When it comes to “self-publishing”, you can bet that whatever side of the equation you find yourself on, you will find an equal number of people taking the opposite side of the argument. Is self-publishing a good or bad option for writers? This is the question posed over at Pimp My Novel, a book marketing blog published by a self-proclaimed industry insider. The blogger’s conclusion is that it’s a bad option for writers. Well, I’m not here to argue about whether or not self-publishing is a “best buy” for writers. My own opinion has always been that self-publishing is neither an inherently good or bad option for writers — just that most writers who self-publish go about it stupidly.
With self-publishing you, the writer, are the publisher. A lot of writers seem to forget that part. They think that all they have to is write a book, get it printed and send out an announcement on on Facebook or whatever, saying, “Hey guys, I published a book. Please buy my book” and they’ll have a bestseller on their hands. Take a look at most self-published books and what you see is a) a book that’s badly written b) amateurish cover art and c) a book that probably hasn’t been edited or proofread a lick and d) a book that probably hasn’t been vetted for legal conflicts.
There is a great deal of responsibility that goes along with the self-publishing option. Even if you get the book just right, you still have to get it into hands of readers. This isn’t so easy — especially when you consider that the whole mainstream literary-industrial complex is prejudiced against books that are published outside of the boundries of traditional publishing. And, no, this is not a conspiracy theory — walk into any book store. Even so, self-published books do occasionally succeed — not as often as the champions of self-publishing would like to believe, but more than most would even realize. It’s not just a matter of dumb luck either. It’s a matter of ability, smarts, determination and publishing knowledge. So rather than telling writers self-publishing is bad, educate them on how self-publishing can work for them because, I gotta tell ya — the way things are going for traditional publishing, self-publishing may be the only viable option left for most writers a generation from now.
