Your points are on target. I used to say never self-publish fiction. I don’t say that any more. I do add the caveat, though, that for 99.5% of people, self-publishing fiction if they don’t have backlist, a brand, etc. is a waste of energy and time and money. But there will be a few success stories. Because they will have a great book, know how to market, are in a niche market, and get ‘lucky’.

People tremendously over-estimate how books they will sell. They read the few success stories and figure that will be them. The thing is no one is blogging about their FAILURE. Which is most people who’ve tried it.

I’m teaching a course on Selling Your Book on-line in January and I’m approaching the entire process much differently than I have for the past 20 years. I think an author should take advantage of all opportunities. But the key is to be aware, stay current, accept that marketing is an integral part of the job, and hard work and persistence are the keys to getting ‘lucky’.

All the best with your books, both with your agent and what you are doing on your own. I’m following the same path, with 20 titles from my backlist self-published and a manuscript at my agent.

I am up to freaking HERE with all the polarizing arguments about self-pubbing. I’m not a fan of it—but then, I’m also lined up with one of the big six, so it can be argued I’m skewed. To which I reply that I have never been a fan of self-pubbing as a way to make your career in writing, and have felt that way for years.

Although I’m always a fan of people doing it if they want to. Why not? Do it. Have fun. Enjoy yourself. Make money. Make fame. Make babies! Like everyone’s sexuality, I DON’T CARE. I hope self-pubbers get rich, get hookers, get acclaim; get whatever they want. Because I’m giving like that.

I can’t be biased; some of my best author friends are self-pubbers! …. Wait. Does that argument work still? No? Okay, anyway…

I’m just glad to see a middle-of-the-road write-up on this. Yes, self-pubbing is awesome. Yes, it sucks. Yes, traditional publishing is awesome. Yes, it sucks. Welcome to a career, folks. No matter how much you love it, parts will always, always suck. That’s life.

Unless you’re on of Those People(tm), always thrilled with every aspect of their job, in which case, I hope you choke on your Kindle made of dodo bones.

…Seriously. This bile has been brewing in the back of my throat for a while. Thanks for taking the mid-ground stand, Chuck.

Always have liked your tone. Liked it applied here.

“Anybody can self-publish. Which means your book is going to compete with all that garbage — and that is what it is.”

Problem is, going with a corporate publisher just means your competition is–wait for it–Snooki, Sarah Palin, and “Twilight.”

No, but seriously, you bring up some good points. And I’d say “but things are changing,” but then things always change.

I’m not sure about fast money, though. To me, independent publishing seems more about a long game, if you will. It might speed production, but the actual business model itself doesn’t seem all that “fast.” Terms like “long tail” seem to apply. But maybe the Internet will move away from a blockbuster sort of business model, anyway?

I think digital publishing is doing a lot to change publishing business models, but I think it will take most of the rest of the decade to understand the real repercussions.

The lack of a decent — ie. fair and accurate — ePub gatekeeper is a major problem for the eBook world. It’s hard, with no seals of quality, to persuade people to even have a look at you.

That’s one of the things I’m trying to do with Ghostwoods Books — act as a trad publisher as much as possible, but just cutting print out of the equation. That reduces costs to the point where it’s possible to start up without external investment.

If I had an angel investor though, the far better option would be to start a high-end eBook portal, listing up books that were of publishable quality, grading them, making them easy to find, and affiliating through to the sales channels. Maybe even printing special limited runs of some of the best of them for direct sale.

Great advice for me to keep in mind as I wrote more whateverthehellitispunk for my Free Fiction, aiming at a future anthology.

Bookmarked.

I think the “do you already have an audience?” point is the key one for self-publishing. especially for non-fiction. i’ve done two traditional niche books. they did just OK. a friend and i are now starting a tiny ebook site where we’re both writing echapbooks in an area where we’re both already acknowledged experts (and each did a traditional book on the same topic). I can’t see how you can be a nobody and self-publish a niche book. Unless maybe you spent a billion on marketing and did the 1st book at a loss. And that book happened to be earth-shatteringly kick-ass.

Jesus, man. -Everyone- is writing about self-publishing today.

I had a discussion in my comment thread today about niche writers and the “indie writers” movement. Says one of my readers: “The bottom line is that traditional publishers stick to the markets they know and if you write anything that doesn’t fit, as a new author, you’re not going to get a contract.”

I’m not sure if that’s entirely true. Yeah, publishers are hurting for money right now (just like everyone else,) but I think they’re still open to new ideas that have a demonstrable market. Gay cowboys from space fighting aliens, maybe not. But niche is niche is niche. Hell, I’m pretty sure there are some sci-fi presses that -would- publish a book about gay cowboys from space.

E-books are definitely on the rise though. I think in a couple of years digital self-publishing might be a good way to go for new authors. For now, though, traditional publishing is still fine.

Thank you for doing this. There’s been a whole ton of stuff on self publishing vs. traditional lately, and well, as you said almost all of it is very “one side of the fence only”. The people for self publishing are, surprise surprise, the ones doing well with it, and very few people seem to have a “try both simultaneously” approach that you are mentioning here.

That, and well, it is always good to get another opinion on things like this. Like I mentioned on twitter, self publishing seems like it would be great, provided you already have some form of an audience. For those trying to build one, or trying to figure out how to build one, it doesn’t seem like it’d do much but get lost in the noise.

Frankly, I’m amazed that a post this straightforward isn’t commented out the wazoo.

Your summaries of the pros and cons is spot on, but the best part here?

DO BOTH.

There’s a Camry-load of wisdom right there.

Good points. As a publisher, both of myself and others, in the game industry, I see the merits of the blended approach. We use a PDF and Print model, but there are a lot of similarities. The bigger returns (i.e. print books) require bigger investments in writing and production costs (editing, layout, art, etcetera), while PDFs create a steady revenue stream.

I’m hit with the question quite often from folks who want to write in the game industry and think it’s magic. They have the idea to kill all ideas (saying all other games before theirs were as nothing) and want cash to flow from their keyboards. They think the easiest thing to do is write words and slap it together. I caution them about the grim reality. Publishing is not solely writing. There are a lot of moving parts, and you get your hands dirty dealing with a number of them on a regular basis. There are times when I just want to write, but I’m dealing with logistics (i.e. reviewing proofs, scrambling to make certain people hit deadlines, etcetera). It almost sounds like work, but, gee, it is work, isn’t it?

To that end, if you just want to write, write. If you want to write, plus do a lot of other stuff, and are a control freak, then, by all means, go for it. When a project comes together, it’s really worth it.

Regards,

Sean

P.S. If you had just deleted the second “long” I think it would read much better.

Something I forgot: There’s a lot of talk from the self-publishing side about building an audience before you publish. This, of course, is a major “duh.” I think it also applies to writers who want to go the traditional route, too. If you already have an audience, a publisher might be more likely to consider your maybe-not-completely-mainstream manuscript.

Thoughts?

Hmm. Self-publishing is a double-edged sword. Unfortunately, far too many people unwittingly skewer themselves upon it.

Let me add up front I have self-published — non-fiction. Extremely niche software tutorials. And yes, they did well. Self-publishing allowed me the ability to update at will as new versions were released. And I made a living at it for several years. Fortunately my husband had a job that allowed me to stay at home and be a work-at-home mom and do this. I made better than fast food pay, but not enough on my own to support myself. Had I written more tutorials, probably yes, I could have.

I also publish fiction with small independent publishers. Currently that is where I make my income, and it’s enough to support myself. Critical since hubby is retiring next year.

That said, I have enough releases out now if I wanted to self-publish, I probably could and make a living at it. I know some writers who do that. I do, however, have the resources to edit and produce salable cover art. And like other writers who have made a successful living at it, I have a backlist and a following of established readers. I’m not an unknown.

