The Indie Author
Revolution
I remember well the night I first
heard Nirvana. I was sunk in wretched and ugly
despondency, not wanting to talk to anyone and
hating myself. I couldn't discern or articulate my
inner state, even to myself. There was no
separating cause and effect. Then Kurt Cobain wove
his uncanny spell. Suddenly I experienced my
apathy, my sense of loneliness and alienation -
even my depression itself - all these emotions as
EMPOWERING.
Talk about waving your freak flag.
Nirvana's success paved the road to recognition
for a lot of other great underground bands like
the Screaming Trees, the Meat Puppets, the
Melvin's; bands that provided a welcome
alternative to the bland and condescending music
that was being force-fed to the masses by the
industry. The "grunge" movement of the early '90's
was the closest my generation ever came to
spiritual union. A community took root and grew,
gathering misfits from every far-flung corner
until it was massive enough to shake up the
status-quo. This uprising snatched music from the
hands of the corporate world and delivered it back
to the people. It was fueled not only by hard work
on the part of the bands, but also by word of
mouth - and the invaluable support of independent
labels, magazines and record stores.
The media generally didn't know what to make of
it. Record companies were rethinking their
strategies and scrambling to hop on the bandwagon.
Oftentimes they latched onto the surface trappings
- unkempt long hair, flannel shirts and
stage-diving - and missed the spirit of the
happening entirely. There was no Institute of the
Arts where one could go to learn how to translate
the frustrations of the twenty-some things into
timeless music.
I miss the excitement of that time, the feeling
that the ball was in our hands and we were finally
going to see some movement and change.
There is an upheaval occurring now within the
publishing industry that will make it possible for
a similar grass-roots movement to flourish through
the medium of books and literature. Frustrated by
the major publishing houses and their worship of
the bottom line - and the elitist milieu wherein a
handful of people in New York deign to decide what
the rest of us will read this year - ambitious
authors are exploring alternatives like self- or
print-on-demand publishing. They seek greater
creative control (i.e., no editors or agents
demanding drastic alterations to authors'
manuscripts based upon their knowledge of "what
sells"), higher royalties, and the means to skirt
around the powers that have hitherto been acting
as the gatekeepers of the publishing world.
Getting hip to underground music required not only
soul-searching and discrimination but also a fair
amount of leg-work. The records were hard to find,
and because they went largely ignored by radio and
MTV one often didn't know which ones were worth
laying down one's hard-earned money for. An
independently-thinking fantasy enthusiast faces a
similar dilemma today when searching for something
other than Harry Potter or recycled Tolkien to
read.
Here the internet proves a valuable resource.
Discussion groups, forums and chat-rooms have
created cyber-tribes that congregate around every
conceivable subject and interest. Word of mouth
travels fast these days - and between millions of
people who've never even met. Amazon.com has
turned readers into reviewers. Authors have their
own websites where they post excerpts and sample
chapters from their works. The internet is the
ideal launching pad for the indie-book revolution,
because it's taken tools previously monopolized by
corporate publishing and made them available to us
common folks. Books that, once upon a time,
would've been rejected because they didn't fit
into any cookie-cutter genres can now find a
community to embrace them.
Ultimately, when we as authors take our creative
destiny into our own hands we're giving ourselves
permission to BE OURSELVES - and allowing others a
glimpse of our true nature.
A cultural climate where new ideas proliferate -
and are exchanged - is an environment wherein the
soul can expand and breathe. Art is meant to open
the windows and air out the closets. It should not
be bound, like Prometheus, to the rock of
publisher shareholder interests, chain bookstore
monopolies and Oprah's selections of the month.
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