Why I Love Self-publishing

Comment now » // August 1st, 2009

There was an article in the Globe and Mail this weekend that featured several self-publishing success stories. It made me happy to see some positive news and an article about literary success rather than recessionary doom and gloom.

Naturally, I’m a big fan of self-publishing. And not just because I’m a self-published author myself; I’d love the idea even if I wasn’t.

Nay-sayers about self-publishing inevitably bring up the issue of quality. i.e. that with self-published books one can’t rely on receiving a quality product. This argument holds as much water as a sieve. Publishing houses print as much poor quality writing as anyone. Perhaps the only difference might be that the package they use to wrap their garbage up in is more polished.

The bottom line is this: if a book is good (interesting, well-written etc.) it has the potential to sell no matter who publishes it. The reason I love self-publishing and the freedom that print-on-demand gives self-publishers, is that we now have an element of creative control that one would not have working with a publisher. Authors can control the design and presentation of their work in a way that aligns with their message, rather than having the message dictated to them by a publishing house.

And I love the ‘global village’ feeling I get from finding out about a self-published work on the other side of the globe. The interweb has given us the ability and means to share our stories with a global audience and that can only bring us closer together. I think that self-publishing allows stories to be told and shared that otherwise might never have seen the light of day, and that is incredibly important.

That’s the end of my rant about self-publishing. What do you think? Have you self-published anything? What was your experience?