Thanks. My daughter is a productive novelist. She has published with 2 different independent publishers, as well as experimenting with self-publishing another series. Her current publisher signed her to a 2 year exclusive.

However, it appears that these smaller independent publishers are mediocre at generating any significant audience. It feels like it is largely up to the author to develop their own audience.

So I am always keeping my mind open to people who have overcome the starting problem in terms of developing an audience or fan base even outside of fiction.