Most self-published books I have read are severely lacking in both editing and decent cover art.

Most self-published books I have read are also by people who are totally unpublished in any other venue (for pay, not for free), and they also report they cannot make a living at what they make.

That all said, if you are dying to get your fiction published, FIRST you need to at the VERY least sign up with one of the numerous free critique forums, like the Internet Writing Workshop, to have another set of eyes go over your work. Because, trust me, you need it. Then run the rounds of the independent e-publishers. Yes, it’s an e-book. But guess what? It’s REAL MONEY. Not once has my mortgage company ever said, “Hey, we won’t accept this payment because you’re not a ‘real’ writer.” And most of my books are available in POD print.

Now then, let’s add to the fact that unless you are publishing hot erotica or semi-hot romance, chances are you aren’t going to make a lot of money. Sorry, but that is what sells. Sex sells. I don’t care if you just wrote the next great American novel, unless it’s got sex in it, or sexual/romantic tension, it’s going to be a slow seller in 99.99999% of cases. Trust me, my books that aren’t “hot” don’t sell a fraction as well as my books that are. And I’ve heard the same from other writers.

So. Do you have a well-edited, sizzling hot book with drool-worthy cover art? Sure, go ahead and try to self-publish. However, you need to do a HELLA lot of self-promotion. (You have to do that anyway even if you’re with a publisher, but at least with a publisher there’s numbers behind you to give you a better chance someone will see your book while looking at other, better selling books.)

I strongly suggest writers try to get published with a small house first. Run the gauntlet of learning the business that way. Then, and only then, after they’ve learned the ropes and know what’s expected, and hopefully developed a following, should they attempt self-publishing.

Lesli Richardson. (aka Tymber Dalton, Macy Largo, & Tessa Monroe)

This is post is full of the milk of awesome. And egg-zactly what I’ve been thinking. I signed with my agent in July of 2009. Still no deal on the first book, written a second and waiting to see if she can get bites on one or both now that I’ve had over a year to build my platform. I’ve been thinking about self-pubbing a collection of essays, and I think I’m really going to do it. I’ve still got the other two books that will hopefully lead to some legitimacy…

@Austin: “The bottom line is that traditional publishers stick to the markets they know and if you write anything that doesn’t fit, as a new author, you’re not going to get a contract.”

Just wanted to touch on this—ten years ago, what I was writing wasn’t flying. Too edgy, not enough full-on romance, etc. All it took was for one, two of these sorts of books to be given a chance and the genre exploded.

Not to say that your discussion mate is this way, but I do find that a lot of folks who advocate self-pubbing are, in fact, too impatient to go through the patience hoops required of querying and pitching and waiting. I call the publishing industry #slowestindustryever on Twitter, and I’m not even joking. This despite the fact that my books moved really, really fast (comparatively) because of the interest they garnered at Avon.

Most of the self-pubbers I personally know can’t make it in the trad pub industry because, primarily, they don’t have the patience (or flexible ego) to revise and bend and shape for a market. Their books end up okay, self-pubbed, and do all right (if they do at all). But they could be more polished, maybe even tweaked to hit the right audience notes. Then again, they get to keep their work pure, as they see it, so… Maybe that’s enough for them.

On the other hand, one of my best author friends began as an ebooker, and she’s in the top 2% of her e-publisher’s rankings. She, to be crass, makes bank. But she also is traditionally pubbed, and isn’t doing quite as well in trad as she is in her ebooks. Why? Because she doesn’t want to write the same genre in trad as she does in ebook, and the quality shows that she’s out of her usual element.

…Ramblerambleramble. Point being! There are some amazing self-pubbers out there (hi, Chuck!), but by and large, I inherently dismiss e-pubbers as chaff. And that’s shame on me.

At least I’ll be reading Chuck’s.

I find it hilarious that this article was tweeted by an lit. agent.

What a great post. I do like your writing style.

Lots to think on in here, everyone seems to have such wide-spread ideas but I have to say I’m trying the traditional route for my novel but am considering self-publishing a collection of short stories and flash fiction at some point in the future.

@Karina: I agree completely. I think the problem is, like Chuck mentioned, a lot of self-pubbers are looking at writing novels as a career and want the money to flow fast. They can’t wait to get their book published, so instead of consistently pushing it again and again the traditional route, they decided “Hell, I can just publish this bitch myself. Masterpiece!”

I think Chuck has the right idea: Give your manuscript a few years on the market. If it still doesn’t sell, and you know it’s strong enough to, then consider self-publishing.

Well, I’ve just started the indie author/self-published journey, so I can’t speak to sales. I write epic fantasy and don’t have much of a platform yet, so I suspect I have a slower climb than some like Amanda Hocking or J. A. Konrath.

But… I think your checklist is good, because here are my advantages…

I do like the creative control, speed to market, small business aspect of indie publishing. I’ve worked as a freelance commercial writer for about seven years, and I built a client base mostly from cold calls. I’m not afraid to do self-promotion, although I’m still evaluating what the best approaches are in the indie author world. Small business stuff doesn’t scare me — it exhilarates me.

I am a pretty good writer, and more people than my mom say so. I suppose that’s an advantage. My debut novella “Silver Thaw” has been getting good reviews from diehard fantasy readers, and not just my friends, so I think that’s a good sign. It’s only been up for about two weeks, so time will tell. I plan to publish my debut full-length novel on February 1. I hired a designer for the cover and an artist to do a map. It’s not just a haphazard thing for me. I’ve been working on the novel (“Ravenmarked”) for over a year.

We aren’t dependent on my income, so from a financial standpoint, we can wait out the climb it will take before I start earning decent money. That takes some of the desperation out of the equation. I’m not very patient, but I’m trying to channel my impatience into action rather than frustration or angst…

My disadvantage at this point, I think, is titles. I don’t have many. But, I have an ambitious plan to improve that in 2011. I’m hoping to end the year with 8 – 10 titles of various lengths online for purchase.

I know a lot of writers who don’t want to do all the work involved with going indie, and that’s fine for them. But I realized once I made the decision that, for me, going indie took away a lot of the angst and made me proactive rather than reactive. I like that. But that’s me.

So I don’t know if that contributed much to the discussion, but those are my thoughts. I’ll be back later to see how others weigh in.

Amy

I find it hilarious that this article was tweeted by a lit. agent.

Outstanding. This is exactly my plan too.
Self-publishing is getting easier and easier and I think it’s definitely worth giving it a shot. But it still has that problem of not being taken seriously by the public or by the publishing industry.
I’ll be writing a short story collection for the sole purpose of self-publication because I know that no publisher, or agent, in their right mind would take a risk on something like that. Not from an untested author like me, anyway. I also like your idea of using the self-publishing route for other niche books. I suspect I may have better luck with my trash-pulp fiction if I self published that too while sticking to more traditional publishing routes for my kids stories.
2011 is going to be a fun year.

Hilarious and spot on. I’ve had 20+ novels all traditionally published, and next year, I have a book coming out with Penguin, and the third installment of my fantasy series coming out with Jabberwocky. I’ve been very happy with my deals, with my editors, my covers, blah-friggin’-blah. I also freelance as a book editor and ghostwriter and have for years. I think, “Hire an editor, have a great cover, and put out your book if you’re ready, if you have a niche book, and so on.” Same points you’ve made. It makes sense as a business model. It HAS for business professionals for a LONG time (back-of-room sales on the keynote circuit).

That said, after editing for 20 years, I am SERIOUSLY aware of the mountainous piles of crap out there . . . and I do think in the stampede to self-publish, if you do not have a built-in audience, and don’t WORK it like a business (and there are plenty who do) . . . you will have to push to be found/read/rise above the crap (which now replaces the slush pile . . . just different gatekeepers).

