Am I an Indie Author?

Warning, odd post ahead, have fun!

For those of you who know me personally, saying that I have control problems will come as no surprise to you. For those of you who wish to know me, welcome, I have control problems. I learned to admit this early on in my life, I am not necessarily ashamed of this affliction, but I'll admit that on occasion it causes me some trouble. I have two modes: the first is the aforementioned need to be in control, I will happily accept "bossy" or "bitchy" as substitutes, as they are often thrown around by people who are upset with me. The second is quite the opposite of my natural instinct, I stay completely silent at times I should probably speak up. The conundrum of Passive vs Aggressive.
It is quite contradictory, huh? My theory is that all humans are this way, but I can only truly speak for myself.  I would never claim that I am a naturally passive person, but I force myself into this state to avoid confrontation with people that I care about. I'm sure you can imagine exactly how often this causes me problems.

In terms of writing, it was recently brought up to me that I could publish through the "traditional" routes. For those of you who don't know, my first book should be coming out some time in the next four to five months. I am self publishing, for a few reasons, if you'd like I will make a full post on that subject another time. One of my biggest reasons, is creative control. Now, I am entirely capable of taking criticism, but I am not willing to allow anyone to force me to write something I don't want to, to make deadlines for me, and the like. Unpublished authors do not do well in the publishing industry. If you do not have an audience why would a company take a risk on you. Even if your work is the very best, it doesn't make strategic sense. I do not expect to ever make six figures on just writing. I would love for millions of people to read my books, but I would give them my work for free, because it's what I love doing. Making money doing what I love is great, and I hope in the future at some point I can support myself (reasonably) through writing. If it never happens though that's okay.

A big reason I started up this blog was to build an audience, I want people to read my work. I make no money off this venture, I probably never will, but if even five people start to follow me, and read my future books it is worth doing. I enjoy sharing my journey with people.

So now we come to the title; Am I an Indie Author? Yes I am, and I am proud. I put a hell of a lot of work into writing. I am not the best, I will never be the best, but it's what I love, and that's enough. You can try to shame the way I do things, but I know this is the correct path for me right now. If someday a opportunity arises for me to publish more traditionally I will consider it, but until then my accomplishments are not less, because I published my work myself.

Taila Out.