Nov 24 2008
Self-Publishing: Is It Worth It?
Self-publishing has always had a bad reputation. Despite a long and often circulated list of famous self-published books, the truth is that most books that are published by the author stay stacked in the author’s garage for years and don’t go much of anywhere else.
In the days of paper-only presses, self-publishing houses were often called “vanity presses,” a mildly derogatory term meant to suggest that the work is being self-published because it has no intrinsic merit beyond its power to feed the author’s ego by existing in printed form.
That is often the case. It can be true.
But then again, just because a piece of writing stinks doesn’t mean it won’t sell.
I worked in an independent bookstore for years, the last one in the mid-sized rust belt city where I grew up. Every so often someone would come in with a box of self-published books and ask if the store owner if he would display them and/or host a book signing promotional event for the author. The owners never said no. Never. And not one of these books was even coherent, let alone good. I’m not being mean when I say they were real stinkers. I’m not a mean person, especially when it comes to aspiring writers. But these books were self-published for a reason: They stunk.
One of the worst of them, a horribly written memoir about a southern Indiana woman’s really boring life, sold way better than any of the others. I don’t know if that woman had lots of friends and relatives, or if my idea of boring is way off track when compared to Hoosiers, or if people thought they were buying something else, or all of the above or none of the above, but I can tell you this woman hawked her book and this woman sold her book.
These days, even if you do find a real publisher for your book, that publisher is likely to expect you to have a marketing plan and present that plan with the book outline. That being the case, why not just publish and promote it yourself? You can now, and much easier than you could in the days before the internet appeared. Presses like Lulu.com make it possible for you to get an ISBN number and have your book listed at Amazon, all for very little cash up front. The books can then be printed on demand, or just be available for download, and you can charge whatever you want.
If you already have a blog, you can market your book on your own blog and self-publish it through Lulu. If your book is already written for a niche market, this isn’t really that bad a strategy. Plus, if your book really takes off, rest assured that a real publishing house will eventually want a piece of it. And you’ll be in a position to negotiate, having already shown a demand for your writing.
The internet may be slowly but surely taking some of the stigma out of self-publishing. Not only that, the internet may even be making self-publishing a good way to get your work out in front of the public.
What could be bad about that?
Nothing!
Funny how some of the worst writing sells like hotcakes, and some of the best writing goes unnoticed. I used to have this idea that most people who wrote books could put together something that’s at least coherent. Then I went to a presentation by a children’s book publisher and she said MOST of the submissions they get are beyond deplorable. And yet, some of these people end up selling their books. It makes no sense to me!
I am all for self-publishing. It is hard work, but going the traditional route is even harder. Even if you manage to somehow break the publishing barrier, it will take YEARS from the moment you send your manuscript and until the day you get to see your published book. I say do it yourself (but do it right, of course).