The Rehabilitation of a Snob: a True Confession
From a traditionally published author moving into the self-publishing world:
My name is Linda, and I am a snob.
For years, I have defended traditional publishing as the only true route to success in this business. I have held disdain for those who rushed to provide the public with works that may not be quite ready, because they have found the traditional route discouraging or the vanity route faster. I have argued that self publishing is a recourse for those who don’t want to pay their dues, those who don’t want to put the work into their manuscripts that is required to polish and perfect their stories.
I think there are good reasons to try for a traditional publishing contract:
If you are writing a single story not a series
You’re writing a YA novel or children’s book. Children’s books are expensive to produce if they need a lot of illustrations. Children reading YA novels have less money to spend, and might rely more on mom or dad or the public library. Of course, if you can get libraries to stock your books …
You’re looking at it as a loss leader. Statistically speaking, traditionally published authors who later go the self-publishing route make the most money. There are probably a lot of reasons for this … but if you only make it $30,000 on a book, but it leaps to the USA top 100 you can put “USA TODAY Bestselling Author” on all of your book descriptions for life.
I never thought of trying to go the traditionally published route. I realized that my book was just a little too far off in left field. But I am so glad I did it. There definitely still is a stigma against self-publishing, and some people will turn up their noses … but I’ve had people who are dying say I’ve taken them away from their situation with my writing. And well … that trumps “this is obviously a self-published book” any day.
