Comparison Between Indie Authors

The end of a year always brings about comparisons. Social media is full of all the things people have achieved in the last twelve months. You get a highlight reel of people’s lives. I’m guilty of this too. If you ask me about my year, chances are, I’ll start with all the good bits; all the things I achieved. But why is that? Why don’t we talk about the failed projects, the losses, the mistakes? And should we?

It’s a double-edged sword. We SHOULD celebrate what we have achieved. We SHOULD give ourselves credit for what we’ve accomplished. But we should also acknowledge that through the ‘bad bits’ we have grown, we have learned, we have developed.

If you’re anything like me, you’ll see people’s end of year summaries and immediately begin to compare yourself. Comparison can be good – it can spur us on, motivate us, and push us forward. But it can also make us feel like shit (to be quite frank). We forget that we’re at different points in our journey to the person we’re comparing ourselves with, or maybe we’re on a different journey completely.

I’m a fairly new indie author. I’m still learning the ropes, especially when it comes to things like marketing (which is the devil and I hate it). When other authors post their figures (their sales, and kindle page reads) it can be difficult not to feel deflated. Admittedly, this is what happened yesterday when some of my amazing author friends were discussing their figures. Mine didn’t quite compare to theirs. My initial reaction was jealousy, until I checked myself.

Do you know what the best part of being an indie author is? It’s the community. In being an indie author, I have met so many incredible people, people who I wish every success for. And do you know something, there’s space for us all to be successful because our readers don’t just read one book. We’re in the unique position to be able to support our ‘competitors’ because our competitors aren’t really competitors at all, they’re colleagues. We can all be successful. We can all raise up one another. This is something, in my experience, the horror community does extremely well at. I love it when I see authors recommending books/authors. I love it when I see authors supporting other authors. It makes the community such a positive place to be. In my humble experience, horror authors are the best. We support one another like no other.

The thing about horror is that it is already a fairly niche genre. There’s a lot of overlap between readers. For example, if a reader likes my books, chances are they’ll like books by other authors like Jim Ody, Leigh Kenny, Alan Shivers, Emerald O’Brien (the list is endless). So why wouldn’t I shout about these authors from the rooftops? We’re all in this together, so we may as well make the experience as fun and supportive as possible.

This is my PSA to those at the start of their journey, or those suffering from the comparison bug… There is a place for you. There is a place for your book. Keep going. Success doesn’t happen overnight. As much as we can pray that we go viral (for the right reasons) it might never happen, and so we just have to keep writing our stories, pushing them out into the world as best we can, and supporting others along the way. This year, I’ve found my people. I’ve been very lucky to fall in with some insanely supportive authors and readers, and I will forever be grateful to have them by my side while we figure this crazy world of indie publishing out together.

I’m going to list below some horror authors who you NEED to check out – some are fairly established, some are new, all of them are awesome people…

Jim Ody

M L Rayner

Leigh Kenny

Alan Shivers

Emerald O’Brien

Philip Alexander Baker

Ashley Lister

Brianna Raine

E C Samuels

Elizabeth Brown

PK Baker

Alexandra Nisneru

And I’m sure there’s some I’m forgetting… But my point is this, the world is full of awesome people (some of whom happen to write awesome horror stories). Don’t get bogged down by your figures, continue to write the stories you want to write and be a supportive and positive face in the community. That’s what it’s all about.