this does not mean that every acquisitions editor working for a major publishing house would know slush if it came in a cup.

So very true.

Gary.

Ha! Love the analogy, Zoe. So true. So true.

I shopped manuscripts around for years, each one getting interest from some publisher who then backed out for some (totally legitimate) business reason. That, or they were devoured by a big publishing corporation — if they were lucky — or, if less lucky, they had to cut back or close down their fiction imprint altogether and focus on bathroom or coffee-table books just to survive.

“Why don’t you send it to [this or that independent publisher]?” Because in most cases they’ve changed their focus to publishing sideline works by famous authors, friends, or “championing” the UK release of already-bestselling North American works.

I hired an offset printer to do the production work of my first book back in 1999, and since then have expanded my skills to the point that I can produce a paperback or hardcover book from start to finish at home. Because of this, I’ve been able to start connecting with the readers who are my audience. I’ve still got worlds to learn, but at least I have four real books that people can get their hands on.

This is surely not a lesser act than stuffing reams of paper into envelopes and mailing them to corporations I hope will “discover” me and ‘magic’ me into a famous author. The rich people and famous people I’ve met or know are still vulnerable humans trying to be happy, so wealth or celebrity have never been my goals. I just want to tell fun stories and share them with others, so they can enjoy these stories unfolding in their imagination, just as I did in when I discovered them in mine.

In this finite mortal life, I’ve stopped wasting time and money trying to woo businesspeople who have their attention elsewhere. Publishing companies are businesses — they’re not charities and they don’t owe us a thing — so rather than become bitter about the state of the industry, or spend all my time obsessing about it, I’ve found a bypass that lets me create my own reality and exist completely outside it. As Zoe says, it’s irrelevant to me. Rather than try to get a date with the Queen of England, I’ve found my own true love.

Yes, it’s decidedly difficult swimming upstream all the time, trying to learn how to do all the necessary things (which, increasingly, it seems I would have to even with a traditional contract), and it’s tough not getting angry when people lump all independent work together and give it a nasty, dismissive description without having read a word of mine. So it’s a soothing balm to receive an article like this from someone who ‘gets’ it, with full awareness of the industry, and without discounting any of the facts or myriad gradients in the spectrum of our experiences as book-people.

Sorry, for my moment of unasked-for public catharsis here. This was really just a long way of saying “thank you”.

Thank you!

That’s my biggest pet peeve. I understand nobody likes everything. There is always someone who hates any writer’s work. But, when you self-pub and someone doesn’t like your work, the fallback is always: “Oh. You obviously couldn’t ‘get’ a publisher.” That’s sort of like telling a nun she couldn’t get a date. It’s a completely irrelevant barometer of success for them. But some people don’t get it.

Love this post and agree with everything said here. Promotion is so minimal for most authors, it can’t be identified under an electron microscope. Ultimately, trad authors and self-published authors end up doing much the same amount of promotion (except the author with the big house is suffering from the common delusion of “Surely my publisher’s publicist is taking care of that for me.”)

I’ve attended two writing conference in the past couple of months. There’s lots of handwringing about the future, but by the second time around hearing the objections and resistance, I’ve come to the conclusion there’s a lot of wasted energy out there. Those still debating “Self-pubbing: Threat or Opportunity?” don’t get it. These people need to put on their big girl panties, adapt and embrace the future because ebooks, mbooks and the self-pubbing flood is coming whether they choose to accept it or not. Adapt or go extinct. It’s a rule.

Thanks for the great post!

Chazz