And all that said, I am definitely putting my backlist titles up on Kindle in 2011, and may put up one or two original things . . . BUT they have the advantage of being ALREADY edited and/or vetted through my critique group, which is the same 16-year-old group (some faces have changed over the years but at its core the same) that mercilessly critiqued me every two weeks for over a decade before I was READY to be published, as in hopefully not a steaming pile of meh.

It’s a wild ride right now, though, that’s for sure.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE your writing! I particularly loved, “fol de rol”, and “splurch!”

I just posted a blog entry on this very topic as well. Great minds, etc.

The thing is, I’ve seen this same CHANGEPOCALYPSE SHITQUAKE!!!11ONE! happen over the past decade in the tabletop games industry, having been on the front lines of that, so I recognize the patterns that are now happening in mainstream publishing.

What it comes down to is this — If you’re comfortable and capable of handling your own marketing, hiring an editor, designing sharp covers or hiring a designer, then there is no reason NOT to go the self-publishing route. The distribution and sales “playing field” is leveled, so why the hell not.

If you’re not comfortable or capable in those areas, then stick to traditional models, because they’ll certainly better handle those things for you.

I don’t see it as a zero-sum thing, though — which it seems many (most?) of the discussion surrounding the topic seems to center upon.

Well, yes to all you’ve said. Do wonder if it’s the badger that wears the lip balm….

The middle is always mushy, isn’t it.

Coming from the world of webcomics, where we’re all essentially self published, some of these concerns aren’t that big of a deal. I think a lot of the legitimacy issues have gone away, but that may be just for my own perceptions and opinions. Who published a book or album or comic or whatever generally has a zero percent effect on my opinion of the work or my willingness to check it out. (Well, aside from the world of comics, where if something isn’t self published I’m infinitely less likely to check it out compared to a creator run webcomic.)

At some point in the future, there will be the Clockworks RPG and the Clockworks fiction line and the Clockworks line of ladies undergarments and whatever, and I fully expect to do all that stuff myself (with collaborators and business partners and co-creators and all of that) as opposed to trying to convince someone to pay for it.

Absolutely agree 100% that you need to build an audience somehow/first.

I think the biggest reason to self publish is simply the fact that you can. That hasn’t been the case for the overwhelming majority of history.

Agreed. On all points. Particularly “Do both.” I think it’s foolish not to.

Success is subjective. My success is not going to look like yours or anyone else’s. It all depends on what your goal is.

Whether you go with a traditional publisher or self publish or do both or write under fifteen different pen names or scrawl your mad ramblings on the subway walls, it’s a means to an end.

I’m not going to depend on a publisher to make my career just as I’m not going to depend on Twitter to let people know about my books. They’re all tools to help me write and sell more books.

It’s kind of like how I’ve treated short stories. I like writing them, I like it when people read them, but I started sending them out so that when it came time to query agents, publishers or write a bio for something I’d actually have something to put on it.

They’re a loss leader. I’m not expecting to make much money off them, either. At least not at this stage of my career. I’m not going to put any less time into them. After all, if they suck they’re not going to do what I want of them.

So far they’ve done what I expected them to do. Get my name out there, help me get my book published. Hopefully, they’ll help me get my book sold, too.

wow. just wow. this was, by far, one of the best posts i’ve read about self pubbing vs. traditional publishing.

i like your idea of do both. it’s like eating a Snickers bar – it really satisifies.

@Shawn: If there was at one point a legitimacy issue for web comic writers, it’s long gone. I think in the mainstream, web comics are still viewed as kind of nerdy, but certainly also as a legitimate creative endeavor. There’s nothing necessarily “hacky” about self-publishing a web comic because it’s the way to go. How many web comic authors are getting published by anyone but themselves (excepting print volumes)?

However, on the straight book side of things, I think legitimacy is still a very big problem when considering the self-pub route. The stigma of “anyone can self-publish, and it’s probably shit” is still alive and self-pub is looked at as a vanity. I’m seeing a lot of bloggers talking about how 2010/2011 is the year(s) of the self-published author, but I’m not seeing a lot of proof.

[...] Should I Self Publish? – Chuck Wendig [...]

What disturbs me most about the “get rich self-publishing” theme is that I’ve had several of my contracted authors, all of them in their 70s and older, request the rights to their books back because it’s clear they think they’ll make mega-bucks self-publishing on Kindle.

None of these people has a platform, and the books are all novels of one kind or another. Most important, none of them has a clue how to market online, which if you spend enough time listening to the self-appointed gurus of “indie author publishing” is a clear necessity for any kind of success.

Frankly, I put this on a par with the subsidy presses who tell uneducated writers they should get their manuscript printed as a book to send to agents and editors because that will give said agents and editors a real sense of how it would look after publication. In other words, I want to shoot somebody.

BTW, there are those of us who publish short story collections, and find that, with adequate marketing, they can sell. Not a lot, but I suspect that’s in part because the readers who like them have become so accustomed to not being able to find any there’s a double hurdle to leap getting the word out.

I concur with your statement that self-publishing is likely the best route for a truly far-out manuscript. After all, if we publishers don’t have books that sell, we’d go out of business and not be able to sell books, and something that’s going to appeal to, maybe, twelve people just isn’t feasible. There are, however, some kinds of genre novels now considered out-of-date or unpopular the trads won’t consider but we small presses will. For example, I love old-fashioned SF, the kind I grew up on reading Ace Doubles and such. So, I publish it, because I believe good stories never grow old.

There are many excellent small digital publishers who don’t have pigeonholes for what they will and won’t publish. Some have been in business for more than a decade, battling the “ebooks will never be mainstream, and those who publish them are all amateur wannabes” stigma. We have hopes that in time those writers groups who reject us the same way they do the self-published will join the 21st century.

Yes, exactly.
My view on this is that in the current publishing world, it doesn’t hurt to explore as many avenues as you can. I’m digitally published, small press published and NY published (x2) in various romance sub-genres, but I also tried a little self-publishing experiment this year with a short story for 99c.
It’s available on all the formats but has done best on amazon, and I think I know why-because on there it is listed with all the digital versions of my other published works, so my fan base buy it because they are like that, and new readers don’t mind spending 99c to see if they might like me. Some of them go on to buy my more expensive books, some of them hate me, but that’s okay, at 99c they don’t care too much.
So I think having a name or a platform really does help you in the self-publishing world, which is of course, what J A Konrath already had. And is this crazy market? Diversifying is always a good idea.

Good post, Chuck. You’ve hit a lot of my reservations about self-publishing as well as all of my reasons to do it. I’m writing a long series about the changes in publishing on my blog right now. The blog focuses on how the new tech will change all forms of publishing, not just for writers. I think we’re in the middle of an important sea change in the business and it would be good for everyone, from booksellers to writers to readers, to understand what’s going on. I started the series in response to Konrath whom, I think, doesn’t seem to understand what the existing industry does well. Nor does he seem to understand that all writers are *not* created equal, so some will thrive in this new environment and some won’t. The blog is here: http://kriswrites.com/business-rusch-table-of-contents/the-business-rusch-publishing-series/

Like you, I’m doing both. I’m publishing under a variety of names with New York *and* I’m getting my entire backlist into print. I just self published a business book, The Freelancer’s Survival Guide, because I didn’t want to trim it and make it writer-specific the way my agent (and a few publishers) wanted me to. They also wanted me to cut the book by 50%. I felt that too much valuable info would be lost.

First I published the Guide for free on my blog, supported by reader donations. (You can still find the free version there.) Then I put up an e-copy, and finally, I’ve got a new publisher to do a print version. Here’s the cool part: I’ve already made more money than I would have made from the publishers who wanted me to change the book in New York.

