Self-Published Novels: A Harsh Truth

[@BThings]

I feel like it's very much a "pick your poison" situation. On the one hand, self-publishing lowers your work's perceived status and can offer a constant sense of insecurity as to whether or not your work is legitimately good. On the other hand, big-time publishers can be narrow-minded and creatively restrictive in ways that are a disservice to both authors and readers. Plus, because I am interested in the "behind the scenes" of designing, formatting, and manufacturing books, along with the actual craft of storytelling, I am drawn to self-publishing. It gives me creative freedom and control over the physical presentation of my work, which I find is as much a part of my creative expression as the actual writing and illustration are. (It's also worth noting that many of the books I self-publish are comics that I have written and drawn. Given that the comic book industry in the US has very few publishers that accept submissions, and even fewer that let creators retain ownership of their work, it feels deeply imperative to me to publish my work myself, even if the reach is minuscule compared to the mainstream publishers.)

[@SnarkReader]

I can see being drawn to self-publishing if you're good at all the 'behind the scenes' stuff (I am certainly not!). I think a lot of people just jump the gun, thinking their work is ready when it's nowhere near ready.

[@BThings]

@ That is definitely true. I would say that it can sometimes be good to just "get started." The problem is that people then have to honestly evaluate their work and find out how to improve. That is often a difficult (but not impossible) to do in a self-publishing context.

[@gothicwriter9897]

Publishing is a business. If a writer gets rejected it is because the agent or publisher doesn't think they can make any money from it. Harsh but true. I will self publish when I have finished a 3 novel Romantasy series because next year (2025) I may have 6 books ready for publication. I doubt any agent or publisher would publish them in one year and at 66 and retired I am not prepared to wait forever only to be told no.

[@dion789]

I've read some self-published books where the authors should be deeply ashamed of what they're asking people to pay money for. One of those books switched between past and present tense over twenty times in about five or six pages. Some others are full of spelling and grammar errors. I get why not everyone wants to go to a publisher, but with some I question whether they bothered to do any editing themselves at all.

[@michaelpowers6551]

It will be a cold day in hell I go with traditional publishing. If I can’t even count on them for marketing then what good are they. I can find and get the editors needed myself. Worst part is why would you as a writer in this age want a ‘company’ to have ‘any’ control over your work. Definitely if you go that route make sure you read the contract and don’t sign away anything you don’t want too…

[@theimaginarium]

I'd have to agree with you. The numerous rejections I've gotten in the past inspired me to learn more and get better (it worked, my debut novel comes out next april), but I've encountered many aspiring writers who seem to think they are naturally gifted geniuses who need no such "constricting" influences on their free spirited...something or other. They inevitably self-publish a lot of that slush you're talking about, now that it's so much easier now. BTW how does one get hold of you for possible ARC reviews? Can I send you a blurb to see if it might be of interest to you? Thanks--great channel. I hope your subscriber list grows exponentially!

[@SnarkReader]

Despite the play on words of my username, I've never been an ARC reader before. I've only just started reviewing books, and I think a little more experience is due in picking apart trad-published work before I start doing the same to indie authors!

[@profjeff9]

I see a lot of parallels with Academia. It was important for me to get all the way through my PhD, but I needed to find a very special set of supervisors to make sure that the process didn't ruin my life and my work. And now it's equally important to take my credential and run so that the job market doesn't ruin my life and my work. I'm working on a novel now and when I finally have something to sell, I'm not sure if I'll go indie or trad. I just know that both have their pitfalls and I'll need to fight like hell to get my book out there and find an audience without ruining my life or my work. These are tough times all over. We'll see how it goes.

[@richardblackmore9351]

Imagine being the literary agent for Tolkien , who quite literally invented languages and misspelled words on purpose. Or Don Delillo who included that horrendously tedious list of things you buy from the store in page two or three of his masterpiece White Noise, on purpose to make fun of our obsession with buying useless shit we don't need. There was an editor who had to make the ultimate decision. Was this brilliance or stupidity. I think we can all agree, whether or not we like Don Delillo, that he made history with his writing. And it was all because if an editor.

[@meganfoster8838]

I guess no publishing stream is perfect. Self-publishing allows people who don't care about proofreading and plot to publish. On the other hand, a trad publisher can reject a manuscript that's got nothing actually wrong with it; it's just that it's not commercially hot right now or not quite the genre they're after, or their backlist for a certain imprint is full, etc.

[@TheTrueGlaukos]

What gets to me is the double layer of rejection. You cant send to most big editors without an agent, so first you have to go through the agent's slush pile. The agent may not get past your introduction letter before rejecting you, amd all this before you even get to be in the editor's slush pile. You have to sell yourself to the person who's supposed to help you sell yourself. You could be autorejected too now with their electronic submission systems and not even know if an actual human laid eyes on anything you wrote.

[@andrewbidwell6421]

It’s just more lucrative to be self published in the sense that you still have the potential to make money even if you aren’t the next big author and if you are highly successful an agent comes your way anyways.

