My name is Alex Grass, and I’m an independent horror author. And these days, that’s a very fine thing to say. I’m also the sole owner of Dickinson Publishing Group.

I’m hoping some of you out there, those thoughtful horrorists who haven’t found their niche, will be interested in publishing here, too.

The world of bookselling and marketing (and, hell, the whole world) is changing. Now some of the biggest names in horror fiction are authors who either started or branched out into self-publishing: Adam Nevill, Ania Ahlborn, David Sodergren, Hunter Shea, just to name a few.

Here’s what I’ve learned in the 5+ years I’ve spent writing and self-publishing my books:

•It’s not impossible to get total strangers to read your books:

Not terrible. Ten-thousand books three-times-over is nothing to sneeze at.

•The gatekeepers aren’t what they used to be. Networks of distribution like Amazon KDP and IngramSpark are how some of the biggest names in popular fiction got their start. Colleen Hoover was a social worker in Texas when she published SLAMMED on KDP. That book has sold more than a million copies.

PROJECT HAIL MARY made almost seven-hundred-million dollars at the box office. And do you know where Andy Weir got his start? You’re goddamn right: pitching ninety-nine cent books on Amazon Prime.

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