The Stigma of Being a Self-Published Author

Like many other aspiring authors out there, I tried to appeal to the gatekeepers of the publishing industry and succeed by the conventional route. I'd heard all about the "odds" of acceptance; but most of us assume that we'll of course be the exception to the rule, right? Well, the climate within the publishing industry is every bit as harsh as the insiders have been claiming all these years. The business of books is one that simply can't afford to take many chances these days.

Various avenues for self-publishing - most notably, the Print on Demand (POD) houses - have arisen to try and bridge the widening gap between the mass of aspiring writers and the very small percentage that are taken under the wing of a major publisher. For a relatively small fee, POD publishers can make your book available for sale within as little as a month or two after receiving your materials, and they will print copies as they are ordered so as not to accrue the massive printing costs that the majors have to foot.

The real question is, will publishing your book in this manner really bring you any closer to the realization of your writer's dreams?

On this, everyone is in agreement: if you go through a POD publisher, you will have the sole responsibility of promoting the finished product. These publishers don't advertise your work or do anything else to make its presence known except by having it available on their own website and with other online retailers like Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

The rest is up to you. Therefore, the publisher will encourage you to get your book reviewed, do a round of radio interviews, place ads, etc. There's one basic flaw with this plan, though: you're still dealing with the gatekeepers, and most of the reviewers and other media personalities out there don't consider a POD book to be genuinely published. They're well aware that these publishers accept manuscripts from anyone willing to front the initial expense, and this has resulted in a deluge of books of questionable quality. Some of what's out there is pretty damning evidence for them to point to, too: overpriced trade paperbacks with poor grammar, spelling mistakes, typos, etc.

What a catch-22! The major publishers won't take a chance with you if you haven't demonstrated your clout in some other capacity, and if you try and make your own way your book won't be reviewed or otherwise written about because it doesn't carry an agent/editor's seal of approval. There are simply too many books out there for people to sift through. They inevitably rely upon the judgment of editors to help them decide what's worth reading. Even the Midwest Book Review, which is known for its generosity towards self-published authors, has admitted to this tendency.

The new publishing climate resembles, in some ways, the indie rock scene in music. There we had underground bands that were nurtured, for years, by fanzines, independent record stores and radio stations, and devoted fans, until word of mouth gradually brought them to wider recognition. Perhaps authors with this kind of vision - and patience - could use self-publishing options to their advantage. One's freedom of expression is not tampered with: there's no agent or editor demanding changes. Writers have the opportunity to present their work exactly as they'd envisioned it. So long as they don't mind nurturing those books at a grass-roots level, that freedom could well work to their advantage in the long run.