Self-Published VS. Traditionally Published

Someone please explain to me the reasons so many people look down on self-publishing?

It's not just the process that people look down on but the works self-publishing presents and the manner of persons it represents. This is all kinds from POD to web-comics, whenever you say self-published instantly you get this look of disdain. This has been the most aggravating thing about self-publishing (SP) thus far. And it seems everyone has this notion, unless they know nothing about publishing at all, or they themselves are SP.

Well for those who don’t know what I’m talking about, SP is when you get your own printer somehow (places like Lulu.com have now made it easy), and you take your book to the printer and they print off copies for you OR you simply put it on a website to be read. For now let's talk about printing. You then do all the footwork to get your book known and read. There have been many successful SP authors, but so many more drown in their own sweat. In the old days, SP meant you had a car full of books that you went door-to-door selling. However, now you don’t have to print off 100s of books and tote them around (if you don’t want), you can do Print on Demand. Meaning, when you have a customer, they can (or you can) purchase the 1 book at the time it’s wanted. This saves loads of trees and the author tons of money.

Too bad that’s not the same as a money tree!

That’s about the short end of the matter. Yet, how does this equal such bad connotations? I believe if you haven’t tried it how can you knock it. I was really peeved when not only did I come across another one of these arguments on a Facebook group http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=2204546223&topic=3065, but I took almost 10 minutes replying (a quite logical reply at that) coming back a day or so later to see it was DELETED.

No worries, I’m not bitter. I only want to flesh out some main points about this topic.

SP vs. TP (Traditional publishing)

It has nothing to do with one’s quality of writing. The real set apart – SP has to either hire someone separately to edit the work or pry on friends or family to help. Because of this SP may not do as well with editing. TP generally has editing apart of the package. But not seeing TP works’ mistakes doesn’t mean they were never there to begin with.

SP saves time. If you finish your book Jan. 08, you may very well get it to the readers that same month or soon after. TP could leave that finished work unseen up til July 09! This depends on the arrangements, however, the release of a book is definitely lengthened, esp. considering that you must market the book to publishing companies before it can be arranged to get to the public. It takes some people years to just get a publisher to take on their book – let alone the wait time until it’s available.

SP’s “ready-made”, “no-bake” instant availability of the book is sharply contrasted by the necessity of marketing the book by the author (not a marketer!). Besides the hundreds of thousands of TP books out, there are also (probably) twice as many SP ones. The market is tight. So if a SP author is going to catch an audience they not only have to have a good book but have an excellent marketing plan and know how to run it. THIS ALONE MAKES ANY WELL-KNOWN SP AUTHOR BETTER THAN A TP AUTHOR. The SP one is a jack-of-all-trades . SP can hire someone to do marketing but most don’t. Now this doesn’t mean TP authors aren’t hardworking or their books aren’t worth reading. It’s just that overall a SP author works harder – that is IF if if if they have broken out and gained an audience and a revenue that would match a TP author.

Sometimes SP authors are doing so well, publishing companies go to them to get the author on their side! This has even happened to someone whom I worked with. She would submit her story to the magazine I used to manage, called AnimeAngels Mangazine (AAzine). AAzine, a self-published zine, is still alive under another Managing Editor today. It publishes Christian manga, articles, drawing tutorials, etc. I say, the mangas do rival what’s out on the traditionally published market but these are done mostly by college-aged kids who just do it for fun. I’m still hooked on Mave’s Kingdom Come. Anyway, Shelter of Wings http://www.shelterofwings.com/ was the manga and Lisa Hutchingson, the author, was picked up by Brethren Entertainment http://www.brethren-et.com/BESite3/index.php about 2 years ago. So it’s not impossible to go somewhere by starting out SP or if you are really good at SP you can even make an income. But as for SP vs. TP, they are like a self-employed entrepreneur vs. company-employed businessman climbing the ladder. Both methods have their advantages and their faults.