To Publish, or Not To Publish...

I used to swear up, down and sideways that I’d never under any circumstances pay to have my work published. Not gonna do it. It’s plenty good enough that some major house, prominent agent or both will be enlightened enough to see the value in what I’ve written and gladly pay me for the privilege. Well... ‘Never’ being a somewhat longer time than, well, than any amount of time I might have left, I’ve had to reassess that pronouncement. Here’s the rationalization that allows me to keep writing, and to keep staring back at the fellow in the mirror who seems to shave every morning the same time I do. I don’t pay to publish my work; I pay to have someone else publish my work.

Okay, that sounds like the old Vanity Press copout, I suppose. The old writer-wannabe impulse giving in to market forces that keep rejecting whatever words of wisdom the damn fool market isn’t wise enough to see for what they’re worth: my words are, in a word, worthwhile.
It’s a common human conceit to regard our own product, whatever it may be, as the best, fastest, most innovative, cleverest and beyond necessity thing to come along since Plato was a pup. Market forces being what they are, clever people have created venues that not only reinforce our opinions of our own craft, they extend the attractive life ring we need just in time to rescue us before we dip below the waves for the last time, our clever idea/widget/tool/solution/book etc. sinking with us, lost for all time. And do we ever grab that ring!  Cripes almighty, we leave knuckle marks in its welcoming surface, expensive knuckle marks in many cases.

Some of those life ring entities that have arisen to rescue authors drowning in the vast and stormy sea of publishing are such outright self-pub sites as Createspace, Lulu, selfpublishing.com, Amazon for Kindle etc. But there are a few cropping up lately that take a hybrid approach to self-publishing. Companies such as Greenleaf Book Group in Austin offer the same quality product in a manuscript that the majors have always offered, while requiring authors to be heavily involved in their own promotion, including the financial aspects of it. Another, newer site that is in Beta mode as this is written is Line by Lion, which offers a middle route to publication. Line by Lion seeks to represent what they refer to as 'houseless' authors. As their Indiegogo site says: "... there are many fabulous authors with quality, finished works and careers on the rise who are set back when their publishing house closes" In other words, Line by Lion offers a refuge for writers who may have had a house contract. L by L is seeking funding now, and I'm hoping they get it because the idea is sound.

Authors may decry this business model as predatory or oppressive, but it seems to me that this arrangement merely acknowledges the reality of modern publishing. That with E-books rapidly replacing hold-in-your-hand books, and fewer readers buying books at all, publishers’ profits are vanishing. Unless your name is John Grisham, Dan Brown or Jeanette Walls the days of a publishing house paying for reading tours, expensive promotional campaigns and huge print runs are over.

So do I pay for publishing my own work? If I want readership, do I have a choice?