Will that happen with every book? Certainly not. I like having my fiction come out of NYC. And I like the way they develop audience which is, as you say, the most important thing to have before you self publish.

Sorry to ramble so long here. But since you asked…:-)

You, kind sir, are king among Wednesday’s men.

Anybody who makes any declaration of an absolute for what’s best for the industry or authors or publishers is, as far as I’ve seen, full of shit.

Friends on Myspace or Facebook or Twitter should not be confused as a desperate customer base. Pats on the back are not reaches for wallets. I’m willing to bet the conversion rate for follower to purchaser is south of 2%.

The accidental and unstructured support group of authors clamoring for attention is filled with individual singers singing to the choir who is singing to the choir who is singing to the choir. The real potential audience (readers) just hears a bunch of fucking noise.

A genuine organic buzz isn’t something that can be manufactured by sheer willpower. There is no formula. If there was, if it was a matter of time or money or whatever other resources, big publishing would have already figured it out and no book would ever fail and everything would end up on the best seller list.

Yes, changing and emerging technologies will push publishing’s evolution. The direction and the success? That’ll be left up to the collective Sisyphus. The boulder isn’t lighter just because now anybody can push it.

Love your style, Chuck

Traditional pub vs.self pub — god vs. no god.
Polarizing stories that require the reader to resolve the conflict.
Takes the protag off the hook!

And Pluto’s no longer a planet and prologues are no longer proper (evidently).

I might have to add science nerds and editors to my hate list. (Wait, editors are already on my hate list).

Did you know that fantasies that open with a dream sequence are immediately relegated to the slush pile?

Who makes all these decisions? Will prologues be back “in” next year?
I hate the fashion industry and everything it stands for, too. What’s this year’s color?

And I’m beginning to wonder — because so many authors have 2 weird dogs — are we lying to bolster our profiles?

Write on.
Ed

Like so many things in life, the whole traditional vs. self pub argument creates an unnatural polarization that assumes that one is right and one is wrong. Any time you simplify things to black and white and that level of simplicity, you totally create an impossible argument. The issue is not that self publishing (my camp) is right and traditional publishing is wrong. The issue is that there are problems with both sides. Traditional publishing has an antiquated business model that DOES NOT take into account changes in technology and would prefer to punish legitimate customers via an ineffective means that does nothing to stop true piracy (DRM SUCKS man!). On the self publishing side, yes, you absolutely have dreck and plenty of people who choose to go that route because they can’t hack it the traditional way because they don’t want to edit their speshul snowflake novel or otherwise do anything to improve themselves as writers.

Then you have people like me, who take great pride in producing the best book possible, that’s formatted as well as (in some cases BETTER than NY–did they not read how to format ebooks?), and edited as well as anything coming out of New York. My decision to be indie is a business decision. The NY monolith is slow. And more and more authors are being told not to quit their day jobs.

Dude, I hate my day job. If you can’t help me quit it, why should I give over rights and control to you?

The indie route allows me to fit writing and publishing into my own very busy schedule (which juggles writing alongside family and two evil day jobs). It allows me to maintain control and earn the maximum return on my investment in time and effort. NY would expect me to build my platform anyway for far less in the way of royalties. Because they refuse to recognize that the reading world is changing, most books in NY no longer earn out their advances (if they ever did)

Indie publishing allows me to earn money now. It’s smaller money but it’s free and clear (after Uncle Sam takes his cut). And with each release (provided that I continue to put out the quality product that I strive to), my fan base grows, I garner more name recognition, and I garner a gradual multiplicative effect that will get me a LOT closer to quitting my Evil Day Jobs and being able to write for a living.

I don’t have any expectation of making Konrath’s level of income, but in five years I fully expect to be matching my current salary working a job I hate because I will have gotten out 8-10 titles and created a backlist, where with traditional publishing I’d be lucky to have gotten an agent and an offer and more than one or two titles out. I already have access to excellent editors and cover artists in my peer group as it is, access of which I take advantage to polish my work as much as possible.

I don’t have time to wait on New York.

Well shit, Wendig, there ain’t no point talking about this whole business any more, ‘cos you nailed the whole fuckin’ thing. Great essay, homes.

As someone who works in trad publishing (well, the boring non-fiction side anyway) and is dipping his toe in the world of self-epub, what strikes me is how much each side takes things for granted. As a publisher, I’m used to having a sales/marketing department and an editorial/design team to do all the hard yards for me; as a epubber, I am quickly becoing used to immediate gratification and not having to change my vision to suit the sales/marketing department.

So epub is more pleasing as a writer. As long as I can handle the fact that no-one reads my stuff. But as that’s kinda the point…

Well, it’s the point for me. A quick tour of the major self-epub book hubs like Smashwords shows that many writers probably don’t care about readership; for them, success is seeing their own work in (digital) print, whether or not more than three people see it. That’s not just a signal-to-noise issue; sometimes you’re competing with white noise that exists for its own sake.

But yet, if it works, it works faster and cheaper than trad publishing. So there’s not a lot of reason not to give it a shot. (And contribute to the S-to-N issue in the process, of course.)

Like you, I’m interested in going trad for some projects (generally the ones with broader sales appeal) and epub for other projects (mostly short or niche works). I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of authors took that approach. Whether that works out, or just leads to further blandification of the print market and cumbersome fragmentation of the e-market… eh, you’re the one with the crystal ball.

I wish I could say something wiser here, but I gotta get some coffee and breakfast or my brain will deteriorate further.

–
Patrick

Gay? Check. Cowboys? Not really. How about ninja? If that qualifies, sort of check. From space? Check. Fighting aliens? does [spoiler redacted] count? Got it.

Good thing I self-published.

I went through the traditional publishing hoops. Hop, roll, hop, asbestos underwear for the flaming one–I tried. I got some glowing rejections!

I believe in this book, and the books after. To me, it’s a matter of “put up or shut up.”

Doesn’t mean my steampunk paranormal YA won’t try New York. I think it’s a bit more up their alley. So to speak. And always, always, it’s a matter of YMMV. There is no one true way, any more than One Size really Fits All.

(psst… “well-written, entertaining, and full of action, humor, and all the other emotions in the spectrum” Knight Errant http://tinyurl.com/264xw3s )

You’ve hit both sides of the argument squarely.

When I was 17 and finished writing my first, bad unpublishable novel more years ago than I want to remember, I somehow found out about vanity publishing and, thankfully, saw it for what it was, a ruse to get authors to pay for services, none of which improve a badly written book about stuff people don’t want to read about.

But in nearly 18 years of freelance book design and page comp work I’ve seen things change a great deal. I certainly can’t say self-publishing is now THE prestigious way to get published, but neither is it the automatic losing proposition (although, to be fair, I’ve seen stats that state most self-published books don’t break the 100-copies-sold mark).

Because anyone can, it’s important to do one’s homework and then take pains to execute carefully and with a professional touch. Although most of my wok has come from traditional publishers and academic presses, I have had a handful of self-published books that I’m glad to have been involved with. I’ve also turned down a couple because they offended me and made outrageous proposals on a couple more to get their authors to walk away from me.

But the steps are, in a sense, simple:

1. write about something people are interested in and write it well

2. define your subject’s natural audience (beyond the friends and family who’ll likely buy those 100 or so copies)

3. do some research, make a plan to market to that natural audience (maybe hire a marketer to help)

4. Understand that when you choose to self-publish, you’ve made a choice to go into business as a publisher and, as such, you’ll need to capitalize a real business

5. get another set of eyes, professional editor’s eyes, to look over your book and edit it as necessary–it’s not impossible to do yourself, but you’ve lived with it so long, there are things you cannot be objective about

6. You may want a copy editor to have a go, too

7. Unless you’re a designer and artist, and you also are computer savvy, skilled in professional page layout software (InDesign, QuarkXPress, one of the flavors of TeX)–don’t buy into the “you can design and lay out a book in Word”; you can knock a nail into a wall with the flat side of a wrench, too, but why not use the right tools–hire a professional book interior and cover designer/page comp artist to make an impression through the sea of competitors out there

This, this, many times, this:

“Anybody who makes any declaration of an absolute for what’s best for the industry or authors or publishers is, as far as I’ve seen, full of shit.

