The price of indie

The fall of gatekeepers and the rise of indie is a heroic and inspiring story. No longer can someone else tell us whether or not we can create; we can pick ourselves. However, this isn't without cost.

In the land of gatekeepers, the artist got to put their head down and dive deep into their creative pursuit, and only at the finish line would they have to go on a brief book tour and/or other promotional things. For the most part, artists created and distributors distributed.

What we ignore while hearing the triumphs of indie makers is the non-artistic baggage that comes with it. We are now in charge of creating the thing and more importantly marketing it and ourselves. Not to mention the latter is arguably much harder than the former. We are in charge of creation and distribution.

Our creative voice is often much different than what the marketing voice feels as if it requires. It is an added layer of difficulty and confusion on top of art which is already very difficult and confusing. Being indie is great, but it has a price.