Capclave 2019 - Self-publishing Stigma?

The last panel I went to on Day 2 of Capclave was “Is There Still a Self-Publishing Stigma?” On the panel were: Shahid Mahmud, publisher of Galaxy’s Edge, Will McIntosh, a traditionally published author who also self-publishes, Ian Randall Strock, publisher of Fantastic Books, Allison McBain, editor of Fairfield Scribes, and Gordon Linzer, is founder and former editor of Space and Time Magazine, who moderated.

I’ll preface my article by sharing for those who may not know my writing history, my first two books were published by small presses, and I’ve been self-publishing ever since. I’m also one of the first Indy authors to have joined SFWA (the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America), when they opened their ranks to self-published authors, under the criteria of earnings from one book in the period of a year equaling those of first time author receiving a standard advance from a traditional publisher. Twenty-two Indy authors, I was once told, joined after the change in policy.

Going to a panel talking about the topic of whether their is a stigma to being self-published, let’s say, is of particular interest to me. And, truth be told, I didn’t hear anything I didn’t expect to hear attending this session. But understand the panel’s discussion still cut me to the quick at times.

Will McIntosh, who’s traditionally published, shared he’s friends who have been self-publishing for years, who encouraged him to self-publish, which makes him a hybrid author. He also knows an Indy author who is now a member of SFWA, who feels the traditionally published authors look down on her.

There are clearly self-published authors who produce quality books and there are individuals making top dollar, but the panelists conveyed that there are a lot of self-published authors these day, who are not familiar with properly formatting a book, and it shows. Ian Randall Strock shared he’s always polite to self-published authors who come up to him in the Dealer’s room at a con and proudly show him their book which is double spaced and formatted unlike any book they might pull off their shelves at home, which could have provided them an idea of how their book should look. He always wishes those authors well and never says a word about any of that to them.

When someone self-publishes they must be their own publisher, responsible for hiring an editor, and not think they can edit their own work, which they are too close to or even have the skills to professionally edit and polish their work as a professional editor can. They are responsible for cover design and formatting, and everything that goes into creating their book. And, for many self-published books the lack of professionalism is evident.

What’s also clear is there is a market for lower priced self-published books, which may have a lot to do with Amazon’s view, as Ian Randall Strock shared, that “Books are a commodity to Amazon. They are all alike, when in reality every book is unique.” What people are buying is what’s written between the covers and people will pay based whose stories they like and want to read.

Shahid Mahmud’s press offers services to self-published authors and his staff often comes to him asking him to look at the books they’re editing to determine is the press should be publishing them. He’s learned not to bother even looking at such books, feeling the stories do not stand out. Self-publishing has basically flooded the market with a great many books that should not have been published, many of which seem to be people’s personal stories rather than novels.

There is no stigma, the panel shared for authors like Will who have traditionally published books to attest for their being “professional authors,” or longtime authors who are self-publishing their backlist, which had been professionally edited.

The discussion then moved toward small presses versus traditional presses. Ian Randall Strock publishes traditionally published authors, which lends credibility to his small press. But small presses do not  have the power to market books like a traditional publisher can, even if the offer little to know marketing. The books they publish will sell orders of magnitude better than that of a small press simply by selling in bookstores and having that publisher’s name on the jacket.

These days, Shahid Mahmud pointed out, anyone not only can self-publish, they can become their own small press by opening an account with Ingram. This led into the cautionary tale of Vanity Presses and the reminder, authors do not pay publishers, publishers pay them. Prices for Vanity Press books are typically much higher than traditionally published books, markedly so, as Ian Randall Strock cautioned, because the Vanity Press expects to sell the majority of the books to the author, who has paid them for every service they claimed to have and been providing. Vanity Presses are also noted for not actually editing or providing marketing for any of the books their authors have commissioned them to publish. Writer’s Beware maintains a list of publishers and agents who have proved not to be on the up and up and they feature warnings on individual Vanity Presses all the time.

So, to circle back, the panel clearly feels there is a stigma to being self-published and that the vast majority of self-published books are not professional.

As I mentioned at the beginning, I’m very interested in the issues raised here. They are important for me to always keep in mind as I self-publish another novel, as I painstakingly proof my work after following through on my editor’s suggested changes and even re-reading my books over time to cut down the typos that still invariably manage to appear.

As an Indy author and someone who has been published by small presses and sold short stories to anthologies, I read all my reviews on Amazon. I also worked for a nonprofit publisher for several years and learned a lot about how books were created, painstakingly edited, and how corrections were made to the various printings, when they learned those pesky typos got through even all their proof readings.

As an author who self-publishes, I’m my own publisher and the buck stops with me, which is why I understand every comment the panelists made and understand where their observations are coming from. My job as an author is to not only to publish a book, but to sell it, and have readers buy more because they like what I write. That means, I need to produce not just a gripping story, but a quality book.

I respect every review I get. In one of my Amazon reviews the person pointed out that I’d written “rasped” way too often. Guess what, I checked. Boy, what was I thinking?  I’ve corrected the book and, well, my characters are not rasping so much they should all be seeing a doctor anymore… My editor didn’t catch that, early readers didn’t, either. Thank you, whoever you are for sharing that in your review. You improved my writing and taught me something.

I’ll also let my own reviews on Amazon speak for themselves… and I encourage those who’ve read them to leave reviews, authors appreciate reviews and never can have enough of them.

Getting published takes becoming “thick skinned.” I’ve hundreds of rejection letters. I write draft after draft, and know that some books I write may not be what traditional publishers are looking for, which may be a reason a good percentage of writers choose to self-publish. Writing is a long hard demanding road and not lucrative for most of us who write because, if they’re like me, you can’t not write. Don’t give up  your day job. Health insurance, for example, is a great thing to have… whether you are traditionally published or self-published.

If you want to self-publish, hone your writing skills, get to know the genre you want to write, and try to sell short stories to build up your skills and street cred. Being I’m a big fan of fantasy and sci fi stories led to my writing the stories I do and I’ve fans buying every book I write.

That there’s a stigma to being self-published, stings… Just like any book review can. What do you do? Continuing learning to write the best book you can and how to produce the best book you can. Then write the book and the next and the next, and seek to get them and your short stories published, so where it goes even if you decide to self-publish as I have… and sometimes traditional publishes contract for a self-published book, because that book is just what they’ve been looking for.

That said, my book Triple Dare just came out exclusively on Kindle and as part of my promoting the release, the paperback edition of the first book in the series, Dare 2 Believe, has just come out in a second printing. The second printing of that book for Kindle as well as book two of the series, Double Dare, both came out over the summer. The Double Dare paperback second printing will be coming out in a couple of months.

Dare to Believe,

D.H.