The Carnival Is Here

This is a blog carnival by indie authors. Indie is the new term given to self-publishing authors to try and get away from the stigma foisted upon them. Stereotypically self-published books are all worthless crap put out by deluded desperadoes who can't get a publishing deal.

This is far from the actual truth. There are high quality self-published books out there (there must be, else why would publishers offer self-publishing authors book deals?). There are authors who don't want a traditional publisher to publish them – note: don't want is vastly different to can't get.

Here are 12 self-published authors ready to tell you why they stopped submitting to traditional publishers (or in some cases, never started). Two more are going to tell you why they are planning on going the independent route.

If you've never read a self-published book because you've bought into the crap that they are all written by talentless hacks, then this blog carnival is just what you need. Hopefully, reading the reasons why so many talented people have turned away from traditional publishing will inspire you to try their work.

If you're an author just ready to submit, and your looking at your options, and the stigma attached to self-publishing is scaring you, then read the blog posts gathered below. They might inspire you one way or the other, but chances are they will inspire you.

Jess C Scott offers up ten reasons why Indie is a better bet than traditional publishing. You can find her reasons on her blog. There's not much point listing the genres she writes in, as Jess writes in almost every genre.

Claire Farrell is on a time scale to write before she gets back to work because she has hundreds of babies. Oh, okay, 5, but I've got 3 and I thought that was pretty bad. For more on the reasons Claire went indie, and her 5 kids, check out her blog. Plus, her fiction is about fairies, and I love fairies.

Ty Johnston has worked in newspapers for 12 years. He's seen first hand what happens when digital takes the place of print. He started self-publishing to pay bills but still manages to get publishers to pick up some of his work, which puts the lie to the idea that if you self-publish a traditional publisher will not go near you.

Levi Montgomery is chasing dreams. :) He is looking for a publisher to give him a contract where he has full control. I respect his reasons for going independent, but I doubt he'll ever see that contract. He's not stupid, though, he knows this, too. He has a full, and very extensive list of the things a traditional publisher would take away from him. Not only this, but for all the self-publishing naysayers out there, it should really be pointed out that Levi has turned down several offers from publishers already. Way to go, dude.

Moses Siregar III has had his first novella out on Amazon for seven days now, but he isn't closed to the idea of a traditional publisher either. He sees the benefits of going both ways, and has even linked his post to one that states reasons why traditional publishers and agents are still important.

Paranormal romance authors are up next. The first of these, Kait Nolan, hates her day job. And from what she's tweeted about it, I'm not surprised. If you scroll down some on this blog, you'll find a recent interview we did with Kait, if you're interested.

If you like your indie authors (Hell, even if you don't) you've probably heard of the second of this blog carnival's paranormal romance authors. She's everywhere on the net, she's the she-hulk of self publishing as Ty Johnston describes her. What else can be said about Zoe Winters, except that she (like Levi) wants full control over her work. People warned her not to self-publish, and she ignored their advice. With the amount she is selling, it seems she made the right call.

Camille LaGuire has put the other self-publishers in this carnival back in their place. For her, it isn't about the money, the control, the cover art, giving up the day job or sticking two fingers up at the establishment... she just really enjoys what she's doing. Besides, trad publishers wouldn't buy a cozy western mystery about gunslingers who play with dolls. I can't imagine why, it sounds awesome. Check out the Daring Novelists's blog, if you dare. Haha.

Targoun is tired playing it safe, and has decided to throw his dice into the self-publishing game. With the quality of writing in his blog posts, I'm sure his fiction must be good, too.

Luna Lindsey is looking at the music business, and thinking similar things will happen to the publishing industry. Will readers start looking specifically for indie authors? Strangely enough, a reader posted a comment on Kait Nolan's blog today, stating that because of the strength of Kait's novel Forsaken by Shadow, she now does exactly that.

One more published indie author to go, and he has promised us a limerick. I was looking forward to this, but sadly it is the worst limerick of all time (made worse by the hideous lie it contains; he doesn't even like fish) check out M T Murphy's blog, Werewolf Kibble.

This is starting to look badly organised (to which Zoe will leave a comment mocking me. Grr. Shut up, Zoe. :p ) but I just found another entry in the carnival. Susan Bischoff, author of Hush Money, wanted to write a series regardless of whether it would sell. As soon as I get my Kindle, Hush Money is the first book on my to buy list. It's about super-heroes.

And another late edition. This is going to be so much better organised for the one I'm planning in November. Stacey Wallace Benefiel, author of Glimpse and Glimmer, wants cotton candy. It's not that type of carnival, Stacey. :) Stacey didn't have the patience to do the whole traditional thing, especially not after gathering 70 rejections.

Well, that's it for published authors. Lisa Yarde emailed me to apologise as she couldn't manage to make a post for the carnival, and Fran MacDonald was going to post but hasn't. I'll check Fran's blog later, in case a post is up.

Now for J A Marlow, who will have a book out in early 2011, and is already planning on going indie.
Oh, wait, I nearly forgot. My novella will hopefully be out in September. And the major reason I want to self-publish? It's in the post right under this one, but I'll link to it anyway. Here.

And that's all. It's been fun, and totally exhausting, doing this. Writing this post has taken five hours (including reading all the other blogs). I hope it inspires you.

Chris Kelly.


(PS if you wrote a post for this and I missed you, leave me a comment somewhere).