The Heart and Soul of Indie

I thought I'd do a post on what being indie (well in my case a hybrid) means. This isn't a 'I can do what I want!' speech. No, this is me laying it all out for you on why I took this road....

When I was thirteen I moved in with my grandmother. Imagine this, very Catholic, very old-school, and very traditional. There was nothing wrong with that of course, because I grew up well and I have great value. (Of course she'd probably die if she realized what I was writing now.) By fifteen I'd completed my first novel and wanted to look into publishing. I remember I was so proud of myself. I'd done the research and knew what needed to be done. Then I took the idea to my grandmother. Her words were, "It'll never work, publishing is too expensive and you'll never be good enough."

It stung. It hurt and I never mentioned it to her again, but I didn't give up. I continued to write and looking into publishing. In 2006 I completed and polished a novel and started to query, I had a few full manuscript requests, but nothing came of it. Now I can admit that it really wasn't ready for publishing. Now at this point some of you are thinking "Oh, so you turned to indie publishing because you weren't good enough for traditional." Mmm no, not really. At that time e-readers were just popping up and self-publishing was still not an option for me.

I had almost given up completely when I got a short story published. I got a few inboxes at that point wondering what else I had out, but at that point I had nothing. My husband made me sit down and make a choice...

It was then I realized what indie could do for me, do for my readers. Writing is the heart and soul of Indie. Not marketing, not fame, not money. Writing, storytelling, characters, the craft. Yes there is a lot of crap out there, but there is a lot of good writing out there too. One thing I love about the indie authors is that you get to see the author grow from book to book. If they are willing to open their hearts and minds to feedback and learning. I wouldn't have come this far without feedback, honest feedback, and sometimes blunt feedback.

But when I have a conversation with a reader that's when I know that I've written something good. A store that makes someone want more, that they can't put down that they love. That is the heart of indie. Why is this important? Because if you're going to go indie you need to understand where it all starts at. It starts with heart and a good story. One that has been polished, one that's been beta read and is ready to published. I will say it again. The heart of indie is a good story.