With Indie Publishing - We are the Gatekeepers!

Edie here. I made a HUGE faux pas. I posted someone else's article originally here today. My sincere apologies to Traci, to Vonda Skelton, and especially to all of you, my readers!!!! I have uploaded the CORRECT article from Traci and will leave this up here through Saturday, October 17. What an awful way to introduce a new contributor. Track, please forgive me!!!

Now back to Traci's fantastic article!

I'm really excited to introduce you to our newest member of The Write Conversation blogging team, Traci Tyne Hilton. I've been a fan of Traci's for a while - I love her cozy mysteries. In addition, I've been looking for someone who knows Indie Publishings. Traci is a perfect fit. Be sure to give her a warm, Write Conversation welcome!!!

Last Book Ever
by Traci Tyne Hilton @TraciTyneHilton

There’s an old myth going around that the indie-path has no gatekeepers.

Sure, there are no acquisition editors standing between you and getting your book in the marketplace, but there are other gatekeepers, and they hold the keys to your success.

The most powerful gatekeeper is probably the book addicted Amazon shopper. If you don’t catch the eye of that reader right off the mark, while you are still a new release, you can almost say goodbye to sales on that title. (Almost. There are ways to turn things around, but it takes hard work and money!)

Despite the make-or-break power of the reader, the most important gatekeeper is you.

I like to say we are our own traditional publishers. We need to be picky. We need to have our own slush piles. We need to know when a book is working and when it needs to be scrapped. The great opportunity of indie publishing is that we are solely responsible for our content. We get all the credit for it, good or bad. To paraphrase a cultural icon: with great opportunity, comes great responsibility.

Every time we open a new file to start a story, we need to ask ourselves: “What would I say if this was the last book I ever got to write?”

Dr. Laura used to always ask callers if the fight they were about to engage in with their in-laws (or whoever) was “the hill they want to die on.” They could go to war over whose stuffing recipe was spiritually superior, but it might completely kill the relationship, and maybe even the family. So they’d better pick the battle that is worth dying for. (Note: This battle will NEVER be about stuffing. Stuffing is not worth dying for.)

We need to ask ourselves the same thing, every time we write: If I were to be called home the day after I hit “publish” at Amazon (and Nook and iTunes and Kobo) is this the book I will be glad to call my last?

Is this the message I want to leave for my kids? My grandkids? My friends and family?

This question hits close to home for me. I fellowship with a mixed group of writers, secular and Christian. The last book I wrote hit a sour note with early reviewers. I was distraught. Broken hearted. You know, all that emotional writer-stuff. The answer to the problem from my secular writer friends was to give up on the picky Christian audience, pick a pen name, and write stuff without all that religion in it. These friends knew I would make more money. They knew I would have an easier time with reviewers. They knew I wouldn’t get picked apart for being too religious/too irreligious/too wrong-religious, if I didn’t write anything about God at all.

I entertained the idea for a couple of days. I picked a name. I did a cover mock up. I played with plot and character concepts.

And then I asked myself the Big Question. Would I want to go down writing a book that didn’t offer even a glimpse of the hope that comes from knowing God?

I write light cozy mysteries. Escape fiction for rainy La. Something to take your mind off the heavier problems in the world. It’s not theology, and it doesn’t usually have a gospel message. But that doesn’t mean I want to entertain with a godless worldview. I want a little of God’s light to shine through every book I write.

Once I asked myself the Big Question, the answer was easy.

Now I just have to keep asking it as I plot the Christian mysteries. Every plot, every scheme, every murder.

If this is the last book I get to write, is it worth it?

What about you? Does your WIP pass the Big Question test? Is it the book you would write if you only got to write one more book in your life?

TWEETABLE
If this is the last book I get to write, is it worth it? @TraciTyneHilton (Click to Tweet)

With Indie Publishing - We are the Gatekeepers - via @TraciTyneHilton on @EdieMelson (Click to Tweet)

Traci Tyne Hilton is the author of The Plain Jane Mysteries, The Mitzy Neuhaus Mysteries and the Tillgiven Romantic Mysteries. Traci has a degree in history from Portland State University and still lives in the rainiest part of the Pacific Northwest with her husband the mandolin playing funeral director, two busy kids, and their dogs, Dr. Watson and Archie Goodwin.

More of Traci’s work can be found at www.tracihilton.com