[@AccidentalAuthor42]

Every couple of years, I got rejected by absolutely everybody (agents, publishers, competitions). After getting over myself, I hired yet another editor and tried again. Eventually, one publisher said yes. But I was always determined to be published by a publisher, even if they were only a small publisher, as I didn't want to self-publish. But it was still a maddening process. Yes, the Gatekeepers were keeping me out while I was reading the crap the gatekeepers were actually publishing. Regardless, I have to admit ALL these Gatekeepers made me a better writer. Plus, if the gatekeepers stopped you from writing, you probably wouldn't have been that serious of a writer.

[@SnarkReader]

Love this. You're absolutely right. It's best not to compare our work to the sometimes terrible books that get published. Just work on making your writing better until the gatekeepers have no choice but to take notice. 👍

[@tammyt3434]

The first self published book I read was a brilliant and extremely niche philosophical suspense novel. Wonderful and now one of my favorite authors. Looking for a repeat of that experience has burned me... with frequency... good heavens. I know traditional publishing has a lot (a LOT) of issues, but I get burned less frequently as a reader. (At the same time, I wouldn't trade that first indie author for the promise of never getting burned again!)

[@user-wm1oo4os7e]

What book was it? :D

[@R.P-e2z]

It's kind of a choice between two extremes. A writer I know recently gave up on writing YA because the rules for getting published in YA have become so stringent that if your main character isn't 16 years old exactly and doesn't go on a journey of self-discovery, you won't get published. (Contrast that with The Book Thief, an early YA success, where the protagonist is 10 at the start and the narrator is eternal.) But self-publishing is a bit like Wattpad. "Anyone can do it" means that *anyone* can do it. You can find a gem rejected for not fitting industry standards….but to get to it, you have to dig through a lot of turds.

[@MentalSurvival]

Let's not forget that lately these gatekeepers haven't been judging books based on their merits (the quality of the writing and story) and instead are judging books on their ability to push a certain narrative. For some writers, if you know that you'll be discriminated against, then why bother trying to get accepted in the first place? Amazon lets everyone publish for better or worse.

[@kurticusmaximus]

More freedom for all means a lot more sloppy books on the market, rather than more regulation blocking sloppy books. Makes it harder for consumers to find that superlative book

[@millernumber1]

finding the good ones is so hard. I dunno if it's harder today than 10 years ago when I read a lot more self pub (on Amazon), but the advent of AI cover art is making the gauge I used before - how much the author spent on cover art - even harder to guess.

[@lewislewis3531]

I'm just starting out on my self-published journey. It has been a STEEP learning curve, there's a lot to take into consideration, a lot of mistakes that need correcting, and so many factors that blind-side you. I've spent so many hours on my book. I know it isn't perfect. But on my budget? I can't afford another editor.

[@robmarney]

The correct answer is clearly "Oberkottrian"

[@SnarkReader]

😂Clearly

[@awesome-sauce-f9i]

Seems like a pretty good take. I mean people only have so much time to read, and there is a market need for bad books to be filtered out so readers don't waste their time with it. It's tough to do that without someone making the decisions at the top. But of course, this has the trade-off of their subjective opinion now dictating what options other people have, and weeding out potentially good books/authors erroneously do to the subjectivity of it.

[@KitagumaIgen]

Adjectivized authorname can also be: Dan Brownish...

[@SnarkReader]

At least it sounds natural to say! "Kafkaesque" might be the clumsiest one I've come across (so far).

[@shorgoth]

Personally, my issue is not with the people doing the real job. It's with those gatekeepers who manipulate authors into "giving" (or straight up often end up paying to be published through arcane wording on the contract ) their books for scraps, don't do the editing portion of the job and run with the rights and squander the potential of good work. I had a friend who ended up being paid with copies of their own book by a secretly religious bigot of a publisher who rewrote his book (because the contract gave them absolute authority on the content) partly to fit their own very bigotted religious beliefs and on top of that they did 0 publicity or efforts to get his books ANYWHERE. He had to do 100% of the work, got his work sabotaged was never paid AND lost his rights. This is what I despise, self-serving con artists wasting readers and lowering the floor financially if not outright abusing already struggling authors. And sadly with these bastards in the race toward mediocrity, it gave space for normal publishers to become worse over time as there is "too much competition" in the market to "justify" paying authors. This is why I'm trying to self-publish, just to avoid dealing with that toxic environment. Would I love to have a real editor who pays decently and makes sure my book is publicized? Sure, but this is the exception nowadays, not the rule and young/naive authors throw themselves at the wolves so competition aims for the bottom.

[@SnarkReader]

@@shorgoth Totally guessing here, but it could very well have been a scam. Scams abound in the publishing industry... another reason so many authors have fled to self-publishing! Vanity presses calling themselves real publishers pull nonsense like that all the time.

[@pauligrossinoz]

Why, why, why would any self-respecting writer sign _that_ contract???? 😲