Self-Publishing?

[ewlyn.livejournal.com]

Greetings everyone!  With my first novel in it's final revision, I have been trying to decide what to do next with it.

I noticed that the upcoming May issue of Talking Writing is going to be about self-publishing.  Previous issues have had a lot of interesting essays written by various writers on whichever topic they are covering.  I'm hoping the May issue will have some insight into if self-publishing is the way to go or not.

Does anyone here have any experience with self-publishing or/vs getting published through a publisher which they would be willing to share with me?  Or are there previous posts here which someone can point me in the direction of?  I'm new and still exploring this community.

It would be much appreciated.

Comments

[svenjaliv.livejournal.com]

I have no firsthand experience; I'm to-be-published, in that I know my story's been accepted, but the process as such hasn't really started for me yet. As far as I know, though, self-publishing is easier in the sense that you can just DO it, without having to fight to be accepted by an agent or a publisher. Unfortunately, that makes it harder in a different way; self-published books tend to be fairly low-quality (not all, but many) since there's no acceptance progress, you can publish whatever you like. This also means that self-publishing has a bit of a bad reputation (much like fanfiction: much of it is bad, some of it is excellent, and some is in-between, but the amount of bad is greater than the amount of good, so the whole field tends to be tarred with the same negative brush). And most self-published books don't do well because they aren't promoted, distributed in bookshops, etc. If you go the traditional route, the publisher will take of all of that and they have the network, contacts, etc, which are necessary to do it.

So... I would try the traditional way first, if you can handle the idea of getting rejected many times before being accepted (if ever). If you want to self-publish, and do well with it, you'll have to do quite a lot of work promoting and selling the book. This is why I know it's not for me, personally: I'm a really bad salesperson and I can't advertise worth a damn. But that may well be different for you.

[ewlyn.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on being accepted! That is wonderful news!

I am more drawn to the idea of allowing a publisher house, if I can find one to accept my novel, do most of the work. Self-publishing seems a bit overwhelming to me. Especially because of the promotional side which, honestly, I am not good at.

Thank you so much for your input!

[svenjaliv.livejournal.com]

Thanks! :) Yeah, I would say definitely try the "traditional" route first. It's harder to get accepted and you have to be prepared for rejection, but if you can manage it it's definitely worth it. I'd always look at self-publishing as the second option, the one I'd go for if my stuff didn't get accepted by a publisher, you know? Or if it was a book just for me and my friends or family, or something. But I'd definitely advise everyone to try getting published by a company first. Or get an agent, who'll then get you the publishing contract with a house.

[ewlyn.livejournal.com]

The rejection letters seems like part of the process, so it's not really that daunting to me.

I've been skimming the bookshelves at my local library and bookstore for novels which seem similar to mine and then researching those publishing houses first to see if I might be a good fit for them...

[svenjaliv.livejournal.com]

They are. I've never been very worried about them either. Everyone goes through that, so yeah.

Sounds like you're off to a good start. That's a good way to get going, I think. ;)