Comments on: Misconceptions About Self-Publishing — Part I

By: Levi Montgomery

Levi Montgomery — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 03:10:12 +0000

I’m not so sure that you can say “people will find it,” and let it go at that. The internet is a big, scary place, and things can wander out there and die, but with care and nurture, your writings will find their readers, yes. What I’m concerned about is that we will find ourselves in a place where fiction is a free commodity.

By: Aloria

Aloria — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 22:53:41 +0000

Look at webcomics – they’re doing pretty well for themselves. Why can’t webnovels?
which is what I’m starting to do with my writing on my website.
People will find it, I’m sure. I’m not worried.

By: Levi Montgomery

Levi Montgomery — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 04:50:53 +0000

Meika and Asrai, thanks for the comments. I seem to be unable to reply to specific comments from my BlackBerry, so you guys get a joint reply. Which is fitting, since both of you mention giving your work away. Unfortunately, I’m seriously worried that’s what it’s coming to: fiction will simply be free, and we’ll all have to go to work driving garbage trucks!

By: asrai

asrai — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 04:39:38 +0000

Hip hip hooray.

When I finished my first book and edited it myself a few times, I tried to decide what to do with it. Submit to traditional publishers, self-pub or give it away.

In the end I opted for 2 and 3, in a combo.

For a couple reasons. One is control- no one was going to tell my the book was too long, too short, too much sex, too little sex, the language I use, my charaters.

I also felt like an editor would change MY book to what she thought a good book should be. Who cares what said editor thinks? MY BOOK.

I’ve read published, tradtionally published books, where I thought- WHO the hell decided to publish this? I can write a gazillion times better than this person.

As for distrubution, Smashwords has e-book distrubution agreements with Barnes and Noble, Shortcovers, Sony and Amazon.

I have more ranting but I should save it for my own blog I’m sure …
.-= asrai´s last blog ..Passwords =-.

By: meika

meika — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 21:26:55 +0000

let’s face it, and calm down some, Publishing Houses are about to be as cool as Microsoft of Rupert ‘paywall’ Murdoch, hell doesn’t his News Inc own a lot of publishers and imprints— and I do not want my work touched up by his wage slaves, thank you very much, I’d rather give it away.

By: Levi Montgomery

Levi Montgomery — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 18:09:09 +0000

Yes, even sometimes a LOT of typos, to say nothing of bad plotting, poor character motivations, and all the other no-nos so often called out as the sins of self-publishing.

By: Levi Montgomery

Levi Montgomery — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 18:06:06 +0000

Yes, titles get changed, characters get renamed, paragraphs and chapters get cut or rearranged…
These things are not the norm, but when people attempt to defend these practices simply by saying that they seldom happen, they’re missing the point, which is that they do happen.

By: Aloria

Aloria — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 17:53:53 +0000

For that matter, I’ve seen recently published books with TYPOS in them!
How’s THAT for “formally published books have a higher quality than self published”!

By: Aloria

Aloria — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 17:46:34 +0000

“No titles changed. No renamed characters. No settings moved across the country.”

What?
Who did that?
I’m …shocked.

Otherwise, I generally agree with your commentary in this post.
The only thing publishing “formally” gives you is book-space in barns & noble and some marketing stuff. But from everything I’ve been reading, the skills learned in Self Publishing are HIGHLY applicable to “formal” publishing because even formally published authors have to market themselves. They don’t get help (much, or at all) from their publishers or agents, and the publishers themselves have a tendency to hamstring good authors by not printing very many books.
Kinda hard to be a best seller when “best sellers” sell 8k copies of a book and the printer only printed 5k.