Why would you self-publish?

Impatient and often amateur writers are so desperate for the kudos that they assume comes with being published they see this as an easy way to earn those kudos. Frankly, I think it's ridiculous.

As you said, unless it's a memoir or niche market it's generally pointless to self-publish. There are a rare few that have become successful but the key word here is "rare". Many amateur writers with extremely limited knowledge of the writing industry have stars in their eyes and dreams of fame and fortune. They neglect the dirty, painful, challenging, and stressful side of writing in favor of the alleged glamorous side. There is very little that is glamorous about writing. It's gritty, plain and simple.

Even as a non-fiction writer who handles a lot of copywriting, business writing, and Web content it gets challenging. People don't think there is much creativity in non-fiction writing because you're just working with facts, numbers, and someone else's needs. On the contrary, I have a lot of creative license and in order to sell an idea or product you have to be creative.

I will never self-publish any of my work unless (and this is a huge IF) there is a market for it. For now I am content with where I am at.

Those who self-publish will learn the hard way how little they will yield from their so-called efforts. I hate to be mean by saying that but it's true. People need to stop and think before assuming self-publishing will lead them to great success or that it makes them a credible author. It doesn't. It just makes them one more in the long list of impatient and egotistical writers who are too lazy to put real effort into their writing.

Just dittoing everyone else, really. Publishing is a complex and at times confusing business; it's easy to think it's much simpler than it is and that if you publish a book it will automatically be read. Very few people know the long and involved process of getting books into stores; about marketing and sales teams and wholesalers and distributors and how bookstores actually buy books.

Not to mention Writer's Delusion--something everyone is vulnerable to--which tells people their book is excellent, a sure-fire bestseller, even if it's only thirty pages long, poorly spelled, and riddled with grammatical errors. I don't think of my books as my babies but certainly in one sense it's hard not to; just as you can't look at your child and think it's ugly, so it's hard to gain perspective and accept that perhaps your book just isn't very good.

Then too, and probably most importantly, there are so many vultures. Vanity press owners who spread the myth that you have to "know someone" to get published, or you have to be famous, or whatever. They want money, and they'll tell whatever lies they need to tell to get it. The ones who claim John Grisham started out self-publishing (he didn't) or insist that Stephen King started out by visiting every bookstore in the country and asking them to stock his book (again, he didn't; authors are not responsible for getting their books into stores, your publisher should do that).

There's also, I think, a disconnect in the understanding of why people buy books. They buy them because they've seen them in stores, picked them up, read the back cover copy and flipped through the pages. Or their book club is reading it or a friend recommended it or whatever. They don't buy a book because they saw it advertised on a bumper sticker or happened to stumble across an excerpt-free website.

Just my opinion, and I mean no disrespect to new writers or anyone else. But the road to publication is very long, and writing isn't easy (even though everyone seems to think it is). It takes a lot of hard work to write a publishable book, and people just don't seem to realize it.

I agree with you. Self publishing is a waste of time and money. It doesn't mean ANYTHING in the publishing world.

But there are a few reasons I can think of.

Because they haven't done research. They google "how to publish a book" or they ask something on Yahoo Answers and the only answers they get are "LULU!" and "iUniverse."

Because they think it will be easier. Publishing your novel the real way is really hard and most people don't want to live up to that challenge.

Because they are delusional. Most people, when they go out to self publish, think that their book will sell immediately and become a New York Times best seller.

Because they are very misinformed. A lot of people who have attempted to publish say that the traditional publishing industry is stupid and that they only publish people with credentials, which isn't true. So they assume that self publishing is the only way you can get credentials. They also often times write very extensive blog entries and forum posts criticizing the publishing industry just because they can't get an agent. Also, many self publishers advertise themselves as if the writer will sell millions of copies if they use the. That isn't true AT ALL.

Because they have already tried to become published but their work wasn't good enough to be published so they turned to self publishing.

I agree with you but those are some plausible reasons. Self publishing isn't worth it. It is a waste of time, effort and money.

@artphotosforsale: That's really amazing that you've become successful with self publishing. I truly respect that. But what a lot of people who look into self publishing fail to understand is that it takes work to do that and that your case if DEFINITELY not within the norm.

