Self-Publishing Poll

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

ysabetwordsmith pointed out this poll on self-publishing, which I visited briefly. After reading a handful of the comments, I was struck by their violence: there's a lot of emotion there in the people denouncing the practice of self-publishing. ysabetwordsmith said about that: "Any instance of extreme hostility raises the question of why people are being so violent about it."

I think that's a good question. Why do you think some of the people opposed to self-publishing are so hostile about it?


Edit: Please note, I'm not really interested in debating the profitability of the publishing industry. What I'm trying to understand, primarily, is why there's so much vitriol leveled by writers and readers at self-published authors (as in one of the commenters who said of self-published authors that they can "call themselves authors" but they never will be real ones). This kind of extreme behavior strikes me a strange. Particular coming from writers to other writers. And readers—that makes no sense at all. If they don't want to read self-published work, they can just... not read it. Why the anger?

Comments

[ideealisme.livejournal.com]

I'm cautiously optimistic about self-publishing via e-books providing it's done properly. I would never self publish anything more suited to conventional methods - I've seen a friend of mine jeopardise her chances of getting her novel published properly by sending it off to a POD company which did not edit her material and produced it poorly. You have to have your eyes wide open in this business and there are an awful lot of scammers. But I think if you put a bit of thought behind it, you can benefit from self-publishing in various cases where market demand calls for it.

I think there are also cultural differences between the US and Europe on how this might be implemented. US tradition values philanthropy and seeking out funds whereas over here it's more about having state assistance via paying taxes.

None of that explains the vehemence of the objections over on that thread, tho. I guess there are a lot of crooks in the business and like me, they might have seen others burned by their experiences in POD. I can understand that.

[(Anonymous)]

/houseboatonstyx here/

Some POD publishers do worse than damage your reputation. Some of them have contracts that tie up your copyright -- and even the copyright of your future books!

A legitimate self-publishing service will never do that.

[rowyn]

I think that at least part of the venom directed towards self-publishing arises from this. Even just fifteen years ago, it was difficult and expensive to print your own books, and most places offering to do so were sleazy, charging high fees and tying you up in questionable contracts. The average reader or writer who hears "self-published" thinks of an operation like "Publish America". If that's what you think an author talking about self-publishing is getting into, hostility towards the idea is pretty understandable.

There's also the "money flows towards the author" concept. Perhaps authors don't want to see that change -- they're afraid of a self-publish model which forces the author to assume the financial risks of publishing. In many ways, the publishing-house model is good for authors: the publisher handles much of the marketing and accounting, and assumes much of the risk. Seeing that undercut may worry authors and readers, who don't want to see the old way die and new authors become to be limited to those willing to assume the entirety of those burdens.

[ideealisme.livejournal.com]

I never sign ANYTHING of a literary nature without a quick chat with my nearest friendly literary agent. Which in one case turned out to be pretty damn necessary.