Why Indie?

So, this October, Amazon is celebrating independent fiction, complete with its own hashtag: #poweredbyindie

As part of the celebration, Amazon is featuring independent works by a wide range of authors, and I was fortunate enough to be selected as one of the featured independent authors.

For some reason, the emails from Amazon put me into a reflective mood, and I was thinking about how crazy the journey has been. I quit my full time job just a little over a year ago, in August of 2015. My wife, bless her, told me I had one year to generate enough income to replace my old one. After years of working on Nightblade, I finally took the leap, hit publish, and waited to see what would happen.

Since then, I’ve published four stories on Amazon, and I have more ideas than I have time to write (even though I’m writing full-time). Every week I get to hear from people who have enjoyed the stories.

Next week I’ll write about why I went indie, but for today, I just wanted to express gratitude. I think that often, technology is a two-edged sword. But the advent of the kindle and digital reading has shaken up the industry, and it has given me a chance to tell stories for a living, and for that I’ll always be grateful.

There’s another aspect to independent publishing that doesn’t often get mentioned: a closer connection between authors and readers. Because of the nature of independent publishing, there aren’t so many layers between authors and readers. For the first time, we live in a world where its easy to say “Hi” to the person who wrote our new favorite book. As both an author and an avid reader, this has been fantastic.

So, to all of you who have made this journey possible, thank you.

Ryan