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An indie author is someone who has self-published their book, or been published by an independent publisher. And an independent publisher, or indie press, is usually defined as one that is not owned by one of the five major corporations, which between them dominate publishing, both secular and Christian.
You can see which imprints are owned by which company via an interactive chart. Many of the top names in Christian publishing are owned by one of those conglomerates. For historical interest, all links on this page trace the story of how each of these Christian publishers developed. Almost all the stories start with one individual eager to get books out into the hands of readers. Not so very different to you and me.
The Big Five Publishing Houses and Christian Books
HarperCollins Thomas Nelson, Zondervan, Harper Catholic
Penguin Random House Image, Multnomah, WaterBrook, Convergent
Hachette FaithWords, Worthy
Macmillan and Simon & Schuster No specific imprints, although a few Christian books are published.
These large corporate publishers publish thousands of books and have huge amounts of money to market their books, secular and Christian.
In theory, then, most people would say that anyone who is not published by one of the companies who are included under one of these top five is an Indie author. There are, however, a number of large Christian publishers that whilst they are not owned by one of the top five feel like they are perhaps “less independent” than others. These include:
Moody Publishers Substack: Moody Publishers
InterVarsity Press Substack: IVP Books
Christian Focus Substack Christian Focus
And many others!
Authors published by most of these publishers would expect to have ample support in helping to get their books noticed. Increasingly, however, even large publishers are expecting authors to engage with their potential readers direct. This would include via social media, Substack, and appearing on podcasts or mainstream media. Even in the corporate world many books fail to sell in the numbers that were hoped for. The very successful books cover the costs for those that are less so.
All of the publishers mentioned so far would be considered “traditional publishers.” One thing they all have in common is it can be very hard to get your idea considered if you have not already published a book, do not have a platform of people you influence who are likely to buy your book, and do not have an agent. Getting the gatekeepers to open the door to you is not easy.
Hybrid publishers are another option some authors consider. Here an indie author will pay money to the publisher to take away much of the risk of producing a book which might not sell. True hybrid publishers will still have a selective approach, however, and will not allow what they consider to be a poor quality manuscript to be published under their name. This is called hybrid, as it is not quite self-publishing, but it is not traditional publishing either.
Publishers who will simply publish anything for money are often called “vanity publishers” for obvious reasons. There seems to be a whole industry dedicated to relieving people who want to be authors of sometimes huge sums of money. It is no different from the many spam emails Indie authors will get when their book has been published.
True self-publishing is when an individual author strikes out totally on their own as an Independent. Perhaps they use Amazon’s KDP or one of the other free platforms. They might create a small press of their own, or partner with a tiny publisher. But the writing is their own. Sometimes even the editing is their own (perhaps assisted by smart computer programs). They may even design the book cover themselves. Anything they can’t do themselves, they pay professional help to do for them, or seek advice of other authors.
Christian Book Finder is here to help any Indie author, however you define independent, to get their book known. We provide a curated list of Christian books you can apply to be included in.
We also provide marketing services for those who join our VIP circle.
Each week, Christian Book Finder lists 99-cent Kindle deals. These could be pre-sale, e-books already listed on Amazon — or a combination of both. Consider these deals when choosing your next book and helping your fellow Christian author.
Here are our 99-cent deals this week!
Thanks for this! I have stayed away from indie author promotions, because I didn’t think I was an independent Author! My books are published by a very small publisher. They paid me for my books, so it’s not a vanity press.