I agree that a niche market is where self-publishing makes the most sense, but a few have self-published fiction and done well. I also agree with you that not getting accepted by a traditional publishing house is generally a bad reason to self-publish.

However, I think you over emphasize a few of the disadvantages of self publishing, so in all seriousness I'll address each of those with real life examples. These are the things that made all the difference to me:

"It costs YOU money"

A little - but mostly it cost me time. My only cost when I self-published was for two proofs. (and a final edit in trade.) I only have to pay to print books when I have an order for them, so it costs me nothing. Often, retailers order directly from the printer.

"The returns are minimal at best"

I agree there is not a whole lot of profit margin, but making a lot of money is not the only motivation to publish a book. I make $2 per unit on my self-published book. I known someone else who made (profit) over $5 /unit What do most authors make in royalties through traditional publishers?

"There's no distribution - you can't get into any bookstores"

I sell over 90% of my self-published books through retail. Very few directly Anyone who self-publishes with BookSurge will be listed on Amazon. Many other companies print their books through LightingSource which opens up the entire Ingram distribution network.

If one goes with print on demand, it certainly costs more to print self-published books. The case I mentioned above of someone making $5/unit went the traditional printing route with full color layup. It kept the printing price way down and the retail price quite low. It's hard for POD to compete with traditional printing, yet some big retail outlets are considering doing POD on the spot. Why are they considering this? - because the cost of printing does not tell the whole story. Inventory costs money and books that are returned to publishers unsold costs money.

Even so, I think your comment on cost is a very good one. I even see people produce "books" through some of template photobook companies thinking they will sell them without ever thinking about the cost of production. How people can even begin to produce a book without first investigating production costs and marketing options is beyond me...

By the way, I don't think being accepted by a traditional publisher is the only means to determining the quality of a book. I've seen some really bad books come out of traditional publishers, and I think if a bookstore is willing to commit to large purchases of a self-published book (100 at at a time in my case), there is a reason for it.

There are some valid reasons to self-publish, mostly niche markets as you've mentioned. What concerns me, is the advertising many of the vanity publishers use. One even advertises themselves as a professional self-publishing company. How can one be self-publishing if one hires a professional publisher? I also think it is borderline immoral the way they suck people in with examples of how people will start making all this money once they sell 1,000s of copies when the reality is they'll be lucky to sell 100.

It's hard to do any online research into self-publishing without being bombarded by all that fluff and I think unfortunately, many young people especially don't know what they are getting into.

I think most people who "self-publish" do so for the wrong reasons and produce a work that is not quality and/or doesn't get marketed. However, that doesn't mean there are not opportunities in self-publishing.

Short summary to my very long answer:

Self publishing makes sense when an author can realize exceptions to the general limitations you have stated.

I agree with you completely. The only reason I can see that someone may self-publish is either they're too anxious or unwilling to spend the time it takes to go through all the hassle of querying (and facing the probability of many rejections), or they've already gone that route and have given up on finding a publisher who'll accept their work. Some people want to avoid the deflating rejections completely, while others have already gone that route and self-publish to avoid more depressing rejection letters. I do believe many (or some) self-published books have a great deal of promise, but would have benefited from more thorough editing, which self-publishing sources rarely, if ever, offer. I have to admit, after the first few rejections, I toyed (vaguely) with the idea of self-publishing, but I stuck with querying the traditional ones and now have two books coming out through those publishers. Patience and constant improvement must be the guidelines.

I don't think that any and everyone who self publishes is a loser as everyone seems to think. Perhaps they're not interested in being a career author. They've put something together that (perhaps) would never make it in the 'regular system'. I don't think a person is necessarily egotistical for wanting to see their story in the form of a published book instead of in ink in a 3 ring binder.

Let's give people a break here. Everyone isn't of the same mind as you or me or anyone else here. To each his own, right?

All I got to say is if you could be published by a major company, that's easily, EASILY, the best way to go.

As a fitness expert I self publish lots of works for my workshops that I teach. Plus I make more $ when I self publish.

You're right about self-publishing. It has only one true benefit: self satisfaction.

Although there are some self-pubs in bookstores.

Because I have too much money and not enough self-esteem *or* talent?