Happy Independents (Yes, Independents) Day!

Yes, it’s my annual Happy Independents (i.e., Independent Publishers) Day blog post!

It’s been a busy spring and summer, with author meet-and-greets at Levante Brewing Company, Galer Estate Winery, and Kildare’s Irish Pub; a talk at my alma mater, Dickinson College; a signing of The Sense of Reckoning at Sherman’s Books in Bar Harbor; and my first experience of having one of my books paired with a wine (Merlot) at The Vineyard at Hershey! (Click here for information on upcoming events.)

I also took the dive into podcasting, with my first experience as a podcast interviewee on Alexandra Amor’s wonderful It’s a Mystery Podcast: “Spirit Sensing Sleuths, Rockefellers, and Aviation with Matty Dalrymple.”

I love that Matty has created a character who is growing into her role as a sleuth, rather than arriving on the scene fully formed. It seems so true-to-life. When you hear her describe the scene on the battlefield you’ll know what I mean about why writers write. So beautiful!

I’m also excited to announce that July marks the launch of my own podcast, The Indy Author! You can listen to my introductory episode here (this is the interview I did with Channel 20 earlier this year). The podcast will be available to subscribe to on iTunes and other podcasting platforms soon! You can also check out my almost-ready-for-prime-time new web site for The Indy Author while you’re there (and please let me know if you run into any issues).

That brings me to the real theme of today’s Independents Day blog: the reason I refer to my venture as “independent publishing” and not “self-publishing.”

To me, “self-publishing” implies “going it alone,” whereas “independent publishing” means running one’s publishing endeavor like the business it is, and enlisting other experts to enable one to provide excellent products to one’s readers and followers. With the overhaul of the web site and launch of the podcast, I’ve added to my indy publishing “staff” of professional editor, proofreaders, and graphic designers by hiring an audio engineer, a transcriptionist, and a web site developer through Upwork (highly recommended).

I made this choice because, although I probably could have muddled my way through this work, I don’t want to present a muddled result to my readers and followers. More importantly, though, I want to maximize the time I can spend on the work that only I can do—writing my books.

On that front, I’m happy to report that as of this (very productive) Independents Day weekend, I have broken the 80K words mark with Book 3 (The Sense of Death is about 80K words, and The Sense of Reckoning is a little shorter than that). I’m thinking that the finished product will come in at 85K-90K words. This week I’m off to ThrillerFest in New York City, and plan to come home from that energized to finished up my polished draft and send it off to my editor, Jen Blood, at the beginning of August.

Here's wishing you a festive 4th!

Cheers!
M.