Punk Ethos: Experimentation in the SFF Indie Space

by Adrian M. Gibson

“Everything I do, writing, touring, travelling, it all comes from the punk and hardcore 

attitude, from that expression – from being open to try things but relying on yourself, taking 

what you have into the battle and making of it what you will, hoping you can figure it out as 

you go. Make some sense of it.”

—Henry Rollins

Deciding to self-publish has been a long process for me. For years, I had the desire to go the traditional route, but interviewing authors on my podcast SFF Addicts has made me realize that wasn’t a good fit for me. For the most part, it boils down to me not being patient enough—to try and get an agent, then try and get my book picked up by an editor, then go through the long process before a book hits the market. I’ve also heard countless horror stories from traditionally published authors about their struggles with rejection, contracts, covers, agents, editors, publishers, and so much more. 

Of course, not every author has had bad experiences, but just hearing those subjective ones was enough to pull me away from trad and towards self-publishing. And you know what? That was the best decision I could’ve made for my publishing career. Why? Because I’m a punk at heart, and self-publishing is as punk as it gets in the publishing game. Beyond that, I argue that indie science fiction and fantasy (horror, too) are the most experimental spaces in fiction. Authors have the opportunity to try new approaches to genre, craft, and publishing itself, with audiences ready to devour more and more stories from a wider variety of authors.

From my perspective, indie is where things evolve at a more rapid pace—especially in a notoriously slow industry. If you’re ready for it, the books can be in readers’ hands faster, you can learn from successes and failures faster, and pivoting or implementing new tactics can play out faster. This is the essence of punk.

But what are some of the hurdles that can hold writers back? How can authors be free to experiment to their hearts’ creative content? Join me as we delve into the pitfalls and possibilities of genre, craft, and publishing, and why the punk approach of trial-and-error, persistence, and flexibility is key to overcoming rigidity and restriction.

GREAT EXPECTATIONS (ABOUT GENRE)

For authors in particular, it can be pretty daunting to try and figure out where your books fit. In the case of indies, this rears its confusing head when Amazon and other platforms demand categorization. Is my book sci-fi and dystopian, or would post-apocalyptic be more appropriate? Beyond that, readers will bring their expectations to the table. If a story is marketed as cozy fantasy but turns out to be grimdark, readers will be confused, frustrated, and disappointed. They’ll likely want their money back, too. In that sense, genres serve an important purpose—they signal to readers the basic framework of a narrative. It’s very satisfying to hit the familiar beats of, say, a romance or a mystery or an epic fantasy steeped in the hero’s journey.

But as much as booksellers and readers and publishers want to categorize books, genres are actually quite fluid. LitRPG, for example, became a massive success in the indie space, as it caters to series-dedicated consumers who utilize cost-effective platforms like Kindle Unlimited or Royal Road. So, what the hell is this genre that combines role-playing systems with fictional stories? Similar to LitRPG, progression fantasy has captured a huge market share in indie due to its fast-paced stories that draw from the addictive leveling in video games like Pokémon. Will Wight’s Cradle series is the most popular instance of this, and that series has transcended indie to get stocked in chain bookstores, hit crazy sales milestones, and make bestsellers lists. But how can these phenomena be explained? Who would’ve thought those particular combinations would explode?

Strangely enough, these successful and experimental genres have not been capitalized upon in the traditional publishing space. Why is that? Perhaps it has to do with readership. The kinds of readers that exist in markets geared towards low cost and higher consumption are different from readers who dedicate more time, space, and money to physical editions. Cozy fantasy is a particular case, where it blew up in indie and big publishers were able to translate that to their market base. But can that happen for every new genre trend? Genres are ultimately malleable, but there’s no telling which combination will be the one that connects with readers on a large scale. 

