Before “indie” was a badge of honor, it was a scarlet letter. Before it was a movement, it was a mark against you. And long before it became a billion-dollar industry with self-published authors hitting bestseller lists, I was walking that path—alone, uninvited, and unwelcome.
In the early 2000s, there was no Kindle. No KDP. No Amazon imprints courting outsiders. To self-publish was to be blacklisted. Dismissed. Ridiculed. It didn’t matter how good the work was. If it didn’t come through a gatekeeper, it was considered unworthy.
I published The Kingdoms and the Elves of the Reaches in 2001.
It hit the charts.
It found readers.
It was passed from kid to parent, teacher to student, librarian to librarian. It was read aloud in classrooms. Shelved in public libraries. Highlighted by VOYA Magazine. Taught in homeschool curriculums. And it did all of this without the blessing of the establishment.
That’s when the backlash started.
The Price of Being First
Success outside the system isn’t celebrated. It’s targeted.
I wasn’t just writing books—I was proving it could be done without them. And that terrified people. It upended their narrative. It challenged their gatekeeping. It threatened their control.
So they went after the work.
Said it was fake.
Said the reviews were fake.
Said the fans were fake.
Anything to discredit it. Anything to stop the story from spreading.
The Real Story They Don’t Want Told
It wasn’t that I was claiming to be “the next Tolkien.” It was that readers were saying: this story mattered. It wasn’t that I said I had millions of readers. It was that readers kept showing up—and they couldn’t explain it.
Back then, Harry Potter had only just begun to explode.
Game of Thrones wasn’t even on television.
Brandon Sanderson hadn’t published his first book.
And Ruin Mist?
It was climbing charts. It was spreading. It was poised to become the next big fantasy epic—without a Big Five publisher.
That’s what they couldn’t allow.
That’s what they had to stop.
So they rewrote the story. And when that didn’t work, they rewrote me.
But the Work Still Stands
Through it all, the books remained.
Readers kept reading.
Teachers kept sharing.
And now, as indie authors top charts and build careers without permission, they stand on the shoulders of those who dared before it was “acceptable.” Before there were resources. Before there were communities. Before there was even a word for what we were doing.
I didn’t wait for permission. I didn’t ask for validation.
I just wrote the stories that needed telling.
And I built something real.
That’s why they’re still trying to tear it down.
That’s why they’re still making noise.
And that’s exactly why I’m still writing.
Winds of Change – 25th Anniversary Legacy Edition
Launches February 10, 2026
Read the book they tried to silence.
Join the story they couldn’t erase.
—William Robert Stanek
