The "Good" of Indie Publishing

Anyone who tells me that I "need to read this book" is going to get shut down fast. I don't like to be dictated to, whether it comes to my reading choices, what music I listen to, or which TV show I watch. I know what I like, and that's all that matters. I don't exist to feed someone's ego.

Publishing houses don't technically foist books upon readers, but they sort of do. If they present three or four choices and all of them reek, a lot of people are still going to pick one of them. 

But wait, you say! Amazon has millions of books! Yup, it sure does. But then why, when I pull up its book pages, do I consistently see the same titles over and over? It's called pay to play. If I had money to do so, sure, I'd pay to have my books prominently displayed, too. What author wouldn't?  And note that all those trade-published books' blurbs feature fawning quotes from famous people. "Best book I've ever read!" proclaims celebrity chef Phyllis Van Nostrum. "This book changed my life!" squeals noted activist Hortense Placard.

I received an email from bookshop.org the other day that touted its "most anticipated" books. Here are some of the books' descriptions:

"A haunting coming-of-age story about a young boy wrestling with his sexuality as war breaks out in Ukraine."

"...exploring the intersection of race and disability..." 

"...a powerful meditation on family, queer love, and community..." 

"...family drama set in Mississippi, where one man’s actions stir a community..."

Oh. Great. Well, Hortense Placard will surely love these, but me? Nah. I'm so tired of being lectured to; I just want to read an escapist story that's fun or suspenseful.

Way back when, when I was querying literary agents, every one of them essentially wanted the same things, and those were things I didn't write about. You could say that my manuscripts were rejected because they were bad, and I won't argue, but no agent ever got to the point of reading them. My queries didn't capture their interest; they were devoid of the popular buzz words. And my little bio section at the end was a turnoff. I'm not part of any marginalized groups (unless you count "unsuccessful writers") and I don't live an alternative lifestyle, among other deficits.

How well do most of these trade published scoldings sell? Sales aren't the point. Because the majority of them are failures. No, it's all about cachet. Publishing houses are willing to lose money in order to appear virtuous. The added bonus is that they get to fork over an outrageous signing bonus to the author, knowing that the book's sales will never cover it, but it's "the right thing to do". Not to mention the prestigious awards that'll surely come their way.

What's a reader to do when faced with a dearth of choices? Indie books to the rescue! An indie author can write about whatever the hell he or she wants to write about. A writer can even be white and straight! 

Everybody knows that romance and fantasy, or even better, romantasy, are the hottest things going. Wait ~ what? How can that be? Is the hero(ine) a lesbian or differently abled? Maybe; but often not. The main character can be anything the writer wants them to be. And people will read it. In fact, readers hunger for it. 

I don't do well with "shoulds". You should write about gay toucans fighting the colonization of the rain forest. Mmm...no. I think I'll write about something that interests me.

Indie publishing has a lot of "bads", too; mostly for the author, but sometimes for the reader. Trust me; I've previewed a lot of really badly written romance novels, yet most readers don't seem to mind. Some do; the more discerning ones. So, that may or may not be categorized as bad. Otherwise, the bad mostly falls on the author side. But that's for another post, another day.

On the whole, indie publishing is good...for everyone. Not for the publishing houses, but who gives a f**k about them? They get what they deserve. Publishing houses are fast becoming dinosaurs, like Blockbuster and Radio Shack. 

You gotta love that.