In my case, I experienced this malleability conundrum firsthand with my debut novel, Mushroom Blues. It blends multiple genres (noir, murder mystery, cyberpunk, police procedural) and even introduces a new one: Fungalpunk. I made a conscious decision to hit familiar mystery/police procedural beats for readers, while also fueling my weird fascination with mushrooms. But this is punk, in my mind. To be punk with genre is to be unafraid of mixing the familiar and the unfamiliar. To not chase trends and instead write what is most true to you. Those are the experiments that are more likely to catch fire and sustain your creativity long term. ‘Cause even if you’re writing in an already established genre (or if you want to mash stuff together and surprise readers with varying degrees of newness), it’s about satisfying yourself first. 

If you happen to start a trend, likely it will be unintentional. And if other people like what you’ve created, fantastic. But if they don’t, that’s okay, too. Punk is not about pleasing everybody. If anything, it’s about questioning the status quo—breaking things down in order to rebuild them in new ways. 

WHERE THE PUNK MEETS THE PAGE

And that is where craft comes in. Craft is where authors have the most control. Readers, markets, platforms, and all the rest are extensions of the writing itself—all of those things are responding to the writing. But as a writer, you are responding to the story and the motivations of the characters in relation to the world they inhabit. So why not be as punk as possible during that stage of the process?

What do I mean by this? As an indie author, you are the ultimate authority for your project. As such, you don’t have to follow the norm. You can take chances with how you tell your story, in ways that a traditionally published author can’t. Whereas they are more likely to get pushback in the form of agent rejections, editor rejections, major edits, and story overhauls, the self-published crowd can experiment with a whole variety of things. 

One of the most obvious is structure itself. This could be the length of the story, whether it’s a novelette, novella, novel, short story collection and more. In the past, traditional markets have been more punishing towards formats like novellas—historically, they just didn’t sell well enough. Tordotcom Publishing single-handedly made novellas more popular in mainstream markets, but I believe indie authors can take that popularization even further. Short story collections are also very difficult to sell to publishers. (More often than not, it’s a well-established author who can get a collection picked up.) But in self-pub, you can release a short story collection at your whim, experimenting based on what you know about your audience. 

This goes a step further in how the structure relates to the story’s narrative. An agent or editor might be opposed to something that doesn’t fit the mold of more popular cinematic storytelling (it won’t sell!). But an individual indie author can decide that a mix of methods works best. How about a heavy dose of epistolary letters with a non-linear timeframe? Or what about a stream-of-consciousness fever dream, or a picaresque novel set in a strange secondary world? That’s not to say traditional publishers and agents are rejecting these kinds of works wholesale, but the traditional market just isn’t investing in unpredictability—after all, romantasy is the hot shit right now ‘cause it is guaranteed to sell. So, for indies, you have the opportunity to try new things and be open to how your expression can take shape. No one is denying you the chance to do these experiments except yourself, so if it feels right for you and your story, indulge your imagination and put your writing skills to the test.

That’s why punk attitudes are so appropriate for this craft we love so dearly—the writing process is where you can be the most experimental! You can play with style through the ways in which narrative, exposition, dialogue, description, characters, and world are delivered. You can also go deeper with aesthetics, incorporating artwork or graphics that a traditional publisher would rarely offer to its authors. In so many ways, you have the freedom to mess around, make mistakes, try again. Rinse and repeat until you figure out the best path for you and your book. Punk is exactly that—making mistakes, failing, then getting back up, trying again, and holding onto those precious lessons for dear fucking life. That can apply to the process of writing a single story, or from one book to the next. Just don’t let those hard lessons fall by the wayside, untouched and ignored. 

Again, I reiterate, you are not writing for everybody. When it comes to craft, these experiments and lessons are for you, the author. Be as punk as possible on the page, because no one story will garner praise from everyone—it’s an impossibility. You have to write what is true to you, then figure out how to market it to the people that might like it. Your genuineness will make you stand out, enough that it could turn a “might buy” into a “will buy.” And the uniqueness that you’ve infused into your story could be the difference between a three- or four-star rating and a five-star rating.

