Self-Publishing

There are a lot of good books that don't get published right away or never get published due to the fact a publisher doesn't have the money to sell it or they don't like it. Sure, some authors get published again because their past successes give them a free pass; even though the author's current books are just rehashed plots from their previous successes.

Amazon has given a lot of authors the chance to be published by allowing them to self-publish. This is an option in the past that cost the author a good chunk of their own money, but now Amazon is allowing the author to upload their novel, for a small cost to the author, onto Amazon's so the novel can be bought by people that own a Kindle.

It does appear that some people in the publishing business are worried about what self-publishing will flood the market with a lot of bad novels. You can read about this on  The Rejector blog.

But the Kindle is really allowing an author to get a little money for a story that they worked hard to write. If it is bad or good, depending on who reads it, doesn't mean that it shouldn't have a chance to be published.

The author being allowed to publish on Amazon or on other e-reader platforms opens the writer up to more opinions and should lead to the author becoming a better writer. An author on Amazon does receive feedback on their stories. The feedback isn't unlike the feedback an author receives in workshops and from friends, and the feedback might not be from an overworked editor, but it is still observations from people that enjoy reading.

My personal feeling is that workshops are one of the most overrated parts of creative writing. Just sit in and listen to one, if you get a chance. The author submits a writing sample to the group so the group can review and tell the author what is good and bad about it, and in theory it sounds like a great idea. The problem is that most people in the group seem to hold back because they don't want to hurt the writer's feelings.

Self-publishing authors can receive better feedback back the person giving the feedback isn't hindered by a desire to protect the writer's feelings.

It might take years to see if self-publishing will cause a major book publishers to change the way they do business, but it is nice to see that Amazon and other e-reader publishers have found a way to cut the cost of publishing a book.