For Readers: Three Reasons to Support Indie Authors

The other day, my husband came home from work and, after surveying the perpetual mess that is our kitchen, suggested that once "this writing thing works out" I should hire a housekeeper. I laughed. I had not already told him that it was my plan to do that as soon as we can afford it, partly because I hate cleaning the kitchen and partly because cleaning up after myself, our toddler, and him takes up so much of my time that writing sometimes takes a backseat. It got me thinking. I don't plan to give up writing anytime soon, and the very moderate success Cowboy has achieved has given me the hope that I could do this for real, I can be a solid midlister and make a living from home doing what I love. Like any author, I'd love to churn out bestsellers--but my real goals are just to offer readers solid entertainment and to do well enough to make the same salary I left behind at my receptionist job almost two years ago.

I've seen a lot of hate for indie authors and I've seen a lot of love for them. This post isn't about loving or hating. I'm looking at three top reasons to support independent (self-published and small publisher) authors.


We're creating a job out of nothing.
Most of us have been writing for years and some of us have been sharing our writing for free for almost as many years. I'm not doing anything--blogging, writing, designing book covers, Tweeting, reading, or reviewing--that I wouldn't be doing anyway. For fun. I have quite literally created a job for myself. Admittedly, it doesn't pay all that well... yet. But it has the potential to pay comfortably.


Supporting us creates more jobs.
As I mentioned up there, I plan to hire a housekeeper. I also plan to hire an editor, a book cover designer, a web designer, and--possibly--a part-time nanny. That's five jobs right there. If I meet my goal, if I start to make my old salary, I will have the income to do that, and that's what I want to do. So for the relatively lower prices of indie books (at the moment, mine are all $0.99 due to their length), consumers create more job opportunities.


We're small business.
Obviously, I'm not talking about retailers. I mean the authors themselves. Many of us are DIYers all the way. For several years, I worked for a small business owner. She had five small businesses and up to about twenty-five employees, but she did most of the work on her own (well, she and her husband). It was a lot of work. Even as her bookkeeper/personal assistant, there were months I ran myself ragged for her. Over this past summer, while I was writing and getting my blog going and making those first tenuous network connections, I barely slept. I did it all myself and I'm still doing it all myself. Being self-published is small business. We're writers, yes, but we have to be business managers, PR managers, salespeople... We do it all, with determination, because we want to be successful.