The self publishing and traditional publishing debate.

[Christine Jones]

This is a sore topic with me! In my personal opinion, all writers are creative in their own right and I see writers as brothers and sisters in creativity and not my competitors. Every writer, including best selling authors, has had their share of rejections. This tells me that there are agents who have let fantastic manuscripts slip through their fingers. In addition, there are bogus agents wanting a quick buck that play on writers wanting to see their books in print. Considering the options in publishing, I would rather try to make some money so I can continue to write than perhaps wait years to get that one agent prepared to take a risk with my work. As it can take 6 months to get a response from an agent, and they don't like you offering to 50 agents at once, you are looking at sending out your manuscript twice a year. Sometimes you don't even get a response. If other products in the market had to do this, they would starve and we the consumer would have little choice and still be living in little more than caves.

I am appalled at writers who say unless you are traditionally published you are not an author and should not get recognition. This debate is turning writers against each other, which is really sad when if we stuck together and saw the overall creativity we could turn the publishing industry around by supporting one another and getting books, e-books out to those who are important, THE READER!!! This is also reflecting on reviewers of books, whether on the web, magazines and television, as I have seen in some submission guidelines that they will not do reviews on self published and POD books. Mind you, these places would look at you if you became a best seller, jump on the band wagon once you prove yourself commercially viable. Also, agents would approach you. I think writers are brave people, who share their beloved creations with others, who may or may not appreciate the time and effort that goes into writing a manuscript, poem etc in the first place.

I have read many replies in discussions that say not all writing is publishable and why should junk be in print. In my opinion, what does not interest one may interest another, alas, different tastes and genres. In addition, if you have 1 family member who is a fan of your work, alas, A READER. A writer now has the opportunity to give an e-book or self published book to even one fan, and who says no one else will like it until it is tested. So to say it is junk is to knock the writer and READER! Saying this, I do not expect agents or publishers to publish everything, but as writers, don't bag out those giving it a go or the READER'S opinion, even if just a hand full. Not everyone likes Harry Potter; does that make the reader mad, sad or a freak? NO! It is just opinion and everyone is entitled to that and why we have different genres.

I read on a writer's discussion board that you will not see Oprah's book club promote a self published book. I did write to Oprah regarding this statement and I am sorry to say, I did not get a reply. However, I understand that unless they get a number of e-mails regarding a subject, they will not follow through. So if you feel led, drop Oprah a line. You never know, we might get an answer the more we pester.

I would love to hear what you think, as I appreciate everyone's opinion, whether you agree with me or not. You might have other things to add for us to think about.

Blessing Christine Jones

[Robbie Taylor]

I believe that the main complaint that people have about self-published/POD work is that it hasn't been through the editing process. In other words, there are so many layers to the traditional process that the cream will rise to the top.

Having said that, I do think there is a certain "fear of the riff-raff" in all the sniffing about how self-published/POD work isn't worth a reviewer's/publisher's/etc.'s time. We've seen the impact that blogs are making in the political world, and that scares a certain type of person, the type of person who just happens to be at the top of most corporations such as publishing companies. They see a lot of power and money slipping away from them if just anybody can put their work out and find an audience, and they do a lot to discourage the general public from thinking that work like that is any good.

Our responsibility, then, is to be the best we can be. For some, that may not be great, but there are surely great artists out here who have simply not been given a chance by the corporations, and who can finally connect with an audience directly through the power of Lulu and organizations like it.

[Andre Infante]

Well, if there is an issue about the 'cream of the crop' not rising to the top, that can be easily remedied.

It occurs to me that it would not be terribly hard to build a Digg-style website dedicated to rating self-published books. You select your genre's, and it shows you a list of the highest-rated novels (with 'buy it now' links), mixed with a selection of new novels for you to rate.

Sound workable?

[Brian Riley]

I think there are two dynamics going here. The first is the traditional publisher as gatekeeper. Let’s face it, reviewers cannot afford the time to read and review everything that has ever been printed. Nor can the traditional publishers afford to print and promote it.

Sadly, when times get lean, which they are now, it means the traditional publishers are taking less risks and going with current winners to write the new books. Breaking into traditional publishing, as noted, is very, very difficult, no matter how talented you are.

On the other hand, the price of actually printing a, that is one book at a time, has dropped to the point where it can be done profitably - you really don’t need a traditional publisher, any more than a rock band needs a record label. The only thing you need is to be able to promote your own work effectively. Since this is my first book with Lulu, it is going to be interesting to see how good they are at promotion, if at all.

I have been writing on blogs and message boards for a while, as well as writing on Worth1000, and I do have a following. I picked up 100 copies of the book myself because I know I have that much of a market among people that have already read me.

So, am I a ‘real’ writer? All I can tell you is I am giving it my best shot. I built up the groundwork, we will see if it flies. I have two more in line, one for the end of this month, the other in March. The one is under edit now, I still have some writing to do on that March one.

So ask me in six weeks. Frankly if I move at least a thousand copies, I will consider myself a published writer, whether anybody else thinks so or not.

Oh, and that thing about not reviewing self-published works? Wait until one or two of them hit the 10,000 mark, and that will change in a hurry. In the meantime, we need a full self-published industry that can handle that.

-Brian

[Yonassan Gershom]

A lot of very good books were self-published -- The Wizard of Oz and Walden being two examples. I don't think this is any reflection on the authors. If you write well, people will read it.

I have commercially-published books with traditional presses, but when it came to my current book, Jewish Themes in Star Trek, I opted for self-publishing on Lulu, so I could have complete control. I wanted to discuss some rather controversal things such as pacifism and allusions to mid-east politics in Trek, and I did not want to be censored by a commercial industry that is more and more being controlled by the likes of Rupert Murdoch (very politically conservative.).

So which is better? It depends on the book and what you are trying to do. I don't expect my Jewish Trek book to be a bestseller, but for a certain niche market, it is doing well -- and my Jewish readers do not seem to care if it is self-published. They are just THRILLED to finally have something about Star Trek from a Jewish POV (and non-Jews are enjoying this book, too -- epsecially the parts about Jewish writers and actors, etc. Plus I have explained some in-jokes:)

Granted, I have not gotten reviews by major mags yet, but word is spreading on the Net, which is the New Media anyway (Newpapers are in BIG trouble and dropping like flies.) So for this book, I think self-publishing is BETTER than commercial.