Yes, changing and emerging technologies will push publishing’s evolution. The direction and the success? That’ll be left up to the collective Sisyphus. The boulder isn’t lighter just because now anybody can push it.”

– c.

@Austin –

Something I forgot: There’s a lot of talk from the self-publishing side about building an audience before you publish. This, of course, is a major “duh.” I think it also applies to writers who want to go the traditional route, too. If you already have an audience, a publisher might be more likely to consider your maybe-not-completely-mainstream manuscript.

Thoughts?

– Sure, absolutely. I don’t know that it’s 100% critical, but it sure is useful. I suspect my agent was happy that I seem to have a place like terribleminds with a somewhat active audience.

– c.

I will probably end up self-publishing by the end of the year; it’s not my goal, but I have several projects that are outside the current publishing trends, and it will break my heart to have those stories languish forever.

I’m going to approach it as a learning experience.

I’ve already assembled several bound books and e-books for gifts and find it satisfying, although I am very much in love with your short-story collection cover art and will probably contact her when I do decide to publish, if it fits.

Something that I haven’t seen anyone mention is how the self-publishing learning curve affects people who also publish through a publisher. I would think a self-published writer has a lot more business sense (trial by fire) than a non-self-published writer–more of a sense of what to expect with the publishing industry in general, and a better sense of marketing specifically.

[...] Should I Self-Publish? A Motherfucking Checklist Response to bestselling author J.A. Konrath’s foggy portrait of the “confident” writer Everything is still biased against the lone artist There is no such thing as royalties [...]

I’m not a writer. I’m just a spectator and all I’m gonna say is this:

This was a really, really long post and I’m still really confused.

I also want to say this:

I’ve found a ton of great writers in Twitterverse that have self published and others that have published short stories and are waiting for the day that their novels are finally chosen for the book world, and I’ve also found authors with big contracts and money to spare- I like them all, and can tell you that my Kindle, my Smashwords account and my blog list are full of writers I am happy to purchase reading material from. So, maybe the writers, authors, publicists, and what nots all have publishing “standards”-but as a reader, I personally don’t give a flying fuck as to who or what is publishing the material, just as long as I can get my eyes on it. Just saying!

As always, thanks for the inspiring post! And- I apologize for the foul language…

“Do both.”

I think both self-publishing and traditional publishing have a lot to teach any writer. You can’t go wrong trying both and seeing what works best for you.

With all the LOLs in the world, so few of them are real. Mine is. I LOLed all over the place. (“I spit in your mouth!”)

I’m very, very traditionally published. And a little bit self-published. This is the ratio I intend to keep.

Good thoughts.

Great post and poignant information. It’s important for authors to spend some time considering what they really want to accomplish in publishing. The advantages of self-publishing are all too often overlooked in pursuit of what may be the desire for pure validation. Perhaps this will help get the point across.

You wrote:

Anybody can self-publish. Which means your book is going to compete with all that garbage — and that is what it is.

I respond:

Most of the “fiction” published by “legitimate” publishers is garbage also. I guess the real question, then, is do you want to compete with garbage and lose a large percentage of money you should be making to the middle-man publishers, or do you want to skip all that and take your chances competing against garbage where everyone gets to keep the majority of the money each book sells for?

I can’t agree with you more, or less. And as often as you say it, most of the people who should be paying attention will say “Right on, brother,” and not see the particular point that pierces them. That eggs-in-one-basket problem is a hard one to solve, yessir.

First, if you’re worried about what people(generic) will say about you, publishing isn’t your field, from any of the sides. Writing, editing, publishing, agenting, or bookselling — all of those endeavors are both over-romanticized and over-demonized depending on where people(generic) stand. Also, if you worry about people(generic) you’ll want regular income for your meds, and none of those fields are statistically likely to answer.

If you’ve gotten beyond the worry about people(generic) and to the purpose of a commitment to writing, then everything or anything goes as long as you’re true to *your* purpose. You are right to point out that different people have different goals — if acceptance in the academic community is it, epub or self-pubbed books are not the way to go. If making money is your goal, then it is catch-as-catch-can.

Second, that eggs-in-one-basket problem is a hard one to solve, yessir. I was one of the pioneers of electronic publishing (nearly went bankrupt for being a couple decades ahead of the curve as BPLAN Virtuals) and I’ve been forward (and criticized) about keeping my backlist short stories in paper print through the use of chapbooks (http://www.srmpublisher.com) . Along the way the short stories helped buy time (a book for us takes 9 months to a year, usually) and now we’re up to 18 “real” novels or so and dozens of chapbooks. There were years where the “real” publishers got a little behind in paying us and the “sideline” SRM Publisher proceeds paid the mortgage and/or the health insurance. There were years that the “real” publishers got a little behind and the ebook sales (not, alas, BPLAN, but through the now defunct Embiid) covered food and insurance while SRM paid for trips to WorldCon where we got five commissions to write for anthologies and found a new agent.

You tried to address the “audience” question, and I’ll mention that this way — when one of our publishers evaporated we published Fledgling as a chapter a week web serial, and followed it by Saltation, following the “storyteller’s bowl” model we borrowed from Lawrence Watt-Evans of Ethshar fame. Both of those brought in more than 1000 supporting donations of $25 to help keep us writing and under-roof while we found a new publisher — but that kind of thing only works if you have time-in-grade (as we do, and as does LWE) or if you have some other monster connection to people. I have seen several new/young writers destroy their career momentum or at least depress themselves and their forty-two friends. The good thing, for us. was the Baen went on to buy both Fledgling and Saltation. they both made the Locus bestseller list, and then Baen bought some sequels…. but you can’t bet on that kind of an outcome.

I see a lot of impatient people out there, and the ones who dismiss “NY publishing” out of hand may well be grabbing a kayak and missing a chance for their ship to come in, not understanding that yes, editors actually do something. But there, you tried to say that, didn’t you?

Steve Miller

Just an example of some of the “garbage” you might have had to compete with throughout history:

Herman Melville
Edgar Allan Poe
James Joyce

If it weren’t for self-publishing, the industry would die from ‘sameness.’ Self-publishers are radical writers who move the art forward because the ‘traditional’ publishers are too concerned with profit and image to take any risks.

God bless self-publishing writers, each and every one of you!

A great post – I don’t believe in absolutes except for a few things and publishing isn’t one of them.

Self-pub works great for certain genres and nonfiction books – but it has to be weighed against the enormous amount of work that I’d rather spend, you know, writing.

And no one ever promised me that as a writer I’d be able to quit my day job. Very few writers make that much money. The majority make do and for those racing to self-pub with the idea of seeing $$$ and leaving that day job… er, don’t race for the door that quickly.

Brother Joe is a fine Pied Piper but let’s remember that he STILL has an agent and HAS published with Amazon Encore or whatever their publishing division is called. So he has a bit of a bias when it comes down to it. He ignores the smaller publishers like Samhain because there’s no room for them in his black/white world where NYC = Evil and self-pubbing = Good.

Again, excellent post!

I am going to try out self publishing with a series of fantasy stories, because it seems the right way to do them. The cult leader book will also go that route, it is an experiment to begin with. As to the other two novels I am polishing up, the dream is to have them traditionally published. I won’t lie and say I don’t want the validation, and besides, how will Mommy and Daddy ever be properly proud of me unless they can direct their friends to some professional saying I am a real writer?

