Self-publishing: taboo or trendy?
The publishing landscape has changed dramatically over the past decade. Although it has been difficult to break into traditional publishing for quite some time, the barriers to entry have become even higher. Self-publishing is an option that many writers thought of and struggled with because of the societal stain it would leave on their creative reputation. But what about now?
What started as a small, niche space for writers who either didn’t have the skills or didn’t have the resources has expanded into a digital metropolis, with so many options that someone new to the space is easily overwhelmed. There are, of course, pros and cons to this, with the biggest pro being accessibility and the biggest con being—well, accessibility also. What I mean is that while having publication accessible to more authors is critical to reinvigorating readership, it also opens up many doors for bad actors.
Vanity publishers have not disappeared from the playground either. If anything, the expansion of self-publishing has made them bolder because there are more people entering the world of publishing than ever before, and many of them have no prior experience or knowledge regarding what a vanity publisher is or how much self-publication should cost. It is always critical to do your research before signing a contract—I learned that the hard way when I was quite young. Thank goodness it was only a 7-year contract and under a horrible pen name.
Another pro to self-publishing being so widely available is that it finally provides a voice for so many talented writers out there who want to share their creativity with the world. Traditional publishing is so hard to break into, not just because of the time investment of writing query after query and researching the publishers that actually work within your genre and reformatting your manuscript to fit the specifications of each publisher, but also because of the ghosting (no surprise there, it seems to be the norm these days) and incredibly long wait times for responses. Every time you send a query you know there’s a chance you won’t hear back at all or get a rejection, but you have to wait several months to find out if there even will be a rejection. If you don’t receive something by then, you assume you’ve been rejected. So you take your carefully sculpted manuscript and upload it to Amazon KDP, or Apple Books, or Draft2Digital, or one of the many other options, and follow their instructions to get it set up and officially published. Does it still require some work and research? Of course it does. You need to understand what the company expects of you, the author, and the specifications of the file you’ll submit. You should also determine if you want to strictly sell e-books, or if you want e-books and paperbacks. Now there is still a chance—at least with some of the self-publishing outlets—that your work will be rejected, if it violates the content guidelines. However, this seems unlikely, and at least you’ll get an answer if that happens and you can look into other options.
The flip side of that coin is that self-publishing also opens up the opportunity for many people to publish without doing the work. Most of you have seen this, probably on Amazon. You’re on the hunt for something new to read, a title or book cover catches your eye, you start reading through the free sample and—dear God. It is littered with errors. Not only is it full of grammar and spelling atrocities, the sentences are clunky and choppy. You can’t read more than a few paragraphs without your eyes watering from glazing over. It is clear that the work was never edited. And this is the price that is paid for such accessibility—trash upon heaps of trash, jumbles of words regurgitated into sentences that would only sound natural from a 2-year old. And you wonder, what is their excuse? It’s so easy to get help with at least the spelling part. Spellcheck has been a part of Microsoft Word and Google Docs for the longest time. Was there ever a time it WASN’T there? But, I digress.
I’d like to discuss one more pro and con for the self-publishing scene. This pro is what gives me hope that there is still a place in the world for the art of authorship - and that is the indie scene. It’s something that has developed in pretty much all areas of creative work: video game development, musicians, singers, graphic designers, painters, etc. It only makes sense that it would also develop in the writing space. The indie scene can be a powerful and wonderful force for good, drawing artistic souls together for community, collaboration, and support. I have been lucky enough to be a part of the video game indie scene, and I truly believe that the games industry would be in a much worse place today without it. So I have hope that the rise of indie authors and indie support will keep things going, even whilst AI looms over all the creatives of the world.
Now the con is one that can be overcome, but it requires commitment, similarly to how traditional publishing requires commitment to keep trying. Marketing. This is the part that probably stops many in their tracks. No one’s going to market your book for free, and since you got published for free, you’re on your own with the marketing bit. At the end of the day, you don’t HAVE TO market your book. You could just self-publish it and then leave it alone. It’s your choice. But considering how low the chances are of getting a sale WITH marketing your book, you should probably put in some effort if you want to make a sale here and there. Marketing can be a huge time sink, and an even bigger pain, and depending on your strategy, it could cost some money, too. Even if it doesn’t cost you a red cent, you’ll be paying in your time and sanity. I don’t want to end on a low note though, so keep in mind that although it’s a lot of work, when it’s your work, you’re in control.
So after all this time, and considering the evolution of self-publishing and traditional publishing, is it still taboo—or is it now trendy?
