You're a What?

"You're a what?" said the guy sitting opposite me on the train as he peered over the top of his glasses.
"I'm an indie author."
"Right. And that means?"
"It means I do everything myself and self-publish my books in electronic format to Amazon."
"Hmm... no hardcopies of your books?"
"Nope."
"So you're not a real author?"
"I'm an author and a physical entity, so quite real."
He leaned across and prodded my leg to confirm the latter. "How many books have you written?"
"Seven."
"Any bestsellers?"
"Nope."
"Indie eh?"
"Yep."
"So you're not a real author then?"
"D'oh!"