Like any good punk song, you can push back against the systems and the institutions that tell you to write your stories in a certain way. “This isn’t the right fit for the market,” the agents or editors may say. Ha! What fucking market is that? Readers often don’t know what they want to read until they discover it. A subgenre doesn’t blow up until creatives make it a thing and generate consistent content. Who knew the people wanted LitRPG until authors started writing those stories? The same goes for progression fantasy, cozy fantasy, and all number of genres. So, be unafraid of what you’ve created! If it was worth it for you to write, then isn’t it also worth putting out into the world? 

And that leads us to the final stage.

MARKET FORCES

Alright, you’ve written your book. You tested the boundaries of genre and craft, it is the story of your dreams, and you poured your heart and soul into it. But how the hell do you sell the thing? Books start as passion projects but morph into products. That’s the reality. And as much as it sucks for authors to admit, publishing and marketing are a huge piece of the puzzle. (Especially as an indie author, where you have to wear multiple entrepreneurial hats.) There’s a big silver lining, though. Publishing and marketing don’t have to be any harder than you make them, and you have so much room to experiment in order to find your ideal path.

Here’s my major thought when it comes to the publishing/marketing dynamic: With self-publishing these days, there are more varied ways of publishing, more varieties of platforms to publish through, and more varied methods of marketing and promotion than ever before. Obviously, the amount of research required can be daunting, but you don’t have to research all of it. Find authors whom you respect, whose books you love, whose social media presence feels genuine, and whose marketing appears comprehensive and effective. Figure out what they’re doing and why it works—reverse engineer that shit. Deconstruct the methods of different authors in order to reconstruct your own Frankenstein method.

This can boil down to how they’re publishing. Of course, self-publishing offers a gigantic advantage over trad with speed. Authors can get their work out there faster, and many consistently publish three, four, five or more books a year. But it’s not just about velocity. There are forms of indie publishing stories that go back over a decade to books like Wool by Hugh Howey and The Martian by Andy Weir. Those two blockbuster success stories started out as single short stories or chapters that were expanded in ongoing installments—readers could pay for one chapter at a time. This legacy continues to this day, where authors release chapters through their personal websites, Patreon, Royal Road, etc., and readers can choose to pay or donate to the authors. A lot of people love this for the affordability factor alone.

There are also options for self-pub authors to release updated editions in ways that traditional publishers would never justify without the sales figures to match. Indies can offer new editions with new covers from a swath of ridiculously accomplished artists. Special editions are blowing up, too, especially with indie bookstores/publishers like The Broken Binding and Wraithmarked providing a ton of support for the indie community. There is a broader control for the individual author, now more than ever. 

Speaking of which, where authors are publishing is a huge factor. I mentioned Patreon and Royal Road, where web novels, fan fiction, and more piecemeal narratives really thrive, but there is a plethora of options available now. Amazon is obviously the big player, and many writers are happy to exist exclusively in their ecosystem of KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing), Kindle Unlimited, and Audible (or at least sell there but also go wide with their distribution). But the last few years have seen more and more competitors rising up. Campfire is a more recent example, where it started out years ago as a worldbuilding software, recently expanding to publishing digital content with generous 80% royalties. I have no doubt more options will surface in the years to come.

Crowdfunding is the big one, though, with Kickstarter being the clear heavyweight. Brandon Sanderson (along with the efforts of Michael J. Sullivan, Will Wight and countless other indies) dealt a huge blow to the ego of traditional publishers. Seriously, Sanderson made tens of millions of dollars on his secret project Kickstarter project, and it’s not uncommon now for authors to make $100,00+ on a single project. Special editions projects alone are a huge boon for authors to provide quality products for readers to collect, making this career path more viable than ever. So, if the biggest author in fantasy is going in this direction, what else in the publishing industry is subject to change? 

