There is a divide in the world of book publishing, and no, we’re not talking about the e-reader debate. Self-publishing is taking the internet by storm, and it has readers divided.
Self-publishing is when an author skips having a publisher and just prints their book themselves. This is a very expensive thing to do with physical books, and getting self-published books in actual stores is an even bigger hurdle. Then the internet went and changed everything, as it seems to do so often.
Now authors can submit their manuscript to a number of programs and have an e-book formatted and for sale in a matter of moments. They completely skip the traditional publishing process. The most famous self-published author is likely E.L. James, author of “50 Shades of Grey.” Many authors have been jumping on the self-publishing bandwagon in hopes of being another James (who was eventually picked up by Vintage Books, a subdivision of Random House), but have their hopes quickly taken away.
Kevin Holton, a junior, has self-published mystery novels through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing program. It’s a choice he regrets. “Unless you’re a marketing major, you’ll likely find little to no success in self-publishing because there’s a huge stigma against it. Generally, such work (I found out after) is considered self-important, low quality, and not worthy of traditional publishing,” Holton said.
Holton won’t even read books without some sort of traditional publisher. The English major said, “I don’t read self-published books because I’ve found this stereotype is often terribly true. If you’re looking for quality books, stick to the stores and online, independent presses. Any publication house is better than none.”
The problem is that many self-published authors put out books that are unedited, filled with grammar mistakes and generally not good. Of course, no one can generalize what is literally hundreds of thousands of ebooks.
Looking at Kindle’s Top 100, not everyone shares Holton’s opinion. It seems that romance novels are often topping the charts, and even self-published romance novels make it onto the list. At the time of printing, “The Fixed Series” by Laurelin Paige held the third spot in Kindle’s Top 100, sandwiched between novels from “Divergent” (the latest young adult book to screen adaptation). Paige used the Kindle Direct Publishing Service to publish her romance trilogy.
Tanya Anne Crosby is another romance author who found a lot of success with self-publishing. She actually left traditional publishers (where she became a New York Times bestseller) to publish independently, but she knows she didn’t take an easy path. Crosby said, “It’s actually a much tougher process, because I have to coordinate all aspects of it, but since no one cares more about this book than I do, I know it’s going to get the proper treatment.”
Crosby has a team of beta readers read her stories for content to make sure everything is consistent plus an editor and a proofreader. While she prefers publishing independently, she has had to learn many new aspects of the publishing world because she is essentially doing what a team of people does at a traditional publishing house, everything finding editors to marketing.
“It’s tough to know where to put our marketing dollars, and we don’t have the same avenues available to us as self-published authors that publishing houses do. That said, it’s not guaranteed that the publishing houses will use it for each and every author. It’s up to their whim and there are no promises made,” Crosby said.
Crosby occasionally takes out ads in publications focused on romance novels, and she is active on social media. She makes sure to interact with her fans via Facebook and Twitter. Crosby believes the connection she makes with audiences via social media is vital. She said, “I believe this is not only important, but beneficial to me as an author because they are the ones I’m writing for. They can tell me straight out what it is they like about my work, or don’t like, and I can better write the kind of stories they want to read.”
So far, though, the overwhelming acceptance of self-published authors seems to remain in the romance genre, while most fans of other genres seem torn over the debate. Matt Scala, founder of the Creative Writing Club, said, “There are tons of conflicting opinions on self-publishing… I personally have read only one self-published book (my cousin’s poetry). I think they are valid, but if anyone is looking to make some sort of profit that isn’t really the way to go.”
Of course, most writers know this and (hopefully) get into the profession because they love writing, which Crosby cited as the most important aspect of self-published books. Crosby advised, “Be prepared to work harder, learn more, persevere, and edit, edit, edit! Aside from those things, write the books that fill your heart … the ones you want to read. If you don’t love your bound babies, no one else can love them either.”
Crosby’s latest ebook, a collaboration with two other writers, “A Winter Sword,” was released on Amazon on April 21.
PHOTO TAKEN from fanart.tv
