On a regular basis I have a little tete a tete with a good friend of mine and we mostly chat about writing, the publishing industry, and all things wordy. He knows of my goal with self-publishing and has listened to me go on and on about the merits of doing so. My friend is a YA author (and a very good one at that). Today, I mentioned how well I felt his work would would do if he would go bite the bullet and go the self-publish route. He had no interest.
I have to admit I was surprised by his reaction. I mentioned how some YA writers are having amazing success with self publishing, but his ego was so desperately connected to the old-school method of publishing and longed for that “recognition” received by an agent and/or publisher accepting his book as worthy for the eyes of the public.
To that, I call shenanigans.
From my perspective, the only “recognition” a book needs is the recognition of an audience. It has been proved over and over that agent/publishers can quickly get in the way of that connection. