The Revolution of Self Publishing?
Is it really such a revolutionary idea for authors to be publishing their own books or selling ebook versions of what they've already written?
About 5 years ago, I mentioned to an author friend of mine that I was thinking about finally writing a series of short stories that I've had rolling around in my head for decades. Want to offer some help, she recommended her agent saying that I must have an agent if I ever hope to get my manuscript in front of an editor. I told her that I was planning to self publish and offer a digital version. You should have seen the look of horror and betrayal I received! She then proceeded to tell me about how one is not a real author until one is published "the traditional way". To me that's like saying one isn't a farmer until they're using a yoke with livestock to pull the plough.
Well, I've still not published that book, I never got the agent and I never took the plunge. I let a well-meaning, but ultimately not, friend talk me right out of even trying; out of even failing to sell a copy after publishing it myself, which would really have been a success.
Fast forward to today and the writing group she runs (it started as a newsletter and is now a interactive Facebook group) is posting articles and encouraging the idea of self publishing as something new and revolutionary, and I think I know why it's taken this long.
For a very long time, the odds were stacked against authors because the system had been built by publishers with a velvet rope and very tough doorman. Only agents knew the password to get past the rope, and that wasn't a guarantee that you'd get published, but at least the chance to get your stuff read...maybe. Authors had to play by the rules the publishers, editors and agents wrote. Some authors still think this is true. However, more and more are seeing the light.
Well, much like with politics and just about everything else where the few want all the power against the many, the power of the Internet is leveling the playing field by making the traditional system obsolete. It hasn't fully happened, but more and more people are realizing that they can make a go of being an author without bowing to the altar of Random House, HarperCollins, et al. With the advent and successful use of Print-on-Demand technology, an author doesn't even need to purchase a thousand books and then try to sell them to make back the investment.
The revolutionary idea isn't that an author can self publish and make a living, clever writers have been doing it all along! What's revolutionary is that more and more authors are starting to understand that they don't need the validity of an antiquated system to be a successful author because that isn't what determines one's worth as an author.
