Sue Vincent's Daily Echo

There are a good many things Indie writers and publishers have to be grateful for. Things we seem to have in common…apart, of course, from the abject poverty of living in unheated garrets whilst suffering for our art. (Look, we have an image to keep up, right?)

Whilst I wait… and wait… and wait… I thought it might be fun to explore the bond which makes a community of introspective creatives put pen to paper.

1. We are grateful for our families. Without them there would never be anything in the fridge come dinner time because we forgot… again.

Of course, there are those of us who live alone. We are grateful to our four-footed companions who insistently remind us of mealtimes at least twice a day and, with their cavernous snores, remind us occasionally to sleep. They also become almost our sole reason for seeing the outside world.

Our furry companions can be trained to do a number of useful tasks…

2. We are grateful for coffee… or tea/Cola/soda… anything with the requisite sugar and/or caffeine content. They allow us to defy the need for sleep, regardless of the snoring from the disgruntled animal/partner who has gone to sleep in disgust at our defection… Quite apart from the fact that such beverages require us to leave our desks every so often in search of them.

Even though, when we do reach the kitchen… that room full of distant memories of savoury dishes and laughter that now slumbers beneath a layer of forgetfulness like a mothballed Sleeping beauty… we find we have run out….again.

Like, letting the daylight in…

3. We are grateful for microwave ovens… useful to reheat that cup of coffee you finally made and left to go cold… again. Also for the odd, desperate foray into the culinary heaven of a hot meal. Or something that vaguely resembles one, at least. As an occasional bonus, they are useful for drying the coffee stains from the cup you forgot about and spilled on the manuscript…

Making sure we are fed…

4. We are grateful for matchsticks… when the coffee fails during a long stint of editing. Cold showers also fall into this category.

5. We are grateful for computers and the internet… there is no better way of procrastinating escaping the demands of a work-in-progress than social media research.

Computers also have the advantage of remembering all the things you do not. Like the time. And the date. As well as being convenient word processors.

Laundry…

6. We are grateful for the ageing process. Not because of the wealth of experience it allows us to draw upon. Certainly not because we can ease up a bit… as an Indie you are probably working harder and with more focus that you ever have before… No, simply because it is a really good excuse not to move.

and answering the phone.

7. We are grateful for other Indie authors… Not only are they a supportive and knowledgeable community, the really successful ones inspire us with hope and keep us going when things get tough… and others remind us we are not alone… we are not failures.

8. We are grateful for insomnia… is there a better time to write than when the rest of our world is sleeping? It also extends the number of working hours available in a day by a considerable and useful amount.

If all else fails, they will find a way to drag us from our desks…

9. We are grateful for reviews… Pathetically grateful. We have pointed out that you don’t have to buy a book from Amazon to leave a review there… we have begged and pleaded to no avail… We have explained algorithms and the importance of reviews to everyone we meet…. Then one day, like a dog with its first big bone, that first positive review from an unknown person makes our eyes go wide and keeps us occupied for weeks.

… even if it means resorting to lunacy.

10. We are grateful for Amazon… Oh yes we are. Really… It allows us to realise our dream of seeing our words in print. Amazon allows a simple platform for getting our creations out there….

And the most important one? Readers…

Well, that’s up to us, isn’t it?