Great post, reading it cemented my plan. Not that Dean Wesley Smith’s blog hadn’t already done so. I like your style a bit better though. Fucking swearing always makes things more fun.

Ah, I see you got hit with the same comment-spam from “Karl” (a half-dozen or so comments above this one). I got one from him on my blog as well — which neatly demonstrates the fact that the self-publishing field is still filled with scam artists looking to fleece naîve authors with “help” getting their stuff out there.

Thanks for continuing the ghetto image, “Karl.”

/rant on

Comparing the modern publishing world—and by world, I mean the books, authors and genres themselves—with the historical world is rather like comparing your Ford Focus’ mileage to a horse and carriage. It’s pointless (which, to be fair, isn’t exactly true: the point is fairly well illustrated that among all the other dreck of the time, those authors had to be “found” amid all the others).

I also want to point at the many authors who were not well respected at the time. Jane Austen didn’t find critical acclaim until she was dead. Poe was known as a literary critic while he lived, not so much as an author.

James Joyce is an author in the same way that Death Metal is music. Which is to say, it is, and he is, but that doesn’t make him reachable by the casual reader.

Frankly, if I self-pub, I damn well want my acclaim to come now, not years after I’m ash.

The point is about the viability of both self- and trad publishing. Not the vaguely-related-but-not-really details to be found in one over the other. Traditional publishing has given us gems like J. R. R. Tolkien and David Eddings, Robert Heinlen and so on. Look, we can drop names all day long, and bless both sides of the industry. But it’s still not the point.

/end rant

What’s the difference between a blowjob and thrusting your privates into a badger’s mouth? I ask because the badgers round here are all still in that Sixties’ free sex mindset and some of them are right sluts. One of them has been giving me the eye every day. I don’t know where she finds them all but there’s one on my doorstep every morning. So, should I or shouldn’t I?

As for self-publishing, personally I wouldn’t. It sounds like a lot of work and work is best done by other people. Having said that, I did self-publish a short story collection on Lulu, but not with any view to making money. The stories all appeared in online or print mags, many of which have since vanished or the issues disappeared. Since they are once-published they won’t sell for much second time around, if anything, so I put them together and made it a free download with a print option for the loadsamoney folk. I don’t expect to make anything from it other than to get my name bandied around a little. It’s an advert.

Novels go to real publishers. I have worn the ends of my fingers flat typing them so I’m not going to let them fester on Lulu. It’s disappointing to pile up rejections but what I lack in talent I make up for in bloody-minded persistence and it’s paid off at last. The first novel is out in April and the second is ready to send. I’m just a beginner here among you writing people but I bet I’m fatter than most of you.

Anyway. These badgers. Are they a safe bet, and what do I do if the wife finds out?

A. You are hilarious. I will buy anything you write because if your books are even a tenth as awesome as your blog, I’m in for a good read. So if you have a newsletter that will notify me of such things, please let me know so I can subscribe.

B. Santa Claus pays for all of my advertising.

C. I think self-publishing or “going indie” as is the “cool way to say it” is definitely not for everybody. It is for me and I’ve been very happy doing it. I’ve always been indie. I hope to always be indie, and I’m making a living doing it. For which I am profoundly grateful for as long as that lasts.

I think over time more people will understand that it isn’t a shortcut to anything and there will be big success stories, big failures, and a lot of people in the middle (as it is in traditional publishing, and pretty much all artistic endeavors and career paths.)

Over time I *hope* the argument will become less polarizing. When I started doing this a couple of years ago I was pretty strident about a lot of stuff. It was (and still is) important to me that people not judge a book by it’s publication method, especially when there are easy ways to judge a book based on the book itself that don’t require investing 15 hours to read the thing cover to cover. But at the same time, I feel less need for other people to consider me a “real author”. When you’re paying your bills, you stop caring if random people on the Internet want to validate you.

I think the indie movement is still in its infancy, even though self-publishing and even successful self-publishing has been around much longer. Many did it successfully even back when you had to do it the REALLY hard way with print runs and big financial outlay. So I expect the movement to hopefully grow up a lot as indie music and film has.

@Zoe

Yeah, I think you said it pretty well — it’ll eventually shake out that self-publishing has its success stories as does traditional publishing. And it’ll have its “mid-listers” and outright failures. Of course, for good and bad, the mid-listers and failures will continue to be able to publish. Good for them, sometimes good for the audience, not always good for the marketplace as a whole.

Right now, the successes predominantly lie in traditional publishing. That’s fairly clear to me — if you line up 1000 trad pub authors and 1000 self-pub authors, I’d bet donkeys to donuts (what?) that you’d find a lot more monetary and authorial success in the traditional model. That said, self-publishing today is in a very different place now than it was even five years ago.

Example: five years back, I went with my then-fiancee (now, wife) to get eyeglasses at the mall.

The eye dude was nice enough — an older gent. Behind him sat a tower of books. When we were done he gave us one of these books — just gave it away because, as it turns out, he was having trouble selling them. The book was a self-published vanity press release. Some book about baseball and Jesus (seriously). It wasn’t the subject matter that bothered me, but the book was fuuu-huuuh-HUUUUH-cking terrible.

That was self-publishing. The domain of the talentless and misguided.

Today, those people are still out there — and I’m sure this guy is probably there somewhere, pumping his syphilitic fiction onto Amazon or Smashwords or something. But now there’s been a shift, because elbow-to-elbow with this guy are authors who are actually talented, who just chose to bypass the system and the gatekeepers (for better or for worse, I can’t predict how they would’ve done otherwise).

It’s an interesting shift, and it’s fun to watch. It is not, however, the magical solution that some paint it out to be.

(For the record, I have in the past been a relative admirer of Konrath’s, but his post today was over the edge for me in terms of the promises it made and the realities it ignored. I think he’s huffing his own Kool-Aid dust at this point.)

– c.

Oh, and thanks, @Zoe — actually, thanks everyone who has commented so far. Keep ‘em coming.

If anybody has experience with a self-published product (or traditionally published work), would love to get your perspective.

– c.

gosh! (guess that’s your first ‘gosh!) people have strong opinions here and have lots to sa and that’s brilliant..all I’ve got to say is..times they are changing..embrace everything….

Great idea all around. Approach your writing like a business. Some material is good for the traditional route other stuff good for self publishing.
What I find amazing is how different creative outlets view the DIY model. In table top gaming (looking at you Sean P and Gareth), it’s almost a right of passage. In film making, it’s a badge of honor, But if you put words on paper and self pub,you’re danged near a pariah.
There’s a lot of crap out there, both self and traditionally published. I admit that there’s a hell of a lot more self published junk available. I just like to think of it as the worlds biggest slush pile.

I wonder if readers even know who publishes their books? Oh, an SF follower is probably going to recognize a Baen cover, and some readers maybe pay attention, but really–if someone searching space opera finds on my book on Amazon, are they going to go to the Turtleduck Press site and discover that we’re a group of friends self-publishing together and decide not to buy? Are they even going to check the name of the publisher?

I think not. I think if they’ve found Knight Errant and the blurb interests them, they will read the sample available and, if they like it, buy.

Ms. Sabrina Ogden (I tip my hat!) is, I think, representative. She knows a good book when it crosses her path, however it got there. Readers-not-in-publishing don’t care. Yes, it matters if I can get my book under their nose in the first place, and a big publisher could help with that. But on the internet, keywords and such level that playing field.

The stigma exists only in the publishing world. What matters to readers is that you wrote a good book.

