The VALUE in VARIETY

When I started writing "seriously" back in 2007, I had this tunnel vision of what I expected to write.

I wanted to write full-length contemporary romance for one of the top-ten Christian publishers.

Nothing less. Nothing more.

Not picky, right?

It's amazing at how much the publishing landscape has changed in the last 8 years since I took that original leap at following my dream of being a published author.

There are SO many more choices and options than there were then, and more and more authors are seeing value in embracing the changing landscape and being on the frontline vs dragging behind, resistant to change.

And I'm not talking just about indie-publishing, even though that is a definite change.

Authors TODAY are looking at a lot more than just writing what they've already written.

Publishers are encouraging novella prequels or sequels to help promote their books and build readership. Authors are seeing value in indie-publishing their backlist or publishing those books-in-the-closet that would never see the light of day otherwise as they aren't considered marketable by traditional publishers. Some authors are choosing to be hybrids (raising my hand!) and others are ditching traditional publishing and going indie with both feet and not looking back. (and quite a few of them are making bank off that decision!) From short-stories to non-fiction to children or YA fiction, there are SO many more options available today.

A few example:

Jody Hedlund's novella Out of the Storm was a prequel published before her newest Lighthouse series was released. It's currently FREE on Kindle and includes a preview to the first book in the series, Love Unexpected.

Katie Ganshert has dipped her toe into indie publishing with her first YA novel, The Gifting!

Susan May Warren recently published 3 of her previously published novellas from her early days in a novella collection called Somewhere, My Love.

And a new trend over the last year that is quickly picking up traction are group novella collections! A great example is a team of indie-authors who published Splash! a collection of contemporary Christian romance novellas by 9 different authors - releasing June 23rd and available for pre-order now! They usually sell the collections for a small price of 99 cents, but the volume of sales on top of the exposure for marketing make this an interesting new idea! I myself am going to be a part of a Christmas collection come this holiday season!

There are so many other examples, but this was just a small sampling.

The point is -- your publishing experience doesn't have to be limited to one thing anymore. In fact, it is looking more and more like it SHOULDN'T be anymore too.

What about you? Have you thought about outside-the-box publishing options? 

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Krista is a follower of Jesus, a wife, a mother, and author of Sandwich, With a Side of Romance, A Side of Faith, and A Side of Hope. She blogs about finding JOY in the journey of LIFE at http://www.kristaphillips.com. She is represented by Sarah Freese of Wordserve Literary.