we budget for and employ professional editors, professional designers and formatters for digital and print books. We know the value of our work includes the way it is perceived on the page as well as the work itself. I have always used an editor but I am definitely guilty of doing a lot more myself with my earlier books (which at some point I will re-publish). No more. The charge of bad quality is one we can avoid by investing in a collaborative process.

Indies are still interested in ‘traditional’ book deals

There is a vocal camp that have now sworn off traditional publishing forever but I think most indies are still interested in a publishing deal, if it offers something they can’t do or don’t want to do themselves.

Most indies don’t hate mainstream publishing either, despite the noisy few who make it look like we do.

In actual fact, we are all book lovers and advocates of reading in whatever form people want to consume. We all want the publishing industry to thrive and for readers to continue to buy lots of books and in fact, most authors are also huge consumers of books. Many of the big earning indie authors have been picked up by traditional publishing in some form. Amanda Hocking is the most famous with her St Martin’s Press deal of over $2million. John Locke took a print distribution deal with Simon & Schuster. Joe Konrath & Barry Eisler signed with Amazon Encore for some of their books which isn’t one of the Big 6 right now, but may soon be. Their secret contracts are rumored to be much better for authors than other publishers but it’s still not purely indie anymore, although many of these authors still continue to do their own work for other books. The hybrid model where some books are traditionally published and others are indie published seem to be growing and is perhaps the sweet spot for the most successful authors. It’s certainly where I would like to get to myself.

What does indie mean to you? Do you identify as an indie?

Top Image: istockphoto.com & other one is my own edits on Prophecy

Related posts:

1. Six Figure Indie Publishing With Robin Sullivan Robin Sullivan is one of the indie publishing evangelists who...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

The Flinch is the instinct to draw back and shrink away from pain or what is perceived to be dangerous, difficult or unpleasant.

It’s also the title of the latest mini-book by Julien Smith to come out from The Domino Project. Right now, you can get it for free on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk (that’s the book cover shown left). It’s a short, challenging read with one main point.

Embrace the flinch regularly, push yourself out of your comfort zone and get on with doing the important things in life.

Stop avoiding pain, get some scars and achieve something worthwhile. If you need a kick in the pants, go download it and share it with others.

The Flinch is important for you because of the changes in the publishing industry.

I was at the #FutureBook conference earlier this week and although it was filled with positive, forward thinking book-lovers, you could also sense the fear and concern amongst those who still believe print is the only way forward. My article on what authors can learn from the conference will be on the Future of the Book blog soon, but today a few things happened that illustrated the changing times we’re in and I wanted to share them with you.

People buy from those they know, like and trust.

One of the buzzwords of the FutureBook conference was ‘discoverability’, how to help people find books they want to read in the mass of information online.

Well, people buy from people they know, like and trust which funnily enough, I learned from Julien Smith & Chris Brogan in their book Trust Agents. I downloaded The Flinch on the strength of my respect for Seth Godin as well as Chris & Julien. Yes, this book is free but I have also bought 90% of all books from Seth Godin’s Domino Project because I’m in his tribe. He doesn’t have to ‘sell’ me anything, he just has to tell me the books are available and I click to buy.

John Locke in his ‘How to sell 1 million ebooks’ said that authors need to have a list of fans who will buy their next book, in the same manner as Seth has done as well. Locke was the first indie author to reach 1 million Kindle sales so he knows what he’s talking about.

You can do this too.

Start a list on your site so people can sign up and show their interest. I’m doing this on my fiction blog, JoannaPenn.com where people can sign up for my next book, Prophecy. The list is small right now but you have to start somewhere and we are all growing our body of work over time. If you have a list of fans who know, like and trust you, you will never have to worry about whether your books will sell as your buyers will be waiting.

Ebooks can be sampled or bought instantly on hearing about them.

An online friend of mine tweeted me the other day, “I need to fill up my Kindle, what do you recommend?”. I read voraciously so I mentioned some great books I have recently read: A Discovery of Witches – Deborah Harkness, The Whisperer – Donato Carrisi, The Summoner – Layton Green, The Hunger Games trilogy and some others. She then went to her Kindle and got the samples and most likely would have bought one or more of those. Perhaps you will too.

This is the power on online ebook buying.

There’s no barrier between the person wanting to read and the book they can start to read immediately. There’s no time lapse so no chance for them to find something else on the way to the bookstore or get distracted by a new shiny object.