@KD:

I don’t know that that’s precisely accurate. I can spot a self-published book (made-up number alert) 7 times out of 10 on the Kindle marketplace. And generally, I gravitate away from them unless something about it (a pro-grade cover, f’rex) grabs me. Otherwise, I’m (perhaps incorrectly) going to suspect it’s amateurish.

In the past, I’ve generally not been aware of publishing’s “inside baseball,” but even at age 18 I was aware of the stigma of self-publication.

Now, again, I think that stigma is thawing, and rightfully so — but I think it still helps to be aware of it so, as an author, you know how to overcome it. And in my mind, a quality blurb and sample is only a small part of the equation. The book has to look and sound like something I might see on a shelf — that means pro-cover, that means authentic marketing, that means the whole package.

– c.

For what it’s work, C-dubs, I would buy your shit no matter who publishes it…I would even buy it scrawled in crayon on the back of a kids menu from Shoney’s from a bearded hobo under an overpass.

/gush

also for what it’s “worth”

Chuck,

Why are donkeys and donuts your gambling currency?

I think right now what you are saying is largely correct. In the future I’m not sure. It may be that digital publishing fully dominates, in which case there will be a chance for some major indie successes even bigger than we’ve had so far with a trend toward “staying indie” instead of “selling out”. (And I put it in quote marks because there is no judgment in that statement.) Or indie success stories may be a bit of a gold rush that will fizzle out. Or… both paths may have an equal number of big success stories.

I think what skews things a bit is that with self-publishing, the slush pile is “out there” (but also hanging out on the bottom where nobody really sees it), in trad pub the slush pile is kept hidden. I think the same percentages apply across the boards, it’s just an issue of whether or not you can see the slush as part of the whole.

As for “you finding more success in trad pub” I’m not sure if you mean “you: Zoe Winters” or general third person you. If you mean ME, then I doubt that. I think if I had a print deal right now I’d lose a lot of control and probably wouldn’t make more money, and would sort of flounder around on the midlist. If I was offered a GIANT deal… like “splash my name everywhere til people are sick of seeing it” deal, then yes, that’s true. But I don’t expect anything like that to come my way, and if it ever did, I’m not completely sure I’d take it. Because there would be more issues to consider than just short term money.

Also, it’s important to note that there would be a much bigger chance of something improbable like that happening with me having gone indie already. As a total unknown with nothing but a dream and maybe an agent, that scenario would have become even more improbable than it already is.

If you mean “general audience you”, then I’m not totally sure either. Things are changing. I do agree with you that Joe’s post is a bit misleading to new authors. I agree with a lot of his points but… I’m not sure they all apply to brand new writers.

I do NOT think 1,000 ebooks a month for one title is “conservative” for most indies. I think when you get to Joe’s level it might be conservative, but… I don’t think most authors will get to Joe’s level.

At the same time, though… unless the deal is really good, and for most new authors, it isn’t, it might be better to go indie IF a given writer has the aptitude for it. Otherwise, better to go trad. It’s just very individual.

I think it “is” true that some authors self-publishing would have more success if they went traditionally. But I also think it’s true that some authors traditionally publishing would have more success self-publishing. I don’t think there is a one-size-fits all path to success.

As with everything it’s very much a “Your mileage may vary.”

Though I do know for me that given my low tolerance for “working for other people” that I am not wired for traditional publishing. So I don’t waste my time wondering what would have been or could have been if I’d tried publishing the other way instead or in addition to. I’m too excited and focused on the path that I’m on.

And ugh, sorry that was so long and rambling. Sometimes my posting length just gets out of control.

Last time I am checking this post. Promise. And last thought. If you are going to self publish, do it professionally. Hire an editor. Hire an artist.

Exactly what I needed to hear (delivered colourfully as always), and I’ll readily join the chorus of the multitude in praising the middle of the road approach. You really don’t hear enough of the pros and cons of self-publishing; a lot of it seems to come off as voodoo mumbo-jumbo that invokes the gods of Amazon and eBooks. Conversely, you hear a lot about the pros and cons of mainstream publishing, but only in regards to the end result — not so much about the path you wind up walking to get there. It’s great (and enlightening) to get the insight on that, and to have it laid out in such task-specific terms.

I suppose authors are also lucky in that both paths are fairly viable options, unlike with some other forms of media, and we should try to take advantage of that. Mainstream publishing tends to be more heavily weighted, sure, but it’s not as bad as, say, trying to self-release a video game, which I’ve heard can involve running a gauntlet of Herculean challenges with a fifty foot lava pit at the end. Or comics, which seems to have bizarre mainstream publishing practices that always look a little like cults to me, and which seem to be favouring very small publishers like Topatoco and 4DE. Compared to that, it’s almost like we’ve got our pick at the buffet.

All very interesting paradigms to follow, in any case.

[...] Relax. Don’t nag me. I mean, hot damn, I shouldn’t even have to write a post after the Mega Self-Publishing Opus I thunked down in front of you like a treasure chest filled with dead [...]

Great piece, but, alas, some of your readers’ genitals just won’t fit in a badger’s mouth no matter how hard we try. Maybe you could chuck the automatic assumption that your audience are all cock-equipped?

Hey all,

As you said Chuck, self-publishing really doesn’t allow for the very long and tedious refinement and editing process (or gate-keeping, as you call it) and that probably is the main reason why self-publishing isn’t successful.

So, this leads to the question: how can we improve the quality of self-published writing, on a larger scale? Recently I came up with an interesting possible solution:

Collaborative self-publishing groups.

For example, if you could become a member of a self-publishing group, with a requirement that each member put in a certain amount of time and effort to edit AND market other author’s writings. Just like a Wiki, really. Of course, it would remain at the author’s discretion whether to keep a certain recommendation or not, but it would probably really improve the end-product.

Just a thought… could that work? It’s something I’ve been thinking of for a while…

In my opinion, online self-publishing platforms like Lulu or XinXii.com might be helpful for non-fiction authors (-> guidebooks, manuals, documents, presentations…).

I am a self published author born and raised in Mexico City. The game here is a little diferent. Its a fucking dog eat dog enviroment. Becouse self publishing is almost the only viable option to ever get your work in the public eye. Sure, the money comes fast to the pocket but the competition is as heavy as it can get. Writing, editing and selling your own books It can be a pian in the urethra but bits is also sometimes very satisfying.

I’ve gotta say that this was the most helpful article I’ve read on publishing. And it was entertaining as well. Two for one. Thanks!

Really? Right of passage. Let that be a warning. Do not drink and post things on the Internet.

“Also keep in mind that you might find a different experience by going with a smaller publisher. Smaller publishers may be better suited toward bringing your best work to light rather than making safe (read: boring) choices for the currently demented publishing marketplace.”

YES. If you’ve got yourself a book that you don’t think will make it in the big (safe, boring) Big Six publishing world, give the smaller publishers and micropresses a chance. We’re every bit as professional as the big operations, and we can usually give more and more personal attention to your book…without YOU having to learn how to be a publisher.

That, to me, is the best point you make in this post – if you want to self-publish, awesome, great, fab, more power to ya, cheers mate. But be prepared to do a LOT of shit that is not writing. Mostly marketing and promotion, but you’ve gotta edit, design, lay out, lay out CASH, and learn formatting and conversion. Or pay someone else to do all that for you. That’s basically what a traditional publishing contract is, anyway – you’re paying someone else to clean, design, and market your work for you. But you’re outsourcing it by selling your rights for an advance and royalties, instead of paying up front to hire an editor, a designer, a file conversion person, etc.

Same deal, different methods.

Gatekeepers for self-pub are going to become critical soon, I think – review sites for self-published work, Amazon reviews, Goodreads…they’re all gonna be what keep us from going mad with the shit-tastic quality of most self-pubbed books.

But there will be gems out there, books that were good to start with, and that their authors found and hired good editors and designers for. I’m lookin’ forward to reading them.

