Why Authors Who Say Indie Is Dead Are Right - And Why That’s Awesome

Every few years, someone rings the death knell for independent publishing. Most of the time, those pronouncements are premature. But this time, they’re right. And it’s the best news authors have heard in a decade.

David V. Stewart recently released a video explaining why he’s stepping back from indie publishing. His reasons are unflinching: stagnation, creative decay, A.I.-induced market collapse, and an author culture that markets to other authors more than to readers. He’s not wrong. In fact, he’s describing the logical endpoint of the Kindle Gold Rush era that began ca. 2013.

Back then, self-publishing meant freedom. Amazon had torn down the gates of New York publishing, letting writers sell directly to readers. For a few glorious years, the system worked. A handful of pioneers built empires, proving authors could make a living outside the Big Five cartel. But just as gold rushes always do, the field became crowded, the market overrun, and the money moved from miners to merchants.

That’s what David is describing when he says author culture has become a grift. When writers’ target customer base pivots from readers to other authors, it’s a whole other ball game. You see it in the endless parade of course-sellers, marketing gurus, and now prompt services promising to teach you how to get rich with A.I. It’s the same carnival hucksterism that sucked the music industry dry post-Napster: a new middle layer trying to monetize scarcity in an age of infinite content.

Enter author Devon Eriksen, who tackled indie pub from the distribution side. He brought the hard numbers that prove selling through Amazon and Audible slashes author profits. His figures show that he makes 36 times more per sale through his own web site than through Audible.

Take a minute to think on that figure: Thirty-six times.

And Eriksen rightly calls out Amazon’s opaque payout structure for making sure that authors never know exactly what they’re owed. The old joke about Hollywood accounting—that even a blockbuster can bomb on paper—now applies to indie publishing.

If you still think the Kindle Unlimited model is sustainable, remember: It’s built on a subscription service that treats books like streaming content. To Amazon, your novel isn’t art, it’s just one of a million inventory items in a digital bargain bin designed to keep customers paying $15 a month.

And when generative A.I. floods the bargain market with infinite low-quality noise, Amazon wins while you lose. Because even if you’re still on the launch-a-month rapid release model, you can’t beat the slop mills for speed.

So yes, indie as we knew it is dead.

And that’s awesome.

Why? Because it means we can finally bury the 2013 self-publishing lie that freedom meant reliance on a single megacorp’s platform. That system was never independent. It was an empire built on borrowed land, and the landlord has decided he wants the whole farm.

The path forward is the one I’ve advocated for years: Neopatronage. Instead of relying on a faceless algorithm to deliver your audience, you build a direct relationship with them. Crowdfunding, email lists, and personal storefronts turn the creative economy right-side-up again. You take back control over the means of production and distribution that Amazon took away under the guise of empowerment.

The numbers prove the new model works. Eriksen earns more per sale because he owns the platform. When you sell through your own store, you not only make more money but win real customers. People who buy directly from you are far more likely to become repeat supporters because they know where their money goes and they know who they’re supporting.

Meanwhile, Amazon is doubling down on parasitic behavior. Their new ACX terms of service give them the right to close author accounts without cause and withhold royalties indefinitely, while forcing arbitration to prevent legal recourse. That’s not partnership — that’s feudalism. Every new clause in their ToS is another tax imposed by a digital lord upon his serfs.

David’s decision to take a holiday from indie publishing is consistent with his values. What he’s really describing is the next evolutionary step in creative independence: moving beyond Amazon.

The same principle applies to Eriksen’s refusal to join Kindle Unlimited. He’s not rejecting readers; just a broken marketplace that punishes professionalism.

For years I’ve said that the only long-term winning move is to make your audience your patrons. That’s what crowdfunding does for you. It fosters voluntary exchange between creators and readers, transforming art from a gamble into a covenant.

When readers back a project directly, they’re doing more than paying for a book; they’re investing in the creator. That’s why crowdfunding campaigns reliably outperform the average Kindle Unlimited title in profits and reader loyalty. The crowdfunding model filters out noise. It demands that creators deliver genuine value and rewards them when they do.

So indie is dead; good riddance. The ashes of the old model will fertilize the soil for the new standard: a publishing model where authors answer to readers, not to the robot.

If you’re a writer watching the collapse of the old world with despair, take heart. The system wasn’t built for you anyway. You were never meant to beat the house. But you can win outside it by mastering your craft, owning your work, and connecting with your readers directly.

The next revolution in publishing won’t come from a new platform or a new marketing hack. It will come from authors who stop asking permission to exist.

The gates are still open, but now they lead away from Amazon.

The highly anticipated campaign for Book III in Brian’s record-breaking Arkwright Cycle launches this week! Follow the BackerKit now to get an exclusive bonus pdf of SoE Chapter 1! Follow the campaign now! (Link: https://www.kairospublications.com/soe)

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