Smashwords did a survey on ebook buying habits which showed 29% buy based on recommendations online from blogs and other media. I probably buy 90% of my books this way.  I know I’m not a market of one but I am a heavy reader and therefore a target for publishing dollars. Perhaps I’m also an early adopter and therefore represent the future of book-buyers? How do you find your books?

You can’t fight the rise of digital.

If you want to stick with print, you will soon end up missing out on even traditionally published books. That has just become reality. Newsjacking, David Meerman Scott‘s latest business book has been released in ebook only format. It’s not self-published either. You might have read “The New Rules of Marketing & PR”. In fact, it was one of the books that persuaded me onto Twitter. David is a thought leader and his example will only be followed.

In terms of discoverability, I bought Newsjacking because of an interview with David on Mitch Joel’s Six Pixels of Separation podcast. This backs up the stats from AT Kearney at FutureBook that show an author’s engagement with readers can increase book sales. I wouldn’t have ‘discovered’ Newsjacking on Amazon because actually it seems to be aimed at businesses. I am a micro-business but the lessons in it can definitely be applied by those of us who monitor the news and have the speed and agility to provide information in real-time to media hungry for a relevant story.

I hope I don’t have to tell the readers of this blog that they need to be publishing ebooks as well as or even instead of print. I’ve been beating the digital drum for 3 years now! But I am amazed at how resistant and defensive some people are about this inevitable shift.

What do you think? Are you convinced about digital yet?

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Let’s get excited about indie publishing serialized fiction! In this exuberant interview, Sean Platt talks about the publishing and marketing lessons learned from serial fiction project Yesterday’s Gone. I really appreciate his positive approach and ‘can-do’ attitude so I hope you enjoy it.

In the intro, I talk about writing in the London Library as well as cutting 20,000 words from Prophecy and how I’m coping with life as a full-time author-entrepreneur.

Sean Platt is a prolific author, copywriter, publisher and online entrepreneur. He has written business and writing books, children’s books and also co-authored the recent Amazon bestselling Yesterday’s Gone, a serialized post-apocalyptic thriller. [Video at the bottom if you prefer that!]

• Sean & his co-author love serialized content in terms of TV – “good junkie” TV series like Lost which drag people in and keep them hooked. The grand openings and the endings that make you desperate for the next episode. As writers, that’s what they wanted to achieve.

• As publishers, they want to hit the same type of numbers as Hocking, Locke, Konrath etc and to do that you need to have multiple titles in the same niche. Now their model is to create a lot of great books available for low prices. Serializing . It’s fiction with a funnel. All the things Sean has learned as an information marketer he is now applying to fiction.

• The pilot grabs you and they made this free to hook people in. You can do this by making it free on Smashwords and it trickles through to Amazon. This only works if you put out the very best and it over delivers. It’s got to be your best work as people are paying for it with their time, if not their money.
• If you wouldn’t charge for it, it’s not worth being free. You also have to have somewhere for them to go if it’s free e.g. a sequel or another book to buy. You waste your time unless there is a return.
• I mention CJ Lyons who also blogged here about ‘free’

• Using episodes as Kindle & print books as well as putting it into a Series book with 6 episodes. Some people want to buy in episodes and others will buy in the series.

• Writing fast and with quality. Sean is a retired ghostwriter so he learned to write fast as time was money. Writing fast enables your true voice to emerge as you don’t self-censure so much. You can find flow that way. The quality doesn’t decay.

• Sean postulates that taking writing classes slows people down as instinct is un-taught. Writing based on what you love and your passion rather than what you are taught at school means you can be freer in your expression. You can edit a lot but the basic first draft is very fast if you write this way.

• As a self-publisher you can’t put out anything that isn’t your absolute best.
• The gatekeepers are now the customer, not the publisher. This is great because it’s easier to speak to those people. You also need ‘to work your face off’. We use the example of Stephen King who works extremely hard and puts out books people love year after year.
• There is no writer’s block. It’s procrastination!

• On book marketing. Sean has been everywhere in the last 4-6 weeks including some massive blogs. He has been online for a good few years so he has a network that he could tap into. He knew he had no fiction readers so he aimed for the influencers. This has created an audience for the fiction so next time he can market to them specifically. You have to do this for a first book but the 2nd would be done differently.
• What really helped was being free on Amazon as they peaked at #1 on Horror (although it’s not really Horror) and that spilled into sales of the other episodes. But it’s only worth being free if you have a load of great reviews already. You have to have the social proof. You can’t game Amazon. Write for the readers.

