What Indies Unlimited Did for Me

Morgan Winters Author PhotoGuest Post
by Morgan Winters

My name’s Morgan, and I’m an author. I feel kind of like I’m at Authors Anonymous, confessing my deepest secrets. I’ve kept my writing hidden for a very long time because I write incredibly dark and disturbing stuff. In fact, it’s so warped, I can’t even discuss it here on this Safe-for-Work platform. It’s better that way, anyway.

I’d started a half dozen or so projects, finishing none of them. That’s probably not a lot compared to most of the authors who frequent IU. But for me – the “nice guy” – it was a lot, and it was frustrating. I couldn’t complete them; I knew that once I did, I’d have to publish them. And then – then, I’d get “the looks.” You know the ones I mean… OMG, did he really write that? He must be sick! What a creep! I hope they fire him. I don’t want to work with someone that disturbed. Yeah, those.

No one expects that kind of dark stuff from me, you know? I have no idea where it comes from. Sometimes I wonder if I am indeed disturbed. But I have no urges to kill or torture anyone. No urges. Thoughts, sure, we all have those, don’t we? And usually in the boss’s office. But I digress.

Speaking of bosses, I need my job. I enjoy a roof over my head and food in my stomach. But I also have stories that need to get out of my head. Trading sanity for comfort? I figured there had to be a better way. Continue reading “What Indies Unlimited Did for Me”

Everybody’s Doing It

John BarlowI know a writer. He’s not a committed indie. In fact, he has a pretty big London agency behind him and is actively seeking a traditional deal. However, he’s writing in a very crowded market (crime), and until he gets a publishing contract he’s busy self-publishing his novels. He regularly has two or three titles in Amazon.co.uk’s top 1000 eBooks, and at least one of these has peaked at a sales ranking in the single figures. By my reckoning, he’s earning a pretty decent living from these eBooks, so you might argue that he doesn’t really need an agent or a trad deal at all.

That’s as maybe, but what really intrigued me was that he let slip that he also (self-) publishes under a ghost-name. Continue reading “Everybody’s Doing It”