Against the Machine – Publishing Without Permission in 2001
By Robert Stanek
In 2001, I did something almost no one in the publishing world wanted me to do:
I published a high fantasy novel myself.
No agent. No traditional publisher. No green light from industry gatekeepers.
Just a story I believed in—and a will to see it live in the world, whether they allowed it or not.
Looking back, it seems obvious now: indie publishing is everywhere. But at the time, there was no Kindle, no social media, no support network. Self-publishing was a punchline, a scarlet letter. It wasn’t just discouraged—it was mocked.
And I did it anyway.
Why I Went Indie (Even When I Didn't Have To)
By 2001, I wasn’t some unknown writer chasing a dream. I had already reached millions of readers writing as William R. Stanek—Microsoft’s top author for years. My books were in bookstores and tech departments around the world. I had the resume. The numbers. The credibility.
But when I presented Ruin Mist—a sweeping, politically charged, emotionally raw fantasy epic—I was told to wait. To change the characters. To tone down the politics. To make it more like what was already selling.
I said no.
Because Ruin Mist wasn’t written to be safe.
It was written to be real.
And I knew, deep down, that I couldn’t wait for permission to tell the truth.
What I Was Up Against
Let’s not sugarcoat it: indie publishing in 2001 was seen as vanity. A failure. The thing you did when no one else would take you seriously.
There were no success stories.
There were no bestseller indie eBooks.
There was no blueprint for what I was about to do.
When I serialized my first Ruin Mist novels at Amazon in 2001, it was a first. Nobody had done it before. When I hit the top of Amazon’s fantasy charts in 2002, it shocked people. When The Kingdoms and the Elves of the Reaches became a top Audible title in 2005, they called it a fluke.
But it wasn’t a fluke.
It was the readers speaking.
And that terrified some people.
Breaking the Gate
What did I really do that was so wrong?
- I didn’t ask for permission.
- I didn’t apologize for being different.
- I didn’t water down my story to make it easier to market.
I told a story about a girl who doesn’t want to be saved, a boy who’s feared for his gifts, and a guardian whose duty is quietly tearing him apart.
I wrote a world where humans ban books, elves live in exile, and ancient magic is treated as a crime.
And I didn’t care if it made the right people uncomfortable.
The Backlash Begins
When Ruin Mist found its audience, the reaction from some corners of the industry was swift—and vicious.
- Fake reviews began pouring in.
- Smear blogs targeted me by name.
- Forums and social spaces conspired to erase my success.
- People who had never read the books felt entitled to destroy them.
Why?
Because I didn’t just publish outside the system—I proved it could work.
I proved that a story, shared with conviction, could reach millions without permission.
And they couldn’t stand that.
This Is Why It Still Matters
There’s a reason I’m telling this story now.
Because Winds of Change is being re-released in its full, uncut form—and some of those same voices are still out there, still trying to bury what they don’t understand.
But this time, we know better.
We know that readers—not publishers—decide what stories matter.
We know that indie authors can launch careers that span decades, cross continents, and outlast the smear campaigns.
We know that the truth doesn’t go away just because someone tried to hide it.