The Guardian Newspaper is doing self-publishing Masterclasses, do these appeal to you?
Traditional publishers have taken note of the growth of self-publishing. Many have adapted to capture a share of the market.
Why self-publishing is no longer a vanity project. The rise of self-publishing marks a radical change for publishers, readers and writers. James Bridle - The Observer, Sunday 26 August 2012.
I do not intend to self-publish, but I have not ruled it out. I intend to thoroughly research the aspects of self-publishing.
Hmm, define a self-publisher. Is it someone who uploads to Kindle? Is it someone who purchases services from Harper Collins' Authonomy or Penguin's new venture? Is it someone who gets their own ISBN, finds their own printer and doesn't rest until their print run of 5,000 is sold?
To my mind, self-publishing never was a vanity project. A self-publisher doesn't hire a service, they SELF-PUBLISH! Since the invention of Kindle it is a different thing. A self-publisher may now have sold one hundred thousand books and never printed one, but they still come up with their own cover, build their own website and market both themselves and their book. They don't just pay a POD company to do everything for them and add it to amazon. That is now and will always be vanity publishing, whether it is controlled by traditional publishing or not.
What is interesting is that having rubbished vanity publishing for years and years, traditional publishing now seems to be using it as the new slush pile. I'm sure they would argue they are simply opening up new opportunities to find talent (whilst making a profit) but it's not as if they don't already have enough manuscripts to look through. They seem to want to road test the manuscripts with real readers. Perhaps traditional publishing is not actually looking for writers from this new avenue. There are plenty of good scripts in their offices so maybe it's the readers attracting them. Perhaps they are looking for trends so they know which manuscripts will sell best in the market. It makes far more sene than a complete u-turn on their previous stance.
Who says publishing doesn't use focus groups?!
Hi Adrian,
I'm not at the right stage to be thinking too hard about publication but I have thought about it once or twice in-between my writing. Self publication appeals in one aspect, in that you'd have total control. However, for me as a first time novelist I quite like the idea of someone else thinking that my book is worthy of publishing. Thoughts my change when I actually get to that stage but for now this is what I think.