Interesting, Kevin. There is some similarity in the music business. As you know, I am a self produced/released independent musician (your wife, Ratree graciously allowed me to use a photograph she took for the back cover of my “vanity” CD). I am now at 55% towards recovering my costs of recording, graphics, and duplication of my first album. Eventually I’ll get it all back. I have found having an album released lends itself towards legitimacy in getting better gigs. Would I like to have a small record label sign me up and promote me? Sure. There just are not that many small record labels around any more. Congratulations on your publishing deal!
Deserve’s got nothing to do with it
The stigma of ‘vanity publishing’ has been lessened or even eliminated – among those who engage in it. There are also huge corporations such as Amazon (which owns CreateSpace, the world’s biggest digital self-publishing company) that actively promote the idea that self-publishing is great for authors. Cut out the middlemen and go straight to the consumer, and let the buyers decide!
Indeed, there are actual success stories of good writers who couldn’t get any joy from the traditional industry, self-published, promoted themselves well, and made money. Being an only modestly successful writer stuck with a big-five house can be unpleasant because these corporations only spend time and resources on their best-sellers, so some established writers have ditched them to go self-published; at least you keep all of the royalties.
There are always cases when self-publishing makes sense. It’s cheap, and you can use Facebook to promote the work. But there…
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“Vanity is my favorite sin.” Al Pacino … A timely blog post by Jame DiBiasio, which he kindly allows for reblogging. Timely in that I’ll soon be published by the renowned Frog in the Mirror Press, a Big 666 Publisher if ever there was one …