May 2010

I’ve railed against this idea before in smaller form, but I wanted to address this particular self-publishing issue directly. A whole lot of self-publishers and the people that support them have been advocating the practice of creating individual “imprints” to market one’s book. Sue Collier recently blogged about this very concept, albeit rather briefly, in response to another blogger’s rejection of self-publishing. While I agree with Collier that self-publishing is a better route for non-fiction than fiction, I take issue with the “imprint” model that so many self-publishers have now begun to use, and for good reason: In addition, if you self-publish properly—start up your own imprint, purchase your own block of ISBNs, and have the book well edited and well designed—as opposed to going the subsidy route (often incorrectly called “self-publishing”), reviewers should have no idea you are self-published. Your book is simply a title from a new independent publisher. And there is no stigma there. The problem with this very idea is actually its goal: “reviewers should have no idea you are self-published.” That, obviously, extends to consumers of all stripes, and the practice is woefully unethical. The idea that a self-published author should go the extra step to essentially trick the consumer on the foundational level into thinking that a particular book was published by a real publisher is nothing short of deceptive. Why? Of all of the self-published authors I have seen doing this, none of them are open about the fact that they are self-published. They play the “I’m published just like *insert NYT bestelling author here*” role, despite having done nothing remotely similar. Some of them even lie when confronted about it, so desperate to keep up appearances that they won’t even admit the lie when all the facts are laid out in front of them (I’m looking at you zombie lady, whose “publisher” has a website made by her husband and thinks I’m too stupid to put two and two together). The problem with pretending to be traditionally published is that it is disingenuous. People who do this are not traditionally published. Yes, they might have produced a good piece of fiction in a nice exterior package, but they did not submit the manuscript to a publisher or an agent or go through any of the numerous processes involved in traditional publishing. Nobody sat with the manuscript and decided it deserved to be in print. Consumers are not always aware of the processes, but they do know that there is a difference between traditionally published and self-published, even if they don’t always get those differences correct. Most consumers would avoid a self-published book, perhaps to the detriment of an author who actually produced something of value. But that’s part of the game. Misrepresenting what you are is quite literally a deceptive act. I would liken this to putting a science fiction book in a romance novel package. When a customer buys that book, they expect a romance novel, not a science fiction one. It’s one thing to create a nice product, but it’s another to pretend that that product is something it is not. I would even go as far as to say this is no different than lying directly to the consumer, and consumers really don’t like to be lied to (as we’ve seen before with authors who have lied, such as that fellow that Oprah endorsed, and Sarah Palin–although, perhaps people liked Palin’s lies due to the hilarity they created). As far as unethical business practices go, this is one step from the top of my list–right below flat-out lying by self-publishers to authors about self-publishing and by companies who do the same. Publishers publish other people; self-publishers publish themselves. It’s a simple distinction. The solution to this practice is perhaps not as radical as one might think after reading all of the above. Creating an imprint is entirely plausible, if done right. I think the best way to do it without reaching into the unethical/deceptive spaces is to create an imprint that is your name. Consumers are smart enough to put two and two together. But, I doubt anyone will buy into that solution. There’s so much fear over the legitimate stigma attached to self-publishing that, for some, being deceptive and lying is much easier than trying to battle for respectability–stealing it is quicker and less painful. What this has all taught me is to be very cautious about the books I buy. If I’ve never heard of a publisher, I look them up, and dig. I do this because I don’t appreciate being lied to or deceived. Ever. It’s a pain in my backside, but I’m not willing to throw my money on something unless I know who the publisher is and that said publisher is legitimate. Self-publishing can make purchases of books a risk to the consumer, and I know a lot of people, right now and in the past, who don’t like to risk their money. And nobody wants to risk their money on something that was presented to them as a lie. Thoughts? Let me know in the comments.

