Lately there's been a veritable flurry of articles and conversations about the newly reconceptualized idea of self-publishing. I suppose at this point I should make a couple of distinctions. I'm not referring here to vanity publishing, using such purveyors as the quite reputable iUniverse or the substantially less reputable PublishAmerica. Vanity publications are for authors who write a book and for one reason or another, cannot get published, and so they pay a publisher who may or may not edit their work, may or may not have a distribution system in place and may or may not destroy the reputation of the writer in the process.
You see, vanity publishers will not tell you if your book sucks. Their job is not to gatekeep the trash from public view. So if you've written a book that, shall we say, needs a lot of work, a vanity press will do their job and get you out there where everyone can see you work, even if it's still in its underwear.
The problem with vanity presses is one of irresponsibility. Since these companies (rightly) don't view it as their job to make sure the product is good -- or at least passable — copy, we have now given any idiot the power to publish a book, as long as he or she has the cash. And I've found that most idiots take advantage of opportunities like this one.
To be fair, I've also read a number of beautifully written and edited self-published books. This one, for example.
Now this doesn't really change anything. You've always had to wade through the crap to find the jewels in the bookstore. Since all art is a crapshoot as to whether you'll like it anyway, the Sturgeon statistic holds, that 94 percent of everything is crap.
What I'm really addressing here, then, is the relatively new phenomenon of self-publication in e-book form, which is not the same animal at all, although it has been, until recently, deprecated by both author and publisher alike. The art and concept of self-publication is taking the law into one's own hands, so to speak. It sounds like vanity publishing, but it isn't, because the self-publisher understands the Spider-man rule: With great power comes great responsibility.
The writer who publishes herself, for example, understands that her job is no longer just to write, edit and submit on time. That writer must now be self-motivated enough to impose and keep to her own deadlines. She also understands that she must now have to edit her own material, or — preferably — get someone else to do it, so the product she places out there is just as shiny and perfect as it can possibly be, with all her continuity, spelling, grammatical, punctuational and plot ducks in a neat little row.
The job of the so-called legacy publishers, the Big Six, the small press, anyone who has an acquisitions staff, team or person, was to put the final polish the manuscript, package it, market it, and sell it. Now the writer who wants to publish himself becomes all of those things. If you want a full-page ad in Locus (no longer absolutely necessary, but always helpful) one has to front the money him- or herself.
One has to arrange -- or hire or con someone to arrange -- content- and copyediting, covers, ebook formatting, advertisements, book trailers, distribution or placement on websites such as Sony, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords and Fictionwise. This is all in addition to arranging your own publicity, social media, presentations, book tours and all the hidden stuff that goes with being an author on one's own.
That's the downside, and only part of it.
The upside is that the author remains in complete control of every project from start to finish: plot, cover, editing, formatting, publication, distribution, And keeps all (or most of) the money for doing it. With the advent of the Kindle, the Nook, the Sony Reader, computing tablets and smart phones, consumers who read are now more connected and have more access to immediate books than ever before. It's a reader's dream. A writers dream, too. A writer can connect with his readers on an immediate, basic level.
I have just touched the surface of investigating this idea. I'm going to try some experiments, and, for those interested, I'll pass my findings and my procedures on to you. Here is one such finding (on the "be wary" side) which began life as an email to me from a dear friend and later took on an expanded life of its own.
Does this mean I'm going to go whole hog into self-publishing? Hell no. Even if I thought that was a good idea, which I'm still not wholly convinced of, monetarily speaking — there are downsides I've touched on, but haven't explored.
But I am going to gather my Lantern of Diogenes and go looking for the truth (and perhaps any honest remuneration) to be found therein. Stay tuned.
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