Every so often I listen to the Alliance of Independent Authors’ podcasts. Tonight’s listen is the October 2 episode of the Creative Self-Publishing podcast, “How to Build Your Publishing Team,” wherein Orna Ross and Howard Lovy profile three types of author-publisher:
- The lean publisher, who focuses on frequency, volume, ranking, and low cost;
- The engagement publisher, who focuses on connecting with their audience;
- The craft publisher, who focuses on creativity and production values.
The team-building aspect of the podcast is less interesting to me than this typology of independent publishing. I appreciate it because an awful lot of thinking proceeds from the assumption that there’s an optimal approach, maybe complicated slightly by genre. Different renditions of that optimal approach usually emphasize each of these three elements, usually loading more heavily on the “lean publisher” approach, but there’s not much consideration of the tradeoffs or how any given piece of it meshes with the individual writer’s strengths and priorities. It’s a nice idea.
Currently reading: SAGA Vol. 10, Brian K. Vaughan & Fiona Staples.
If you’re enjoying my writing, you can get some of my short fiction on your e-reader for the low, low cost of $0. Remembered Air is a collection of six poems and short stories not available anywhere else. Download it here.