She Writes

BK Walker
Is Self Publishing Out of Control?

Is Self Publishing Out of Control?

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Written by

BK Walker

September 2012

Read more by BK Walker

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With the easy access now available for writers to publish their works at such places as CreateSpace, Lulu, Amazon and Smashwords, we are seeing a flooding of new books each and every day. For me, I love finding new authors and learning about their works and them as a writer. But what does this mean for the publishing industry?

I recently read an article on this very subject. I had to be a little annoyed at some of the things being discussed. One thing mentioned was that writers turn to self publishing after being turned down by a traditional publisher repeatedly.

What are they saying???

Just because a traditional publisher doesn't see the greatness in front of them, the entire world shouldn't either? No, I think not! Stephanie Meyer (Twilight Saga) was turned down 10 times before she got published. That's right, TEN TIMES!

Then there was mention that self publishers are ruining the book industry with their lack of editing, misuse of words and sentences, and inappropriate use of dialogue. So a writer, who is scared to death to put their work in front of readers for the very first time, and has no idea about publishing at all, should not put their stuff out their and learn from the experience? Bull puckey!!!!

I think that writing and publishing is a learning experience all the way around. You don't have to be turned down by a traditional publisher to self publish. Many writers self publish without even submitting a queery to a traditional publisher. Does this make us a bad writer? Absolutely not!

"The difficulty of literature is not to write, but write what you mean."~Robert Louis Stevenson

So what if we used the wrong punctuation, or didn't have our dialogue quite right. If the plot is there, who cares. How else are we, those that didn't choose writing as a career, to learn? It's all by trial and error. Just because there are a few mistakes, does not make for a bad writer. It just makes for room to grow.

It surely has no effect on sales. Once you get your mojo, there will be no stopping you. There are many self published authors who see success -

Amanda Hocking

J.R. Rain

Tina Folsom

To name a few. Yes. Self publishing is on the rise. Yes, books are flooding the world around us, YAY US! Yes, there will be a few authors that didn't get the memo for things to do BEFORE you publish. Try, try, and try again until you get it right.

Check this out from i09 Books --

["More than a thousand [self-published] authors now each sell more than a thousand copies a month, some have already reached hundreds of thousands of sales and two have already joined the Kindle Million Club."

Heather Killough-Walden whose 500,000 sales of her paranormal romances garnered her a book contract.

J.R. Rain, a fantasy author, who has sold some 400,000 copies of his novels.

Tina Folsom's 14 paranormal romance titles sold 300,000 copies in 2011 alone.

B.V. Larson, who writes both sci-fi and fantasy, has sold some 250,000 copies of his 25 titles.

H.P. Mallory has sold 200,000 copies of her paranormal romances.

David Daglish's fantasy novels have sold 175,000 copies.

Ellen Fisher, whose first book was published traditionally before she struck out on her own, has sold 100,000 copies of her paranormal and normal romance novels.

Michael Sullivan's historical fantasy novels have sold 90,000 online copies and have now been republished by Hachette. ] Read full article

The point is, even though writers may get rejected by traditional publishers, doesn't mean the book is bad. It just means that they are missing out on possibly the next best thing!

Do you think self publishing is out of control?