Why I went the independent route

Since many of you have asked, I thought I'd share why I decided to self-publish, to go "independent," instead of the more traditional publishing route of getting an agent, which leads to an editor, which leads to a book on the shelf, not to mention a big advance and a media blitz. Right? Well, that's not how I found it to go, and not how many authors are finding it these days. Fewer publishers are even offering advances now to new authors, never mind publicists and publicity campaigns; these tend to go, along with publishing contracts altogether, to already-established authors, those with a proven track record and a "brand" or a "platform," as the lingo goes. So here I was, writing away, and reading, too, always reading, and I read a book called Wool by a man named Hugh Howey. I liked it and wanted to know if he had written others. When I searched him, one of the links that came up was an article from Salon about how he got started, and wouldn't you know it, he had self-published his first seven novels before the eighth one really began to get attention. This article certainly caught my attention. I decided to give it a try. As he said, what did I have to lose? So now my book is out there in the world and has sold way more copies than it would have gathering the proverbial dust on my hard drive! Check it out. Hugh Howey, "Self-publishing is_the future and great for writers" Maybe you have a book in you, too.