Celebrating your independence

Today’s guest blogger, Anna Louise Lucia, is someone I’ve come to know through a super supportive goal-in-a-month (GIAM) writing group. Anna’s latest book, Dangerous Lies, was recently released, and I was intrigued to know more about her publishing experience, as she’s published with an indie. She graciously agreed to illuminate all of us.

Thanks for being here, Anna. Take it away!
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When Therese kindly invited me to blog on Writer Unboxed, she had one request – can you give us a perspective on writing for an indie?

At which point, naturally, my mind went blank.

And, as usual, when my mind goes blank (guys, this happens WAY too often!) I turned to friends and colleagues for answers. “Why did you choose an independent publisher?” I asked, and “what’s your take on writing for one?”

My first reply, from Phil Bowie, (whose latest release KLLRS was called, “Good, solid, face-paced adventure fiction,” by Stephen Coonts) was, “how are you defining an Independent Publisher?”

Thanks Phil. ;-)

Good point, though. There’s a lot of confusion out there about different routes to publication. I’d be a fool if I thought I could take you through all of that. But I think I can define what an indie is.

Medallion Press is adamant they are neither a “small press” or a “print on demand” publisher. They are not, emphatically not, a vanity press. They are an Independent Publisher – a publisher that isn’t part of a large conglomerate or multinational. They have print runs and sales figures that qualify them for RWA recognised status, and they, crucially for professional writers, offer advances and competitive royalties.

Independent presses are small, though. They don’t have the entrée to Walmart’s book aisles, and they can often struggle to get books on display on the shelves of major bookstore chains. However, collectively, independent publishers make up approximately half the market share of the book industry.

So that’s an Indie. But why choose one?

For me, it was simply because I kept writing books that were a bit… different. Too English for the US market, too romantic suspense for the UK market. Too dark for series romance, but still too much of a love story for mainstream.

Lisa Marie Wilkinson, who won the 2007 Maryland Writers Association Novel Contest with her historical romance, agrees. “I think it took a smaller house willing to take the risks the larger, formula-driven houses cannot take,” she said. “FIRE AT MIDNIGHT has some dark stuff in it.”

For my own first release, RUN AMONG THORNS, it was the hero that was a ‘problem’. One editor (quite rightly!) described him as morally ambiguous, and I could have revised him to be softer, more classically heroic. But that just felt wrong… and in the end readers and reviewers got the chance to be as bewitched by Kier McAllister as I was!

Julie Korzenko had a similar quandary. “My heroine wasn’t kick-ass, and she didn’t save the day. I had failed to create a character who was a Buffybot and Buffybots were selling. I was informed by my agent that there was no home for DEVIL’S GOLD, and I was devastated.”

Like me, Julie decided to stick to her guns. “Revising Cassidy to be kick-ass would be a desecration of her ethic and moral character. She was a zoologist with a great value of life.”

Once again, Medallion Press stepped into the breach, and Julie’s thriller DEVIL’S GOLD caught the attention of Publisher’s Weekly. “Fans of Alex Kava, Shannon, McKenna, and Suzanne Brockmann will hope to see more of Cassidy and Jake,” they concluded.

As far as I’m concerned, choosing an indie meant I got to keep the core of my stories. It meant some serious marketing input, gorgeous covers, attention to detail and an all-round quality product. Most importantly, it meant I met the career goals I had at that time – finding a home that would distribute my books as mass market paperback, that would give me an apprenticeship where I could learn the professional side of writing, build my audience and hone my craft.

And here is my note of caution: choosing an indie may be about looking outside the box, but it is never about settling. Months before I accepted an offer from Medallion, I turned down another contract which I felt didn’t offer me what I needed to meet my career goals. I’ll admit, though, that that was a very scary time. But I don’t regret it.

For Phil, the rewards were obvious. “It opened many doors, including meeting some of the top names in the business and landing a good agent.”

Frankly, I don’t think I can put it better than Lisa Marie. “I’m proud and happy to be part of a small family when the focus is on quality.”

Well said.

Anna Louise Lucia’s latest book, Dangerous Lies, is out now. “Marianne Forster was only spending time with a gorgeous man in the hot sun of Morocco. It wasn’t anything more than that… until she was kidnapped on the way home.”

All About Romance awarded Dangerous Lies an ‘A’ review, and their ‘Desert Isle Keeper’ status, saying, “Holy golly Moses. I’ve never put a publishing company on my auto buy list, but if this is what Medallion is putting out, considering the other recent stellar reviews here at AAR, I might just have to change my mind.”