All right, hold onto your hats, people.
Things are about to get serious. (Not really. I just like to wind people up.)
Last week I saw a blog post on self-publishing by Agent Janet Reid. As with every other time Janet talks about Self-Publishing, I disagreed totally with almost everything she said. I find Janet a great source of wisdom and fantastic hints, but I think she’s completely off when it comes to self publishing. What she says simply doesn’t match up with my experience or with the experiences of most of those self-publishing around me. That’s to be expected: she’s an agent, not a self-publisher. Her expertise–and it’s a vast and immensely useful expertise–is in an entirely different area. I didn’t comment on the blog post because I didn’t want to waste my breath or annoy Janet by disagreeing with her on her blog. I simply had a bit of a chuckle and moved on.
However. I got an email this evening.
It was a nice email, a thoughtful email from another reader of Janet’s blog, mentioning the blog post and asking what I thought of it. He added that not many self-publishers had commented upon the post. He then linked to another blog post on the subject and asked my opinion on it. This is the blog post: it’s great. Thoughtful, questioning, and interesting. It brings out some fantastic points.
It made me think again about why I self-publish, what I think of the self-pub vs trade-pub question, and what battles I think are worth fighting. I’ve spoken before about why I love to self-pub: things like control of my own work, rights, and author brand; plus a (much!) better cut of the profits; my own publishing schedule (that means I can publish 4-6 times a year instead of once every 2 years); etc., etc….
But most of all it got me thinking about one thing.
In this quickly changing and vast world of publishing, I have noticed one thing happening again and again. Self-pubbed authors working hard, making it big (to either a great or decent extent), and taking a trade-publishing deal along with their self-pubbed work. Then I see the exact same thing, but in reverse: Trade-pubbed authors who have already made it big (or who have been midlist and want more) going self-pub on the side, and making it rich. So in the end, it really makes me think that the best thing to do as either a self- or trade-pubbed author is to be flexible. There’s no one way to do it, and Hybrid-pubbed authors are beginning to spring up everywhere.
So there you have it.
I’ve decided absolutely nothing. Self publishing is best for me, and I fully expect to be writing full-time within five years, but that’s not going be the path for everyone. Some authors are going to be more comfortable trade publishing. Some of us aren’t. I could do with a little less of the smug attitude and pitying glances from the direction of trade publishing, but in the end, who really cares? So long as I’m making a living, they can look down on me as much as they choose. Officially, I recommend self-publishing, but you have to go into it with your eyes open, knowing what to expect. It’s going to be a lot of work, and you may or may not succeed. On the other hand, I could say the same of trade publishing. So again, I’ve not really decided anything.
I’m on the side of self-publishing (mostly because that’s what I’m going to try myself) because I think it gives writers that otherwise wouldn’t have a chance to get their writing out into the public eye. On the other hand hand, self-publishing does leave us a LOT of writing that isn’t up to traditional publishing.
I don’t think ALL self-publishing is bad. Some of the BEST books I’ve read are self-published, but I think it gets a bad rap. As more authors use it and more authors get GOOD publishing cred through self-publishing, I think the rep will change.
Meanwhile getting the word out will help.
There ARE a lot of really bad self-pubbed books out there. I have noticed an awful lot of dreadful trade-pubbed books, too, though; so now I just use the Amazon ‘look-inside’ feature a lot 😀 Most of my favourite authors are self-pubbed, and they beat most trade-pubbed authors out of the game. The rep is changing a bit, I think, but it still has a long way to go before some people stop looking down their noses at it. Some never will. It’s just a matter of doing what’s best for yourself, I think–and being happy with what you do.
I think if self-pubbed take the time to edit and make it the best book they can, then it works out the best for them. I do like the look inside feature too. And after the horror I had of reading the one trade book a few weeks ago (really she thought it was “cute” or “catchy” or something to use were for was for the entire book!), I’ll take a well-written self-pub book over a hyped trade published author any day.
I’ve also noticed over the years that I tend to not go along with mainstream press/ideas and when everyone else is going “Oh, this is the best!”, I’m sitting there going “WHY??” so it kind of makes sense I’d like self-pubbed books.
Exactly! It’s all about making sure you have a quality product! One of the publishers I submitted to (back when I WAS submitting MS’s) said that they loved the story, voice, and characters, but just couldn’t think how to market it, or if there WAS a market for it. It was one of the things that prompted me to self-publish: though I didn’t start until more than seven years later. I used that time to write more books, rewrite the one I’d submitted, and hone my craft.
I’m totally with you on this one.
In particular, it’s all about “brand” for me. I spend way too much–not going to try to argue that–but in exchange I create exactly the image I want for my product. No publisher would take that sort of investment risk.
And the deadlines are my deadlines. Which means a lot in the chaos of my life and quality of my work!
You are one of the ones doing it exceedingly well. I don’t think you can really spend ‘too much’ when it comes to developing your brand–if anything, I tend to be a bit TOO cautious, I think. Your brand is a quality one–what you’ve spent really shows. And you’re happy doing it the way you’re doing it, so win/win!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, here and elsewhere. It’s always nice when someone further along the learning curve is willing to share what they’ve learned.
From a first-timer’s perspective, the decision between self-pubbing or try to get into the queue of traditional publishing feels huge and final. But maybe the growth of hybrid publishing and the end of the stigma attached to self-publishing mean that no decision is final.
Either way you put out your best product and put in your best effort and hope that works out. Again, thanks for your thoughts.
You’re absolutely right–whichever way you go, you put out your best effort and never give up.
BTW, it always feels odd to hear someone refer to me as someone ‘further along’ because I still feel very much a beginner in this whole process 😀
Whichever way you go, good luck!