indiepub

I thought it might be helpful to explain how The Salt and Light Express was published. I hired a consultant to help me with every aspect of independent publication. Not a vanity press, not a small press, not a hybrid, and not a simple upload to Amazon. The novel looks professional and seamless to the reader, as well as to libraries, book stores and others who may want to purchase it. Independent, or indie, publishing is become more accepted, professionalized and well-resourced.

Let me back up a bit. My Substack post on the right explains how I landed here. But in a nutshell, I quickly became disillusioned about the traditional publishing process. That’s the idea that some agent will locate your query in a slush pile of hundreds, be intrigued enough to ask for your full manuscript, read it and love it, sign you and then shop you around to a publisher who will commit to your book. If it ever happens, it takes years, and I am 69. 

Even agents I met through the MFA program at Drexel ghosted me. They are just overwhelmed with queries. Or they are looking for a surer thing than my quiet little inspirational debut novel. It’s not rom-com, or fantasy, or horror, or mystery. Saddled with conventional wisdom, they aren’t willing to take a chance. And they know that the increasingly consolidated world of publishing is not going to take one, either. You need to read about what’s going on in the publishing industry to understand why this is so hard.

So enough bellyaching. I had sent out 23 queries. Many would say I had not suffered enough rejection, but I could see the writing on the wall. So I was about to just give up. On writing novels, period. Then I came across this blog by Jeniffer Thompson of MonkeyCMedia. I realized this was a different way of publishing a novel that gave me much more control and was much speedier. I hired Jeniffer in January 2025. The novel was published in October 2025.

They took care of everything from obtaining ISBN numbers and researching how to position the book on Amazon and elsewhere to designing cover options and the interior layout. I created the imprint, Shifting Sands Media, for publishing the novel. They computed how much I would make per copy on each format via Amazon and Ingram. They kept the process moving and guided me through decisions I wouldn’t have known to make on my own. From researching the hybrid model, I believe they were less expensive and offered more control to me, the author and publisher. And in my opinion they were worth every penny and I will use Jeniffer for the next one.

We did not take shortcuts. The book was copyedited and proof-read. Find a typo in that book and I will send you a free one. I chose to try everything to see what works, so I also spent money on the audio book. I used The Audiobook Experience, and Mary Catherine Jones helped me audition narrators.  We chose Maria Marquis, and she did a fantastic job. I decided to create a hardcover version mostly for libraries; I will make next to nothing on that format.

That’s the introduction. To pay Jeniffer, I took money out of my IRA. It grew back quickly. You can do as little or as much of this as you want yourself, though, so I am not going to talk money here. (You can ask me privately.) I happen to be pretty good at website design and graphics, so I did that all myself — except for the cover design.