The publishing world has always seemed a little strange to me and it’s become stranger since the whole e-book revolution. The lines are being blurred and redrawn, and new people, partnerships and companies are not only rising to the surface, they’re taking off and flying about the hemisphere while the rest of us watch like awestruck spectators on the Fourth of July. “Oooh! Ahhhh!”

Some of my friends are going indie with varying degrees of success. Some like Elizabeth Naughton,  were traditionally published and went indie with incredible success. Other started out indie after years of unsuccessfully trying to get their own unique voice heard. As authors, it’s our job to keep one eye on the rapidly changing publishing landscape so we can make choices that are good for us and our individual careers. I’m not going to get into the indie vs traditionally publishing debate. I find such debates are rarely conducted in an atmosphere of respect and I just have too little tolerance for rude people and would get myself in trouble. So I decided to do what I do best and provide a TONGUE IN CHEEK list of why I haven’t gone indie…yet.

1. The validation, baby: The validation is like DARKCHOCOLATECRACKDIPPEDINHEROIN to my undernourished ego. Highly paid professionals in NEW YORK CITY, (Remember, I was raised in ALFAFA, OREGON), like, nay, LOVE my writing enough to pay me money for it. That’s heady stuff, right there, yessireebob.
2. OMG THE DETAILS!: I am NOT a detail person. The thought of futzing with formatting, meta tags, analytics, etc. make me shudder in horror. The idea of paying someone else to do that stuff makes me want to poke an eye out with a sharp stick. No, no, NO! To all those who like to do that stuff and are good at it, well, goodonya! (FREAKS) (Wait, did I say that out loud?) I had a hard enough time just telling my designer what I wanted her to do in an eight page promotional booklet she was designing for me. EIGHT PAGES! Which is basically TWO pieces of paper stuck together! A whole book? I don’t think so.
3. The partnership: I love my agent. It’s like she and I against the world! I also love my editors, though it’s obviously not the same. I love partnering and collaborating with other people. When I try to partner with myself it’s just a hot mess. I’m super unreliable and am always going off on tangents and have difficulty focusing and end up just eating chocolate and refreshing Twitter. I play better with others than I do myself.
4. I’m just not good enough: No, really. I need all those people to make my writing shine. I’m comma illiterate, my tenses are all over the place and at some point in my life I really should try to figure out what a damn dangling participle is. While writing the Summerset Abbey series, I HIRED an outside editor and it still took a herculean effort for my fabulous Gallery Books editor to whip it into shape.  If I were just to put stuff out there willy nilly, it would be bad. Very, VERY bad. (And yes, I already know the care and editing that so many self-published authors put into their work and it’s hardly willy nilly. I told you this was TONGUE in CHEEK. Sheese!)

Sometimes I feel totally left out as if by not going indie I am missing out on a big shiny toy that my friends are all secretly playing with. But at this point in my career, I am satisfied to be one of the crowd watching others soar and saying, “Oooh! Ahhhh!” Maybe someday I will go indie. I really like the idea of diversifying, but for the moment, what I am doing makes sense for my career. And my sanity.

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Why @teribrownwrites won’t be going indie any time soon. Or will she?  (Click to Tweet)

Does self-publishing make sense for you? Why @teribrownwrites says it doesn’t make sense for her…yet. (Click to Tweet)