The older I get, the more I marvel at technological advances. I wasn’t even two years old when, in October of 1957, the Soviets launched a small satellite and started the race to space. Now we’ve landed astronauts on the moon, and about 10,000 satellites orbit above us. However, for me, the greatest leap forward in technology is the Internet. Without it, I wouldn’t be an author or business owner, and my latest project would be impossible.

When I first began writing, traditional publishers dominated sales, and most people imagined that self-published writers bought a hundred copies of their own book and nagged relatives and friends to buy it. Today, thanks to the Internet, that world has been largely turned on its head.

I write and manage my indie publishing business almost entirely online, but creating a quality book is a team effort. Beta reading and editing are usually done in the United States, where I live, but final manuscripts are sent to a book designer in India. Graphics for marketing are created by a woman in Nigeria. Other work is done by people in the Philippines and South Korea. I coordinate all of this by email, Zoom, and FaceTime.

Indie publishing has gone from being looked down upon to dominating the industry. Eighty-three percent of books published in the United States are indie-published. In the traditional publishing world, inventory is an expense that must be controlled and limited. Today, ebooks and audiobooks can be downloaded instantly. Physical books are printed on demand. For the indie publisher, nothing is created until there is a buyer, so there is no inventory—only profit.

My latest project is using artificial intelligence (AI) to create audiobooks. Rest assured, I still do all the writing, but AI can help. The audiobook cover at the top of this post was originally a standard book cover. Current production costs for a traditionally produced audiobook with a human narrator average between $4,000 and $7,000, with some going much higher. Production costs using an AI voice will range between forty dollars and $300. You can see why I’m interested. Is an AI voice perfect? No, but they are getting steadily better. This allows me to create audiobooks for stories that have had fewer sales.

Thanks to readers around the world and the Internet, my indie publishing company continues to grow while the traditional publishing industry shrinks.

Transforming the Writer’s World