An outrageous article on Self Publishing

[Russ]

So I bumped into this, shall we say, strongly opinionated article about self-publishing:

Self-Publishing: An Insult To The Written Word? | HuffPost

The title pretty much lays it out.

While I have some sympathy for the author's argument I think she goes more than a tad too far.

Personally I would think her critique would be better made by distinguishing between people who pursue their work with diligence and discipline, or if I can use the word, professionalism, and those who don't, than a simple self and traditionally pubbed dichotomy.

However reading the article did give me great sympathy for the crap that people who take their self-pubbed work seriously often have to face.

It also begins to illuminate one of the many dysfunctional problems of the self pub market, the flood of crap is making it hard to find the good stuff.

Somewhat embarrassingly, the author is a fellow Canadian, who seems to have divested herself of some of our traditional values of courtesy, balance and fairness.

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

God.

She says herself she's only read about a dozen self-published books and she goes on this rant built around a massively unwarranted generalization about the entire world of self published work.

I don't even know where to begin with this.

 

[Chessie2]

Articles like this are meant to upset Indie authors on purpose. I don't take it personally. I love writing my books and the fact that real people can read them without me needing to spend 20 years trying to get a trad publishing contract is good enough for me.

 

[Russ]

Articles like this are meant to upset Indie authors on purpose. I don't take it personally. I love writing my books and the fact that real people can read them without me needing to spend 20 years trying to get a trad publishing contract is good enough for me.

I agree, it strikes me as angry click bait. A little disappointed that the Huffpo published it. Funny thing though, I don't think she gets paid for publishing it there.

 

[pmmg]

Honestly, I don't see a lot of anger in this woman's article. I think she is wrong when she writes, "Good writers only become good because they’ve undertaken an apprenticeship.", but that mostly falls along the category of using all or nothing, which never exactly rings true (Did I just an all or nothing argument in that sentence...). Clearly there are many paths to getting good at writing.

I think it is obviously true that there are many who think the route of acceptance by publishing houses equates to doing things the proper way, and there many as well who would argue that the Indi route has a lot to offer and does something along the lines of allowing artist to flourish without the filter or funnel of the publishing houses. I think there are merits on both sides.

Sturgen's law is 90% of everything is crap, publishing houses and their processes work to weed a lot of that out, so it should not be surprising that one can encounter more crap minus the filter. But, you know, 10% makes it all worth while.

Click bait? Well that is just life on the internet.

 

[Michael K. Eidson]

Sturgen's law is 90% of everything is crap

Sturgeon's Law originally was "Nothing is always absolutely so." The other thing was known as "Sturgeon's Revelation".

Theodore Sturgeon - Wikiquote

 

[Heliotrope]

A little disappointed that the Huffpo published it

Huffpo has been notorious for posting angry click bait lately. We had a horrible, tragic incident happen in our school system last year and huffpo got wind of it and posted a slurry of totally false, racially charged articles that had to be taken down. I don't read their stuff anymore because it seems this is happening more and more often. They are totally opinion pieces meant to get hits and nothing else.

 

[pmmg]

Sturgeon's Law originally was "Nothing is always absolutely so." The other thing was known as "Sturgeon's Revelation".

Ah, well this one I might be able to argue with Sturgeon's Revelation then.

They are totally opinion pieces meant to get hits and nothing else.

I am not sure there is much in the media that does not amount to opinion pieces anymore. Whatcha gonna do? I have clicked on my fair share of click bait. Usually regret it, but it happens.

 

[Annoyingkid]

What strikes me as a good idea is getting a website of your own with alot of ads on it, having the book on there for free, and making it so the person reading has to click next page. This along with self promotion on youtube and instagram etc.

 

[Michael K. Eidson]

What strikes me as a good idea is getting a website of your own with alot of ads on it, having the book on there for free, and making it so the person reading has to click next page. This along with self promotion on youtube and instagram etc.

That's the kind of site I despise, and I'd choose to find something else to read. For that scheme to have a chance at working, you need a hook at the end of every single page that compels the reader to go to the next page. But if the text is that compelling, who's going to pay attention to the ads? And most of these ad companies pay for clicks rather than impressions, so you end up with little return for your effort, while pissing off potential readers like me.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

Your measured response was proudly Canadian, heh heh. Self-pub is for real and that riles some folks. Not simply real in its own right, but real in its ability to get the attention of traditional publishing.

So I bumped into this, shall we say, strongly opinionated article about self-publishing:

Self-Publishing: An Insult To The Written Word? | HuffPost

The title pretty much lays it out.

While I have some sympathy for the author's argument I think she goes more than a tad too far.

Personally I would think her critique would be better made by distinguishing between people who pursue their work with diligence and discipline, or if I can use the word, professionalism, and those who don't, than a simple self and traditionally pubbed dichotomy.

However reading the article did give me great sympathy for the crap that people who take their self-pubbed work seriously often have to face.

It also begins to illuminate one of the many dysfunctional problems of the self pub market, the flood of crap is making it hard to find the good stuff.

Somewhat embarrassingly, the author is a fellow Canadian, who seems to have divested herself of some of our traditional values of courtesy, balance and fairness.