Killing The Top Ten Sacred Cows of Indie Publishing 2026

Introduction

(I will write and update the older version of this book, KILLING THE TOP TEN SACRED COWS OF INDIE PUBLISHING 2026 right here on this blog. See yesterday’s post about the Best and Worst Practices Seminar we are taking sign-ups for. It is also focused on a lot of business, just as this book is. I will not put every chapter of the entire book up here since the book will appear in a StoryBundle as an exclusive in April and I would like you to support that bundle.)

 

Welcome to the second book in the Killing the Sacred Cows series. The first book was called simply, Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Publishing, but here in 2026 going the traditional route is just flat stupid and there are far, far more than ten of those cows. The entire route into traditional publishing is a sacred cow and the only reason anyone goes that way now is a belief in dozens of myths. So that first book is out of print, or will be shortly.

This is a book about a different group of myths, which I call “Sacred Cows,” that infest the indie publishing industry.

I first did this book as the indie publishing world started to grow and gain traction. It had become clear to me that the writers thinking of indie publishing were getting pounded with a lot of myths as well.

So thus, I did this second book of sacred cows. And sadly, in indie publishing, in 2026 there are a lot of sacred cows, myths, that have developed just since I did that first book. I am going to try to knock down what I see as the largest ten that exist here in 2026.

Why I Can Write About This Stuff

I sold my first short story in 1974, and have been pushing and working at writing ever since. I went through many of the general myths from the first book and survived them and finally started making a living in publishing in 1987, the same year I sold my first novel.

Also that year, Kristine Kathryn Rusch and I started a publishing company called Pulphouse Publishing, which quickly grew to be the fifth largest publisher of science fiction, fantasy, and horror in the nation.

I was the publisher and sometimes editor on some projects.

We shut the business down in 1996, but I kept editing at times, first for a national magazine, then for Pocket Books in the Star Trek department. Also, during that time and up until around 2008, I sold over one hundred novels under various names to traditional publishers.

So my sitting in the writer desk, the editor desk, and the publisher desk allowed me to see all sides of this business. And working for such a long time writing many, many novels, helped me clear out the last of the myths for myself.

Then the indie revolution started and I loved it right off.

I loved the freedom and the fact that I didn’t have to spend so much time dealing with editors and such in New York.

In 2009, Kris and I once again started up a publishing company called WMG Publishing Inc. to work on our indie titles and get our backlist out.

Now, as I write this in 2026, WMG Publishing Inc. went through over a dozen different employees to end up with none, which we love. We are doing everything ourselves, or will as we finish up a few more learning curves. WMG has over 1200 titles in print. That is a lot of books.

So I know the indie side as well as the traditional side.

And both Kris and I have been voices in the indie growth on our blogs since it started.

 

The Goal of This Book

Writers hold onto myths like lifelines that are keeping them from drowning in a raging river of information. Sometimes sane people in the normal world will follow a publishing myth that makes no sense at all.

And they follow the myth, the sacred cow, without thought.

So this new series is an attempt to help the new world of indie publishing with the growing list of myths that plague it.

My goal is simply to show other sides of myths, to help writers become grounded in good business decisions.

Writing fiction is a business. Indie publishing your fiction is a business.

This indie publishing business can be fantastic fun and very profitable if you can make clear business decisions that are right for you.

My goal is to not show you the right way, or the only way, or any other such nonsense.

My goal is to help you push aside the myths that are swirling around publishing and make good decisions for yourself. To help you do it your way.

Thanks for reading. I hope this book helps your writing and publishing dreams in some fashion or another.