• For the next book, Sean is looking at actual mainstream media to get rid of the final stigma of self-publishing. It is fair as self-pub needs to earn it’s way. A lot of it is crap and it is different. We need to earn respect. We’re legitimizing it. He is focusing on getting a great quote as well as book reviews. The online network is now leveraged, it needs to more into another game. It’s proved in the market place with sales and reviews so they are able to approach people with some evidence.

• The best way to market is to create more content once you have started the ball rolling.

You can buy Yesterday’s Gone at Amazon here. If you like Lost and Stephen King, it might be your thing!

You can find Sean’s site for writers GhostwriterDad here and you can find him on Twitter @seanplatt

Please do let me know what you think in the comments below. Thank you!

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

In the last week there have been two great audio interviews on the future of books. I would say it’s not the future but more current, emerging and becoming more mainstream every day. I recommend you listen to them both! They will educate and inspire you and that’s what this blog is all about

The Future of Books and Publishing at Six Pixels of Separation

There’s one podcast I listen to avidly and that is Mitch Joel’s Six Pixels of Separation. It’s primarily a marketing blog and podcast but also talks a lot about new media, publishing and Mitch interviews a lot of authors of business books. It’s not usually aimed at writers but this episode is a definite must-listen podcast for those of you who enjoy audio.

Click here for The Future of Books and Publishing with Mitch Joel and Hugh McGuire

Here are some key points I found interesting:

• Hugh’s new software PressBooks (currently in beta) is a simple online book production tool. It’s based on WordPress software and produces a print book as well as an ebook but it’s also all online so it can be given away for free as well. This enables all the analytics to be tracked as people join in and share online.
• How Amazon is a tech company with an amazing amount of analytics on their customers which enables them to compete aggressively. (For us as authors, this is a great thing as it fuels the Amazon algorithms that help sell our books.)

• The key thing is the connection between readers and authors. You have to control that connection to the customer and Amazon has this. (This is also why we are building online platforms, so we can connect directly to readers)
• “You have talent on one side and customers on the other and the middle is the engine of marketing.” Mitch Joel. Connecting the two is the key and Amazon has this.
• Amazon as a publisher has signed Deepak Chopra now, as well as a lot of other authors including Tim Ferriss.

• The first book on the PressBook platforms is “Book: A Futurist’s Manifesto. A collection of essays from the bleeding edge of publishing” published by O’Reilly media. You can read some of it online here.

• A discussion on the value of print books and books in general. The way of reading on the Kindle with sampling and having no time for books that don’t immediately grab you.
• “It’s the context, not the container.” This underlies everything. What can you do as a writer/publisher to make things better for your reader? This is the important thing.

You can find Mitch Joel at Six Pixels of Separation and on twitter @mitchjoel

You can find Hugh McGuire at HughMcGuire.net and on twitter @hughmcguire

On the future of books: A discussion with Seth Godin

In an interview with Leo Babauta on Zen Habits, thought leader and marketing guru Seth Godin talks about:

• How the current changes in publishing are scary for those people who want someone to pick them and just write but fantastically exciting for those writers who can embrace the change and pick themselves

• There is an abundance of shelf-space online. It’s not about shelf space, it’s about finding a tribe and developing relationships and selling to those people. Your job is to connect and create your own community around your work. Then you have the power to market to them. It’s not about the table by the cash register at Borders, it’s your ability to attract a passionate tribe and then fulfil the needs of those people.

• Really think about what needs to go into a physical book form and whether your ideas could be disseminated in other ways. Seth mentions how books will become 99c or $1.99 ebooks that people devour like popcorn (the John Locke model) and then a few very specific books that will be hardback or collector’s items and many more that will need to be sold to the tribe e.g. idea type books like his own.

There’s much more in this interview and one of my takeaways is that I feel I’m in the right place for the publishing shift. When I started this blog, there was a huge stigma against self-publishing but that lessens everyday and these two interviews on such high profile blogs prove that this model is not going away.

Click here to download the interview with Seth Godin on the future of books

Read the blog on The Domino Project, Seth’s (very successful) experiment in publishing here

Leo’s blog Zen Habits is also brilliant and focuses on minimalism if that’s something you’re interested in.

What do you think? Are you excited about what’s happening in the publishing industry?

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.