The rising tide of indie novels

I don’t even know where to start this post because I know it will be controversial. So I’ll just throw it out there: there’s quite the quality continuum in the indie world. (That’s being diplomatic.) I read a Substack post where writers bragged about how little they spent on publication—although the author herself set a reasonable upward range of $8,000.

I was in the lower five figures, but I also engaged an audiobook production company and professional narrator. The audiobook product is awesome and has permeated libraries throughout the country.

There were a lot of do-it-yourselfers who did their own cover design and layout and hinted that they were using AI. I looked up some of them and you could tell. There were many comments like this:

This fluctuating quality perpetuates the stigma, or at least misconception, that persists about indie publishing. Issues include: Unprofessional covers, typos galore, obvious use of AI (not just an indie problem), inaccuracies, amateurish layouts, underdeveloped characters, plot holes. A general lack of systematic editing. Zero promotion. Disdain for promotion, even.

Disclaimer #1: I am in no way advocating un-democratizing the publishing process. I think it’s a fantastic populist development that anyone can upload their creation to Amazon or Ingram Spark or Smashwords. Level that playing field! I believe the traditional publishing route is broken, collapsing, on the brink of implosion . . . pick a doomsday description. Indies keep books diverse, fresh, adventurous, unpredictable, quirky, risky.

Disclaimer#2: I have independently published exactly one novel. I probably spent too much but I learned a lot from this process. And I will do it a bit differently next time (and spend less).

Disclaimer #3: Don’t shoot the messenger. Or cancel me. Or review bomb me. I am just trying to start a discussion here.

How do readers, book stores, libraries, and the very vaguely defined Publishing World wade through the overwhelming volume of self-published titles—2.6 million in 2023 vs. 563,000 traditionally published, according to Publishers Weekly?

A ‘certified’ indie novel? It will strike many as an oxymoron, a leap backwards, a cave to traditional publishing, an elitist attempt to slap on a credential, a ruse to segregate those who have money to spend on their book and those who do not (or just don’t want to).

Yes, yes, yes. I hear you. But what would that look like? Play along with me. By the way, I am concerned about recognizing and protecting other creative jobs, not just my own craft.

• Documentation of a human editing process. Did anyone else (as in a human being or beings) review your story, your characters, your arc, your themes, your flow? Did they find gaps or redundancies or unresolved subplots? It doesn’t have to be a high-dollar developmental editor; it could be a trusted network of writing colleagues and/or beta readers. I am currently working with a coach on my second novel, The Next Right Thing, and it’s so helpful to have an objective human to discuss the characters and story with.

• A professionally designed cover, also involving a human being. The folks who brag that they used Canva or AI or Procreate on their iPad, guess what? In most cases, it’s obvious. I am a certified graphic designer who went through a multi-year, in-person (not online) program, but an experienced professional who understood cover design and the marketplace teed up several design options for me.

• No generative AI. I can’t believe I am typing this. Here’s a great post from the Authors Guild on “AI Best Practices for Authors.” It lays out what you should and shouldn’t do, what you should disclose, what you should check for. And the Guild offers a Human-Authored Certification. It costs $10 for non-members.

• Copy editing and proof reading. Of course, you can’t guarantee that human editors won’t run your novel through some AI tool. Based on my frustrating experiences with both of these tasks for The Salt and Light Express, performed by humans, I would consider using such a tool especially if I had other human eyes on the project throughout. During copy editing of my novel, every adverb was flagged—even in dialogue. This did not feel human or rational; I retained almost all of them. The separate, human proofreading process took way too much time and was riddled with confusion and errors. But neither step should be skipped. There is not a single typo or inaccuracy in my novel.

• A professional-looking internal layout. Yes, you can use Vellum if you take the time to follow the tutorials. It is $200-250. I’ve been practicing with it. I paid a professional $400 for the layout, which gets high marks from reviewers and readers.

• Multiple formats and platforms. I am proud that my book can be found almost anywhere. It’s in libraries across the country, Barnes and Noble, Libro.FM and Spotify, even Walmart. It’s at Powell’s in Portland and my local independent bookstore. There’s an ebook, a trade paperback, an audio book, and a hardcover. I created the hardcover for libraries, but I make about 77 cents (via Ingram) on a retail price of $27.95.

• External reviews. I was all set to skip Kirkus but librarians kept telling me they rely on Kirkus reviews, as well as Publishers Weekly. BookLife is the indie arm of Publishers Weekly; they made me an Editor’s Pick and that was huge and opened other doors. My publishing consultant helped me get a review from Foreword Reviews. These reviews give your work validation, gravitas and (hopefully) prestige.

• A promotional plan. This is where I did use AI. I asked Perplexity to help me develop social-media and book-club marketing plans for The Salt and Light Express. The results were amazing. After all, this is what the scammers use to jam my inbox with marketing and book-club offers. I had spent a lot of money (with humans) on Amazon and Facebook advertising, and it was a total bust. (Of course, if you just wrote and published a book for yourself, family and friends, this step may not make sense.)

So that would be my starting list for a “certified” indie novel. Where would the certification come from? Perhaps from a respected organization such as the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA).

I am proud to be an indie author and publisher. I can’t envision querying, languishing in a slush pile, anxiously monitoring my inbox for emails, waiting years to be published—if it happened at all. I will be 70 next month, and I have a few more novels in me.

But I think we need to discuss creating an optional path to publication in the indie world that documents and celebrates professionalism and craft and human creativity.