Every couple of months I open a search list on my Tweetdeck for “self-publishing” and let it run for a few weeks before cutting it off again. I do this because it’s difficult to stomach the lies, misinformation, and overly optimistic nonsense that tends to flood that channel. I’m in another one of my phases and an article over at the Self Publishing Review grabbed my attention: “Self-publishing For the Short Fiction Writer“ I have a lot of problems with this article, most of which has to do with the author’s lack of information about her experiences with publishing. For example: As a short story author, usually you are paid on a cents-per-word basis and a couple free copies. Unless you sell your story to one of the bigger, well-known publications you won’t make more than 1-5 cents per word. Some pay nothing (and I do have a whole separate rant on non-paying markets; One of several pet peeves.) I’ve made a whopping $20.00 off of my shorter works. WOW! I really got rich doing things “the traditional way” didn’t I? For anyone who knows something about short fiction markets, this raises a lot of red flags. Where was this author submitting to? Why was she rejected if she submitted to major markets? What places did she get published in? Were they low-paying, but prestigious locations, which sometimes bring more to the table than money anyway? We have basically no information about this, and her post, thus, seems like more of a bitter “I could only get published in the lower end stuff because nobody liked me” rant than any sort of legitimate discussion about the short fiction market. Not to mention that there is no mention of how much she has made from the self-published collection of her work, which seems to me to be a very important thing to mention when you’re complaining about the pay rates of traditional venues. How many copies has she sold? No idea. My guess is “not that many.” She says she has made more that way than she ever had going the traditional route, but I have no idea how much that is on either end. Her argument is as devoid of substance as most anything I have seen in this anti-traditional vein. Oddly enough, it doesn’t stop there. She then gets a little uppity about the fact that her work is no longer in print, which, again, raises red flags. There are reprint markets out there. Lots of them. And many of them pay. Why didn’t she attempt to get them reprinted? I don’t know. She doesn’t say. Maybe she didn’t know (which raises another red flag, because anyone who wants to talk about the faults of traditional publishing should at least know how that system works). Perhaps the only grain of truth in the whole post is her very brief discussion of poetry. While there are good paying markets for poetry, it’s not unheard of, nor necessarily a bad idea, for poets to create their own collections and do “well.” By that, I mean that they may sell some copies, may get a little notice, but that might be the end of it. Self-published poetry collections don’t have an influence within the broader academic literary community, as told to me by a friend in the creative writing department at the University of Florida. If you’re wanting notice from academics, you really have to find a traditional publishing or an academic publisher (that’s not universal, but close enough to it). But poetry tends to have a better relationship to self-publishing than other form, and I think that works well enough for that particular literary genre. You won’t get rich either way, but I don’t think anyone becomes a poet to get rich. But where do the myths and the lies come in? Well, first things first, the post is disingenuous. By leaving out contextual information, the post is little more than a “you’re going to get paid like crap so you should do it yourself” myth. Maybe you won’t get paid like crap. Maybe you’ll sell a story to the New Yorker or Subtropics or one of the top genre markets like Clarkesworld or whatever. You don’t know. She doesn’t know either. Nobody knows. Likewise, getting paid $20 for a short story isn’t something to scoff at. That’s money you didn’t have before and now you have a publication under your belt. But the most pressing issue here is the assumption that not getting published by major avenues should act as the catalyst for self-publishing. The author is creating a very skewed and ridiculous picture of reality, one that discourages you from trying by intentionally leaving out seriously valuable information about traditional publishing (i.e. actual pay rates, which are sometimes in the thousands, depending on the market). If you care about your craft and the magazines you’re submitting to, then it should do the exact opposite. You should ALWAYS be working on your craft. Period. A rejection should never stop you. If you truly care about writing and having your work in print, then you should keep working at it, and hard, until you get there. Getting $20 at a smaller market for a work that didn’t cut it at a higher paying place isn’t something to be upset about. Use that as the vehicle to push you forward. Keep trying. And if you still can’t get published, reassess. Maybe your work is good and you’ve come a long way, but it’s not what XYZ publishes. If so, maybe self-publishing is okay, but don’t jump to that path just because you’ve failed or because you’re afraid you won’t get paid well. Get there by working hard and becoming a better writer. Rushing is stupid. The problem I have always had with so many self-publishers is the defeatist attitude: so many of them couldn’t take the rejection, on any level, and decided that somehow they’re too brilliant to not be in