I suppose that people have a right to write poorly and self-publish, but I’m angry at Sony for presenting this dreadful work alongside those of authors whose work I admire and have enjoyed. I paid nearly ten dollars for something which clearly had never enjoyed the attentions of an editor. Had I come across a “book” a quarter of an inch thick on the shelves of a bookstore…well, that might have alerted me that it was unusual in some way. After the fact of reading it, I looked again at Sony’s page describing the “book” and saw that, under the heading of “number of pages”, was the notation N/A.

I feel that Sony took advantage of me by selling me a stinker of a “book” with no indication that it was published in a non-traditional way – a way in which even the most ardent supporters admit that a lot of garbage comes through.

I could point out that every rejection I have ever had has been along the lines of “this is fantastic, but we can’t sell it, what else do you have?” I could point out that the indie authors I know (that’s the term we prefer) regularly spend $700 on cover art, upwards of $400 on editing (m/s size dependent) so to say they are unedited is to miss the point. The big publishers are laying off editors, and where do you think they are getting the money to pay their mortgages?

I could go on to say that it is only the big publishers I am against. I think the small publishers are excellent for authors who aren’t business minded, and who do not love marketing. For what it is worth, I studied business at college, marketing was my favourite subject, and I read marketing blogs for fun.

I could point out that one of the most respected literary agencies, the Wylie Agency, recently turned its back on the big publishers and put its authors back titles directly onto Amazon.

I should point out that Lulu isn’t the best option, just the best known, and when people start saying Lulu this or Lulu that whilst bashing self publishing I know they haven’t done any research on the subject at all. The whole post above seems to be conjecture.

Instead, I’m going to talk about fan fiction. There are no gatekeepers. Some of it is crap. Reading through fan fiction is like reading through the slush pile. So the idea that we’ve never looked at slush is dropped on its head.

And yet, despite the fact that there is so much crap flooding the fan fiction market, I constantly find good stuff (following reviews and so on). It works.

It will continue to work.

“What I can sell.” Not, “What is good.” Doesn’t that say it all? Go into a bookstore like Barnes & Noble and take a look at the complete crap that is clogging up their shelves. It is a glut of D-List thrillers and YA Vampire Novels.

Is this the kingdom that you as the author are so desperate to be a part of?

What people like Mary are afraid of is that devices like the iPad, Kindle and nook will level the playing field. Your self-published eBook looks the same to people who are browsing for books on the Kindle, iPad or nook as the book from a big publisher. The playground is level there and everyone gets to play.

The gatekeeper can’t force you to pay her toll when everyone has the keys to the playground.

Stay scared and stay classy. Just be aware that the mid-list authors that the big publishers are turning away in droves are going to start going at it on their own.

If self-publishing authors really are so lame, and ignorant, and obviously multiply rejected hacks, then why not just ignore us and our emo whining?

Incidentally, I’ve never complained about how “The Man” didn’t want me. My issues with “The Man” are that they publish a lot of crap then feel they can look down on anyone for self-publishing. That they create stupid gimmicky titles for books. That they price ebooks out of the market. I could go on and on.

The fact is that not all of us self-pubbed because we couldn’t “get” a publisher. Some of us don’t WANT a publisher. Not everybody wants to get wrapped up in the new Hollywoodized NY publishing industry. (And frankly there is nothing a small press could do for me that I can’t do for myself, except take more of my money.) Nor do we want to mess with the myriad layers of BS that midlist authors whine about from their blogs daily.

Looking at some author blogs, one wonders why they even want to be published at all. “Oh, my publisher did this.” “Oh, I got saddled with an awful cover.” “Oh, my agent is so much trouble.” Whine whine whine.

There’s so much negativity in trad publishing I honestly don’t understand why anyone wants to be a part of it. I’m happy writing and polishing and publishing and promoting. And people who like my work and tell their friends… awesome. And people who don’t, that’s okay too.

But I maintain creative control, and more importantly BUSINESS control. Having an ebook priced at $9.99 as a debut author, isn’t exactly something that will build me a readership. And I believe ebooks are the future.

I think it’s easy to take the strawman of the little self-publishing author who didn’t do her homework and doesn’t know what she’s doing and act as if that’s “self-publishing”. (And there are way more of these people than I want there to be, but it’s a free market.) But there are plenty of talented and savvy indies working hard to overcome stigmas.

Such people should be lauded, not spit on. But you’re going to do what you’re going to do. Good luck to you.