Excellent post and references on The Reading Experience regarding the legitimizing of self-publishing.
I’m beginning to take this more seriously with both internet and traditional book form publishing because many of the points raised are valid. The large publishing houses have become gods that have been allowed to smile on only a chosen few who will get million dollar advances (Bill Clinton, author? Likewise, Hillary?) guaranteed to make them the big bucks. While this is totally understandable–they are in business to make money after all, and I’m not liberally minded against capitalism–I note that the few exceptional authors they may allow into the stables are not well taken care of in terms of marketing anyway.
Print-on-demand houses and one step further–print-it-yourself-on-demand, are starting to come into their own. After all, with programs as simple as Word and graphics available in Macromedia, Adobe, Corel, etc., and the necessity of marketing yourself anyway, if you’re in for a penny, you’re in for a pound. I’ve just seen a couple of our own local talent discussing self-publishing at the writers conference and these two couldn’t find better representation for their work than themselves; their presentation was inspiring.
Between these options and internet publishing, the large publishing house may soon reveal itself to be a house of cards.
ADDENDUM: Another viewpoint from David St. Lawrence at Ripples that brings up the point of self-publishing becoming mainstream, a natural phenomena that could distort the rosy picture a bit, but as he notes, it may still be well worth it.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology
Not to be a pain or anything — in fact, to be an admirer. But self-publishing isn’t something you might do. And “being published” isn’t anything you need anyone else for. You’re already doing it. You’re already doing both by writing/publishing this blog.
Thank you, Michael, and I understand your point. My feelings are torn because while I understand that this weblog among others is indeed publishing, there still is satisfaction needed from readers who leave nice comments. It’s not all about money, as some would claim, but rather about being accepted as a writer. I myself try to always leave comments particularly on a piece of excellent writing in weblogs. And I do realize that self-publishing in book format is no longer a dirty word. I have no problem with that–I’ve done it, publishing a traditional archery magazine for five years with a subscription of 500 readers, as well as the new “otto” debuted by our writers group. Physical proof of acceptance in book format would come in the sales, rather than the knowledge of an established publishing house willing to take on one’s work. Likewise, people saying good things about your work is even more satisfying than the knowing that they had to “buy” it. We all get down about our personal writing because it means so very much to us. Sometimes I think that my own ego is too large to accept anything less than a contract from Random House as validation. Sometimes all it takes is a “nice writing” from a commenter here at Spinning to have me flying high with a sense of accomplishment. Spinning and my short stories make me happy, as simply the act of writing does for most webloggers (though we contantly peek at the stats!), but there is that next step…