Why I Became an Indie Publisher

Happy 12/12/12, ya'll!

I've been dying to talk about how and why I became an indie publisher for quite some time now.

But before we get to the meat of today's post, remember that the publishing company (KLG Press) I run with fellow author Patti Ann Colt is part of Intuit's Small Biz Big Wishes campaign. We'd love you forever if you'd hop over there for a minute and vote for our entry! Mwah! CLICK HERE!

Also, before I forget, KLG Press is running it's last 3 free days for HOW TO ROAST A TURKEY IN 10 EASY STEPS today thru Friday. Go pick up a copy! CLICK HERE!

And now, to the post!

I've always been a writer and a communicator. I know many of you can relate to that. I started writing a school newspaper in first grade; wrote my first fiction "novel" in fifth grade; edited my middle school newspaper and high school yearbook; anchored my middle school news broadcast; worked as a Top 40 and Classic Rock DJ in college; wrote for several corporations through my full-time jobs with them; and now make my full-time living as a freelance writer. I've also blogged here, there and everywhere for years, and started more novels than I could count. Plus, I've won a number of short story contests, typically in flash fiction categories.

So that's nice and all...but where did the leap occur to take me from professional corporate writer and fiction dabbler to an indie publisher who will have published almost 40 titles before year's end?

That's a funny story. Glad ya asked.

Patti and I are related by marriage; she's my mother-in-law's (much!) younger sister. She's also the only family my husband has living in our area. As a result (and, naturally, because she rocks) we spend a lot of time together.

And that was our setting on New Year's Eve, as 2010 was about to become 2011. My kiddos and I, plus she and her grandson, were gathered to hang out that night.

She'd long since invited me to join one of her writing groups and we commonly chatted on blogging topics as well. We had also co-authored a cooking blog for over a year at that point. She was a multi-published romance author, I was knee deep in more manuscripts than I could count and struggling to finish just one.

And then...lighting flashed, bullets zinged and a brainstorm was born.

We'd create our own company! We grabbed her handy dandy Flip Dictionary (don't have one? it's a thesaurus on crack!) and brainstormed a company name, purpose and foundation.

Voila! KnowLinkGrow was born. A year later, we'd complete the legal paperwork to become an LLC.

We toiled away at joining our plethora of blogs together in early 2011, figuring out designs and writing schedules and such.

And then, I had the first of my three shoulder surgeries, to remove a malignant golf ball sized tumor that filled the top of my right humerus. My husband, a cop working night shift, didn't have much time available to take off work, so Patti, with her grandson in tow, showed up at my house to take care of me for the first week or so. I had a 7 month old child at the time and could use one of my arms. Clearly, that meant I needed help.

Patti and I fell into a series of late night and early morning chats on taking writing to the next level. We both had Kindles and then, after another volley of lighting flashes and zinging bullets, brainstorm number 2 came about.

We'd publish eBooks!  We took months to learn the process and the craft, doing every single thing on our own. I still worked full-time, so we'd meet online at night after our kiddos were down, and on Friday nights and all day on Saturdays. We published a bunch of books that first year - almost a dozen - consisting of cookbooks, devotionals, romances, and short stories. Some took off. Others piddled around. But we were making some money and feeling happy.

Fast forward a bit and I quit my full-time job in early 2012. Then, we really worked our butts off. I finished a manuscript, finally...the one you're all tired of hearing about and I'm finally getting tired of making stupid tweaky little changes to. We published another two dozen books. We explored markets, neglected our blogs, ran campaigns, Twittered, Triberred, and more.

So here we are today! Hope you enjoyed the story of our journey. It's just the overview, really, but it's been a fun ride!