The Smashwords Independent Author Manifesto

Smashwords founder Mark Coker just published a ten-point "Indie Author Manifesto" on his blog yesterday:

"Where once self publishing was viewed as the option of last resort - the option for failed writers and an option marked by stigma and shame - self publishing is increasingly viewed as the option of first choice for many writers.  Over the next couple years I think we'll reach a point where more first-time writers aspire to indie-publish than traditionally publish.  Indie authors are the cool kids club."

As one of those newly independent novelists, please forgive me for plugging (I mean "marketing") my brand-new addition to the glut (I mean "phenomenon"):

Fire Answers Fire at Amazon  
at Apple iTunes
at Barnes & Noble
at Flipkart (India)
at Scribd.
at Smashwords
The Fire Answers Fire page on Goodreads

Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, May 6, 1937 -- April 20, 2014

The first trial was a pig circus and so was the re-trial in 1976 that took place after Bob Dylan's hit song. I attended a couple of sessions of the second trial in Paterson and it's the young railroaded John Artis I remember most clearly. The fact that John Artis was still his "longtime friend and caregiver" when Rubin Carter passed away in Toronto today is a piece of information that I find simultaneously heartwarming and heartbreaking. R.I.P. Hurricane.