(also, I’m hedging my own bets, by running a traditional-ish small press, freelancing as an editor/designer for people who want to do the “pay as you go” self-pub model, and also being a writer experimenting with both traditional and self-pub models. Works for me, but then I’m a type A control freak)

Chuck, this discussion is exactly the same in my profession, only the subject matter has changed slightly. So here’s a perspective on this issue that is not from an author. To me, the key concepts/words in your post are gatekeepers, vetted, filtered and most importantly, audience.

My job as a teacher is to transmit information to developing minds. There are traditional methods for transmitting that information (vetted, filtered, committee-approved textbooks), and there are now other, more “democratic” digitally transmitted ways of getting and sharing information. Many teachers complain about the loss of control over the information, the quality of said information, and the amount of work it takes to design your own lesson plans using “unfiltered” resources. My response is yes, it’s harder. It’s harder because one has to THINK for one’s self. Actually think and form an opinion based on facts, references, and critical thinking. This is a new form of literacy, and I expect all my students to step it up and to learn how it’s done.

There is a whole lot of crappy information out there on the Internet, and available as literature online at self pub sites like Lulu. People have a choice. People have a responsibility to make good choices for themselves; to know what they like to read; to have a functioning crap detector. If you’re looking for facts about global warming, make sure what your reading comes from a peer-reviewed scientist. This is what I call freedom. Responsibility is a lot of work; should Random House do my work for me? Personally, I don’t buy into the belief that only publishers know what I like to read or how I like to read it. I prefer to make that decision on my own. The fact that I can click to Lulu and download a .pdf makes me much more likely to buy a book. I’ve bought many great books from Lulu. I’m a fan. Similarly, my students are far more likely to learn something important, far more likely to INTERACT with information and ENGAGE in learning when they have to do the filtering (work) themselves and when they have the freedom to relate information to their own lives. Vetted textbooks can not do this. The gatekeepers are ruining all forms of education. Twilight series? Shudder. Ugg.

I’ll agree that it is comforting that there are gatekeepers at times, but I’m far more interested in my freedom of personal choice. We should all yell from the rooftops what Ben said: “The boulder isn’t lighter just because now anybody can push it.” Truest truth I’ve ever heard. I teach my students this concept every day. Wikipedia isn’t any less informative just because anybody can add to it – but, you have to do the work yourself. You have to push the bolder.

You have an audience. You know how to write a great story. Publish something good and the money/fame/notoriety will come.

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Dude – you are hilarious! I stumbled upon your blog while doing some research – what a treat. I’d say you pretty much nailed it. Loved the frankness.

Going both ways for the serious writer is probably the way to go right now. Seems logical to me.

While I’m not an author, I am in the business, and I do have a perspective.

I do think that the self publishing options available to authors will only continue to get better and more compelling as time goes on. The technology that supports the self publishing players is continually improving, as are the business models themselves. In this sense I think that the self pub. options will keep moving forward and keep progressing, offering more value to the author (and reader). I can’t say the same for the traditional pub. model; they (big 6 & Co.) are still trying to figure out the way forward. No matter how you slice it, the balance of power is shifting back to the author, (where it belongs).

Great post.

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Started writing erotica full time Feb 2010, wrote 5 novellas in 4 months, sent them individually to 8 different publishers and got multiple rejections … not because they didn’t like my writing, but because my writing didn’t fit with their “model.” Got some good feedback and moved on.

FFWD to June 2010 – Packaged 4 of my stories to self-pub as a book of novellas, got a professional book cover, copy edit, established my platform with a website/blog/Twitter/Facebook, became friendly with local bookstores, newspaper editors. It’s now almost a year later, and my book is on the net, available as hard cover, soft cover, and ebook. I have a launch in a few weeks in time for Valentine’s Day, and I’m on to writing my next book. Will I self-pub again? Yes. Will I continue to query traditional publishers – Yes.

Nothing has changed in the publishing industry over the past year, but what has changed is me. I am no longer a novice. I have (slightly) more credibility if a traditional publisher looks me up and finds I have produced a book and have a following.

My writing is my business, and that’s how I treat it once the creative part is done.

Just found your blog, and am having a great time reading past posts. Noticed in this one that you mention you’ve been on sub to editors since early 2010. My agent started sending my novel out several months ago. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for both of us!

Saw your site from an RT on my twitter. Nice post by the way and yeah, I totally agree with you. Do both is what I have in mind right now and I am pursuing it even though I live oversea.

Great Post. I totally agree with do both. I did both. I have niche work (that for some ungodly reason sells the best of all my work) that I self-pub’d. No marketing–no advertising–but ti’s selling. Not sure why or how, LOL. Good tags?

My GOOD book–published with a small publisher–great 5 star reviews on review sites–and selling like total shit.

two novella’s just out this month? Said screw it and self-pub’d–and they are selling. I’ve made more in one MONTH than i made with my publisher in a year. Seriously.

I do think the key is “DO BOTH”

My two cents.

I worked in New York publishing from 1982-1990 at several major publishers. It was an era marked by layoffs, downsizing, overpayment for “safe’ authors, and a wholesale hostility to much of the America of that time. Why? Well it reminds me of something a Chicago police chief said of poor Appalachian Americans who moved to northern cities. “They’re foreigners in in their own country.” (And as it happens, I was part of that internal migration.) Although young editors, writers, pr laborers, copywriters, graphic artists etc. did come from all over the country, they all pretty much sounded and thought the same when it came to what was publishable and why. “Gatekeepers” is too simplistic or mechanical a discription for a world view as inflexible as any “hillbilly preacher’s.” They too often seemed to me to be, not foreigners, but tourists in their own country. The decline of publishing began before the arrival of laptops, ipads, ereaders, epub, Amazon, email, texting, the WWW and so on. The reasons are varied and many. But nothing above seems to take this historical fact into account. That B&N and Borders overexpanded is just as important as the digital revolution to their respective declines. The question I’ve always had is, just as major publishers were shrinking or merging (and I went through two mergers), and then bought out by mostly Brits, Germans, and Australians, why would there be an massive expansion of outlets across the country? Then there is the real decline in literacy in this country. Heartbreaking to any working class babyboomer whose classroom experience was far more demanding and fullfilling. Someone above suggested a professional epub outlet. That would be nice. The humanizing affect of true diversity of thought and experience (something that doesn’t come automatically with color, ethnicity, religion, gender or sexuality, or national origin) would also be refreshing. In eight years I must have attended hundreds of editorial meetings — not counting marketing and sales conferences. And I can’t think of a greater waste of time outside of filing out a 1040 or watching a sitcom. The gatekeepers have gatekeepers as well. And it is not a pretty process.

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“Is the money really better for the self-published author? On average, probably not.”

I didn’t read many comments (maybe later), but I’d disagree with this. 99% of people trying to go with trad publishing make $0. At least the same 99% of people self-publishing make a little (although it depends on how much they spend on art, editing, etc.).

I think an author is a lot more likely to earn a livable income via self-publishing right now, though. But as you said, that requires the author to wear a lot of hats and spend some money to get things going.

I love your post! First of all…extremely well written! Funny as hell. Right on the head as well. I love the “do both” model

[...] self-publishing is more than just uploading a file to a print-on-demand company or e-book retailer. It’s a business decision that comes with numerous responsibilities, from design and marketing to rights and taxes. Each represents an expense of time and/or money [...]

Wow! This is the best shoot-from-the-hip article I’ve read on whether to self-publish or not. I totallly agree with everything you’ve said here. Also, I loved the way you broke down the dollars and cents. Thanks. Hugs.

Honestly, you have turned me on to the idea of self-publishing. Hopefully, I can join efforts with my close writer friends and make a dent in the business. Thanks!