There used to be a real stigma around self publishing. To a very large extent that stigma is still there. This might largely be due to the infamous vanity publishers, who demanded large sums of money from people desperate to see their words in print.
These days there is no excuse for being out of pocket thousands, or even hundreds, of dollars to see your words bound into a professional looking tome. Amazon’s Createspace allows you to produce a very professional looking product very cheaply.
Does this help to vanquish the bad wrap that self publishers receive? Absolutely not. I recently found myself rolling my eyes when I realised that a self proclaimed author of three books is ‘only’ self published. Lowering the barrier of entry into being ‘published’ will certainly mean that there will be a lot of barely legible scrawl cluttering the virtual shelves of online stores, but if that is the worst we have to face, then why should we be wasting our time worrying about it. Leave that to the literary purists.
Instead, let’s think about the good points. Readers are no longer at the mercy of what publishers think we should read. Smaller demographics can finally be represented, when previously they would struggle to find any books in their preferred topic or genre.
What about the writers? I mean good writers, or at least reasonably competent ones. Why should they explore self publishing?
Well, I had the opportunity to read the first draft from a published author I met. I then read the subsequent and final drafts. I watched on as an interesting and vibrant opening of a story became hammered into a plastic lifeless mould by the demands of a ruthless editor. The author admitted that it was an extreme case, and the worst experience he had had with an editor, but the point was made.
By self publishing, a writer retains his creative freedom and integrity. The full power of his passion is carried into the words, not some diluted, twisted version of his original vision.
So I say, more power to the individual writer. Let them publish whatever they want. Sure, that will mean there will be some garbage out there, but there will be some literary gems also. I just hope that the truly talented writers are equally talented at marketing their words.
