Self Publishing
One of the questions that has come up at most writing classes and conferences I’ve attended is, “What about self publishing?” Often the question is being asked by someone whose work has been repeatedly rejected by the mainstream publishing industry. Here is a good entry at Slushpile (via Bookslut) that discusses self publishing.
Repeated rejection does not have to mean that one’s writing sucks. Many famous writers have amusing rejection stories. Kate DiCamillo received hundreds of rejection letters before her Newbery Honor book, Because of Winn Dixie, was pulled out a slushpile and published. Jerry Spinelli, another Newbery award winner, waved a giant sheaf of rejections at a talk I attended. Turns out those were the ones in a corner of the garage that got overlooked when he purged the boxes and boxes of other ones, once he got successful enough not to need them as reminders.
Repeated rejection, though, might mean that one’s writing sucks. And if it does, self-publishing, or publishing on demand, is not going to improve the chances of getting published in the mainstream media, which is what nearly all writers want. It is simply going to annoy or embarrass people who have to listen to the writer go on about how the mainstream press doesn’t recognize genius but is only looking for the next big thing, blah, blah, blah. And it is going to give those people who do have a good and legitimate use for self publishing or POD stigma by association.
The sentence in the opening paragraph of the Slushpile entry sums it up well:
In the right conditions, handled properly, with realistic attitudes, self-publishing can be a viable business decision for certain people.
There are well-documented uses for self publishing and POD, particularly in niche markets. If a writer has a specific book that meets a specific need that either is very small or not yet recognized, then self-publishing can be a good way to meet the need forever, or to establish that there is a need to those who don’t yet recognize it. An example of the former is a writer whose book about a local wartime event was sold through the local historical society. There was a small, steady local demand. An example of the latter is the writer who commented at Slushpile about a series of Harlequin-type romances for gay men. Self publishing helped prove there was a demand, and earned a contract with a mainstream publisher.
But most writers, and here I include myself, should keep writing, keep trying to improve their writing, and keep trying to get that writing published by a regular publisher.