That was a sign that self-publishing is nothing to scoff at. Kickstarter and crowdfunding are laying the groundwork for authors to set up their own publishing companies—or at least be in greater control of various levels of the production process. It has shown that small presses can be a viable alternative to the corporate conglomerates. Seriously, individual authors can be their own presses now, and there’s nothing more punk than a DIY venture like that. 

Sanderson’s Kickstarter explosion was also a clear example of how vital marketing and promotion are. To get your work out there in front of as many eyes as possible, what authors do to promote their work is an important balancing act. We’re neck deep in the social media age, and while it’s not always fun to make digital content when you want to be writing, it is beneficial. I’ve spent years learning how to promote myself online, first as a tattoo artist, then as a podcaster, and now as an author—it’s not easy, and there is a ton of trial-and-error. But trial-and-error is the best way to test the waters and see what you’re capable of.

Today, authors have their pick of various methods and platforms for promotion. I’ve seen countless authors take advantage of short-form videos on TikTok and Instagram to incredible effect. I’ve also witnessed talented folks take to YouTube, starting their own channels and producing fantastic content while occasionally promoting their books. Podcasts and book blogs also continue to flourish. I got my start in the SFF community through those two things, and they’ve changed my life. You can foster relationships with other booklovers, writers, readers, etc, and more often than not, they’ll be happy to help. Podcasters are always looking for guests. Booktubers are always looking for new books to talk about. 

The very virtual book tour that this essay is a part of is a testament to how authors can put themselves out there for free, paying only with the currency of time and effort (something authors are already used to). Promotion doesn’t have to be relegated to Amazon ads or other forms of paid advertising (an art in and of itself, and one I don’t yet fully understand). But authors can find solace in the fact that promotional opportunities exist, whether it’s your own platform or somebody else’s. Marketing is a skill, yes, but it doesn’t have to be scary. Embrace the chaos of it, experiment with free options at first, then figure out the avenue that best fits your skillset, mental capacity, and schedule. Later on, you can decide whether a monetary budget is something you can or should incorporate.

A few thousand words later, and I hope you’re more optimistic rather than overwhelmed. Seriously, you can do this, ‘cause everything I’ve discussed fits into the Henry Rollins quote at the beginning of this essay: Give yourself the freedom and flexibility to give things a shot, absorb what others have done and be open to trying it yourself, despite the hardships. Then, sort it out in real time as it succeeds and fails, such that you can make some sense of it. Self-publishing is a strange and lonely venture, one that requires you to pivot and probe the possibilities of different techniques. Success will never come overnight, but rather through persistence and adaptability. Each book is an opportunity to experiment. To reapply proven tactics and change up those that floundered or failed. The possibilities are not unlimited, but they are plentiful and ripe for the plucking. 

At its core, punk means being okay with fucking up and, most importantly, learning from those blunders. Beyond that, to learn from the wins and losses of the authors you respect as much as your own. The tools are out there for you to experiment, now all you have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to you. You’ll figure the rest of this shit out as you go.

About the Author

ADRIAN M. GIBSON is a Canadian speculative fiction author, podcaster and illustrator (as well as occasional tattoo artist). He was born in Ontario, Canada, but grew up in British Columbia. He studied English Literature and has worked in music journalism, restaurants, tattoo studios, clothing stores and a bevy of odd jobs.

In 2021, he created the SFF Addicts podcast, which he co-hosts with fellow author M. J. Kuhn. The two host in-depth interviews with an array of science fiction and fantasy authors, as well as writing masterclasses. (But don’t worry, it’s not overly serious—there are also plenty of shenanigans to be had.)

Adrian has a not-so-casual obsession with mushrooms, relishes in the vastness of nature and is a self-proclaimed “child of the mountains.” He enjoys cooking, music, video games, politics and science, as well as reading fiction and comic books. He lives in Quito, Ecuador with his wife and sons.

His debut novel is MUSHROOM BLUES, releasing on March 19, 2024.