THE NEXT INDIE REVOLUTION

or decades, lmmakers had little choice whenit came to producing their lms. Prohibitivecosts and access to distribution channels gavethe Big Five studios restrictive control over the industry. As a result, countless scripts never made it to the silverscreen, and most others were altered to t the whims o the studio bankrolling production.

Now appearing: the independent lm

With the development o new technologies and thecreation o independent lm estivals, moviemakingchanged dramatically, and the term “independentlm” entered our vocabulary.

Easy Rider

starringDennis Hopper, Peter Fonda, and Jack Nicholsonwas the rst “indie” lm o the “New Hollywood”era, and debuted in May 1969. From that pointorward, the production o independent lms grewdramatically, but 1994’s

Clerks

—which was lmedor about $28,000 and won a pair o awards at the1994 Cannes Film Festival—is widely credited orre-invigorating the genre. That success led to othermainstream indie hits, including 1997’s

Chasing Amy

and 1999’s

The Blair Witch Project,

and the indepen-dent lm became as much a part o our entertain-ment culture as Warner Brothers or MGM.

Music was next

The music industry has ollowed a similar path.Bands once dependent on major labels to producetheir work now employ new technology to maketheir own music, and utilize the Web and socialmedia sites to promote and develop a ollowing. As aresult, many new groups enjoy the label o an “indieband,” which speaks to their ability to control theircreative product and connect with their audience. Although this idea has only really taken hold in thepast decade, it has been around or a while. Theband, REM was an indie sensation beore signingwith Warner Bros. in 1987. More recently, accom-plished artists like Wilco, Barenaked Ladies, andRadiohead have gone “indie” to open up additionalmarkets or their music.

The time for indie book publishing is now

Now it’s publishing’s turn. For decades, authors seek-ing to get published needed to hire an agent, whopitched the manuscript to the ew large publishinghouses that dominated the industry. Although it wasoten a time-consuming and heartbreaking process,it was the only way authors could bring their work

Following in the footsteps

o the flm and musicindustries, indie book publishing is now the astest-growingway or authors to get books to market.

by Keith Ogorek, Vice President of Marketing

Author Solutions

to market. For most, this system resulted in stackso rejection letters and never reaching their goal o becoming a published author. Although there are no denitive industry statistics,discussion with industry insiders would lead youto believe that less than one in twenty manuscriptsactually gets published, which is why this system isso rustrating or writers seeking to become authors.It also doesn’t appear to be working well or the booktrade either. According to the Sept. 1, 2008 issue o

Publisher’s Weekly,

the world’s ve largest publishersexperienced one-hal o 1 percent in combined growthin the rst hal o 2008. That’s understandable whenyou consider that according to Nielsen BookScan,ewer than 10 percent o new titles published in theU.S. in 2007 sold more than 1,000 copies in theirrst year. In short, i you are an author named King orGrisham or Rowling or Patterson, this system can stillwork or you and the publisher. But what about ev-erybody else? And what about discovering new talent?How does that happen?

Let the reader decide

Over the last decade, as new technologies haveemerged, the obstacles that once loomed in ront o prospective authors have all but vanished. Since theintroduction o print-on-demand technology andthe Internet bookstore, the process o getting a bookto market is ollowing the pattern previously estab-lished in lm and music. It’s no longer necessaryor authors to wait or years or someone else to puttheir book in the market. Now, through indie bookpublishing companies like AuthorHouse and iUni-verse, authors can let the readers decide i their bookis any good or not.

Supported self-publishing is notthe same as vanity publishing

Authors have two options when choosing indie bookpublishing. The rst is oten reerred to as

vanity publishing.

With this option, an author works witha company that designs and prints a book. In manycases, the author is required to purchase a certainquantity o books, which is one o the major draw-backs to this method. In addition, these books are

Over the last 12 years, more than 70,000 independent authors published over 100,000 titles in every genre.

THE NEXT INDIE REVOLUTION

usually not available or distribution in major retailor online channels. Also, vanity publishers typicallydo not oer additional services to help edit, market,or promote the book.By contrast, the astest-growing indie book publish-ing option is known as

supported self publishing.

Withthis method, authors purchase publishing servicesand use print-on-demand technology toproduce books. All o these booksare assigned an ISBN and areput into distribution, whichmakes them available ororder at retail outlets andthrough online book sellerssuch as amazon.com andbarnesandnoble.com. Inaddition, most supportedsel-publishing companiesoer a range o editorial,promotional, and booksellingservices to help authors reach theirgoals. More importantly, there is norequirement to purchase books, although theauthor has the option to buy books at a substantialdiscount and resell them at whatever price he or shecan garner.

Independent publishing is great for authors

Just as with lm and music, authors can still nd abig company to take their work and market anddistribute it, but or many writers, indie book pub-lishing provides signicant benets.The rst is control. Authors have input on all aspectso the book, including the design. Many writers wantthis type o involvement in their creative work, butare prohibited when using traditional publishing. Asecond benet is retention o rights. Authors controlall their rights with indie book publishing, whereastraditional publishers usually lock up all the subsidiaryrights to a book. With indie book publishing, authorsare ree to sell oreign or movie rights i someonecomes calling with a six-gure contract. A thirdreason why more writers are choosing this optionis speed-to-market. With traditional pub-lishing, it oten takes years to nd anagent, collect rejection letters, geta contract, design the book, andget it printed and distributed. Authors using indie bookpublishing can get booksto market in a matter o months. A ourth and nalbenet to authors is potentialor increased revenue. Although very ew peopleactually make a living these daysas a writer, the share o every booksold is usually signicantly greater orauthors who independently publish.

Answering the critics

Even though there are clear benets to independentpublishing, there are still objections. Two criticismsthat are oten leveled at independent publishingare that the author has to pay to get published, andauthors oten have to do their own marketing. True,an author has to make an investment in getting his orher book to market, but or many, the cost is around athousand dollars. However, with that investment, au-thors are assured their book will be in the market, andi the book is any good, they will start to recoup theircosts pretty quickly. The second argument oten made

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