Self publishing gets bad press. Many people think that if a book is self published, it isn’t worthy or up to the quality a reader expects.
Honestly, I don’t know if my books would have been accepted or rejected. I chose not to go that route and it wasn’t for fear of failure. So, why do I self publish?
I self publish because I want to share my words. The timeline in the industry is so slow that, even if I wrote at the slow speed I’ve kept, I’d still be multiple books ahead of anything published.
I self publish because I don’t need this to be my career. I love teaching and want to keep my writing as something I enjoy. Teaching gives me enough deadlines. If I need to catch up to sleep or want more quality time with my son, I’m able to do so.
I self publish because I’d be doing a lot of it alone anyways. Publishing companies are all about profit. If you’re new or not selling mainstream books, you don’t get a lot of marketing support. Two of my favorite authors just got dropped and are self publishing now.
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I wrote the words above as a standalone, but I realized that I have more to say on the topic when listening to Dylan Marron’s most recent episode of his podcast, Conversations With People Who Hate Me, this morning. He spoke with a columnist that made an offhand jab at him and they realized that they have common ground: both created what they knew would get attention and views, even though it felt stale to them and wasn’t what they would have preferred.
Their thoughts resonated with me because preventing that feeling is another major reason that I self publish and keep my writing as my side project. It is important to me to stay true to my story, my characters.