Ok, I promise not to get mad today. Maybe. Today’s misconception doesn’t really anger me, it simply befuddles me.
You should not self-publish, because self-publishing is not a stepping-stone to real publication.
Ok, story time. Once upon a time, there was a man who wanted to own a store. When he was seven years old, he went into a little mom-and-pop store with his own Mom and Pop, and he watched the woman behind the counter with a profound awe. That’s what I’m going to do when I grow up, he said to himself, and he crossed his heart and hoped to die and swore a most excellent oath to himself that he would be the Pop in a mom-and-pop store before he became too old to achieve his dreams. Like say thirty.
He got a big big big glass jar, and he saved up all his pennies, and one day he bought a store, and bought a big truckload of candy and rutabagas and XXL tee shirts with sayings from the seventies and shovels and left-handed screwdrivers and old-fashioned sunglasses on a big spinny rack and bags of flour and potatoes and carrots, and all the other things you need to have a mom-and-pop store, and he put up a big sign that said GRAND OPENING TODAY! and he stood in the sunshine in the door. And to tell the truth, there was just a little bit of a tear in his eye, because he was only twenty-nine. He’d made it. He’d beat his deadline.
And the first customer to come along said “You know, you never should have done this, because owning your own store isn’t really a stepping-stone to working at Walmart.”
THE END
So what’s your favorite (meaning most hated) misconception about self-publishing?
Leave a comment, and I’ll try to get to them all.
Related posts:
- Misconceptions About Self-Publishing — Part I
- Misconceptions About Self-Publishing — Part III
- My Publishing Timeline – An Update
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Bravo on the series: Misconceptions About Self-Publishing — Parts I & II!
I’m thrilled that another author is expressing himself in an open, honest fashion about the misconceptions of self-publishing. The stigma that has been generated toward a worthy profession is appalling. This intolerance is another way of dismantling the artistry that emanates from those liberated from the mainstream ideal.
I write because I enjoy writing. I publish because I enjoy publishing. I create because I enjoy being an INDIVIDUAL and not a conformist writer on a chain store payroll.
J.E. Seanachaí´s last blog ..Seanachaí’s News
Thank you for the comment! So far, no blocks from the agents on Twitter (that I know of), and only one nasty email, so all is well!
I find it mildly annoying that there’s a misconception that “real” published authors only have to write books and show up for book signings and that publishers do the rest.
UNTRUE!
new authors, and some established authors have to advertise themselves.
Additionally – you can get a start in selfpublishing. You just have to sell 2000 copies of your book before a publisher will notice you.
Editors annoy me. (especially self-styled ones)
I ask people to read my stuff and they want to add words in that I didn’t want that completely change the meaning of the sentence. That kind of thing drives me up the wall.
Misconceptions about self-publishing: the reputed average being 75 sales per self-pubbed book – Well then the writers haven’t been trying hard enough, since that represents about 1.5 degrees of separation from friends and family. Unless you are a Brown/Grisham, even ‘proper’ published writers still have to do the majority of their own promo work. So self-publishers better get used to the idea and we have no one else to blame for lame sales but ourselves.
Nice blog.
marc nash´s last blog ..Free-E-Day
Marc and Aloria, thank you both for your comments. Sorry about the delay, my so-called “real” life has been especially annoying and demanding all day!
Yes, it’s often said that when you self-publish, you have to do all the marketing yourself, but then you read the agents’ blogs and Twitter feeds, and they say “Don’t count on your publisher to market your book — you have to do it yourself.”
So the difference is… what?
Levi and all,
Cheers for these last few comments, I was going to throw do a longer bit about the same subject matter (publishers don’t sell the book and do promotion), but I like the succinctness.
I will add that even when talking about Traditional Publishing, it is important to remember that a lot of presses, traditional presses, are not Large New York type houses. Micro to small to medium size presses are the majority and they are all very supportive (if not straight up gung-ho) for self publishers, there is no bad blood house-to-house. These sized presses certainly can do little more (a phrase I hate to use, for reasons eloquently pointed out above) than an author can do for themselves, but I look at that as a good thing. Publishing, as writing, is a particularized thing, a nuanced art form, and about community, not competition. I know authors published all the way up the line (self, small, medium, large–from two author indie houses through Soho and Soft Skull to Vintage) and their stories are all the same and they all, and their publishers, totally dig on each other, share and share alike.
I wish I could take credit for this next remark, but it actually came from a colleague of mine. She aptly pointed out that “a traditionally published book really is just a self-published book put out by a third party”. No difference. Not in no money up front, not in availability to sales channels or publicity, not in eagerness of readers, not in reaction (all across the board) from readers. Not in any way.
Additionally, remember you can always do the math yourself on what it costs and where the money goes from publisher to distributor to bookseller and discover this is not the way most money is made by books. Just honestly, soberly, crunch the numbers. It’s one good method, mainly for exposure, but not the Holy Grail.
It has never been and will never be the norm that a novelist will be able to make a living just writing anything a novelist wants. Never has been, never will be. Because that isn’t what literature is about and it isn’t what publishing is about (not the majority of publishing–the large houses do not do wrong to anybody, ignore them, they are one element of an endlessly nuanced and fascinating practice). It’s the same in any industry having to do with art. No band just writes a few good songs, plays them for some people and are on easy street. No painter just produces canvases, people look at them and hand over money. Christ, there are filmmakers I love who most people don’t know the name of and last year Paul Blart: Mall Cop out grossed and was on the lips of exponentially more people than any fifty exquisite art house films and any fifty smaller mainstream films combined. Any artist would still rather have had a background role in Pontypool (not that there were any, but the point is valid) than the lead in Good Luck Chuck.
The part where you are writing, publishing, learning the ropes, taking the punches, reshaping, struggling–that is where it’s at.
(went on a bit longer than intended, sorry about that)
Cheers.
Pablo,
Your point that (to simplify a bit) material success is dependent upon meeting the needs and wants of many, and not simply putting your own art out there, is certainly a valid point. I think one of the more frustrating aspects of this point, however, is the fact that it is the very validity of this point that makes it seem to so many that the selection processes of the corporate publishers (which are aimed solely at making money) are selecting for literary merit or artistic value, and that anyone who evades this screen has no merit at all, and in fact, no right to have slipped so far upstream.
Every author will always need to promote their works. It is part of how our culture works!
Jen
http://www.boostbooksales.com
That is, of course, true, and as the marketing and promotion activities of publishers continue to shrink, one suspects they’ll be left holding the bag, waiting for the snipe.
(Please note: This does not constitute an endorsement of http://www.boostbooksales.com, although I do encourage all self-published authors to take a good look at any and all opportunities that come along.)