The Vanishing Stigma of Self Publishing

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Reported by Aggie Villanueva

Traditional publishing industry’s Kent Anderson’s self published book

We have been watching the self-publishing stigma dissipate for years. I’m happy to report the trend continues as more excellent writers use this platform with a savvy equal to the traditional publishing companies.

From Joanna Penn‘s Facebook group, How to Publish A Book, I clicked on this post in the Self Publishing Review. Henry Baum‘s guest post, A Publishing Person Self-Publishes, is written by Kent Anderson who works within the traditional publishing industry.

I was intrigued to learn that someone in the traditional publishing field would self publish. Although I partially reprinted his 8 points of reasoning that lead to his decision to self publish, there is so much more insight and knowledge in his article for the Self Publishing Review. I urge you to read Kent Anderson’s full post.

1. There’s not much money in traditional publishing….
2. Wanting a traditional publisher’s acceptance is probably even more vanity-driven than self-publishing….
3. Email has accelerated the submission and rejection game so much that neither agents nor authors are getting a true read on commercial opportunities this way. And, too often they’re looking for “the next [fill in the blank].”
4. Even with a faster query process, it takes too long to get published through a traditional publisher….
5. New authors in this economy are low on the totem pole, especially for fiction titles….
6. Old-fashioned consignment publishing is struggling….
7. Amazon.com is the 700-pound gorilla in book sales these days. If it isn’t on Amazon, it has no commercial potential….
8. Even if a commercial publisher picks up your book, you’re still a small fish in a vast ocean, and the chances of success rest largely with you, yet with little chance of commensurate reward. And you close off important options a self-published author retains.

See Kent Anderson’s Full Article

I’d also point you to Gail Martin’s blog. Gail points out the perils by referencing James Watkins’ excellent advice to those who choose self publishing companies in his article Self Publishers and Piranhas.

“With fewer and fewer publishers publishing fewer and fewer titles by fewer and fewer authors, more and more people are turning to self-publishing. And more and more self-publishers are making more and more promises to get more and more business.

Here are some important questions to ask to separate the publishers from the piranhas and pariahs:…

For these reasons many writers/photographers/artists are turning to POD, print on demand companies. No initial outlay for a garage full of printed books. Plus the golden opportunity to be in control of your baby start to finish. You book will not lay unnoticed by the marketing staff while a big name gets all the time, money and attention.

We’ll explore print on demand in a later post. But I’d love to hear everyone’s opinion on what these authors had to say about self publishing.

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