I’ve been an indie author for three years now, and I’m here to say that publishing my own books has been the best way to go… for me. There are many pros and cons for going indie or trad. I encourage anyone to research both options as well as the various hybrid options as thoroughly as possible.

I’m a creator at heart and the control I have over every aspect of my product is necessary as a creative outlet as well as extremely satisfying and fun. That is not to say it isn’t a ton of work, but what better way to spend my time!

Check out these astonishing statistics at Wordsrated.com like the 300 million a year number in the title of this blog, or that the number of self-published books has increased by 264% in the last five years, and up to 34% of all books sold are self-published.

I started in a time when more amazing tools than ever are available to help authors publish on their own, and I’m extremely thankful for services like Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), Draft2Digital, Reedsy, and BookBaby that offer so many resources for indie authors–many of them completely free.

The other fantastic resource for indie authors is us–our community and all the amazing collaboration opportunities. I’m taking part in one starting Friday, April 12, and running through April 15. The Indie Authors Spring Spectacular Event. Indie authors are amazing when it comes to supporting each other and you can be part of it. In addition to the volume of affordable reads for .99 or less, there will be fun giveaways and other events.

With all this said, nothing beats a reader’s review for spreading the word. That goes for all authors no matter how you publish. It always comes down to what our readers like and want. I’m an avid reader, so I can attest to that from a reader’s perspective as well. I’ve got my shopping list going. Happy reading!