Independent authors are on the rise. They’re both out-writing and outselling their big-name counterparts. Publishing houses are slowly but surely moving away from their big-name authors and turning more and more to independent authors to get more sales. The question is how are these seemingly unknown authors outselling the more established people? More importantly, why are independent authors outselling big name authors?

The Independent Author

An independent author is someone who is not tied to a contract with any publishing house or writing company. An independent author is, to put it in simple terms, a freelancer. They have the power to write about whatever they want. Independent authors are in control of how they want to write their book, from the setting to the general theme of the book.

Independent authors can outsell big name authors by making use of the constraints of being a big name author. Indie authors go from one publishing house to another and have the big bosses of these publishing houses look at their work. If the publishing house doesn’t like it, the author can move on to the next one. If no publishing house likes it, he/she can self-publish.

Why independent authors are outselling big name authors

Independent authors have more freedom over their work compared to the big names in the industry. They can write about whatever they want without fear of being judged based on their previous work. If a big name in literary fiction suddenly starts writing romance novels or detective stories, people might judge that work based on the previous novels that the author wrote. Even something as simple as switching themes can be looked upon as a bad thing if you’re a big name author. This is not the case with independent authors. They can keep on experimenting, yet still have the confidence that their work will sell because there are no lofty expectations to live up to.

Independent authors outselling big name authors also takes into account the contract that big name authors have to stick to. There’s a lot of pressure from having to live up to that contract you signed with the publishing house. They have control over anything a big name author writes. Big name authors are bound by deadlines since the publishing house wants to maximize the profit from the author’s works.

This is not the case with independent authors. They can move from one publishing house to the other since they don’t have a contract to follow. If they feel that the deal they’re getting from one publishing house is not worth it, they can just move on to the next one. They’re also not bound by deadlines, so they can focus more on improving their work rather than beating a deadline.

Ultimately, quality is the main reason why independent authors are outselling big name authors. While a book by a big name author can be popular and easy to sell, readers nowadays are smart. They don’t just pick up a book based on who wrote it; rather, they look at the content, glance through the pages and see if it is worth reading. Independent authors can take advantage of this and write about new topics or take a different approach towards a certain genre and write something that is worth reading.

Sure, independent authors can rise through the ranks and become big name authors themselves, but if they can remain independent, i.e. not bound to any publishing house, they can certainly outsell those other big name authors.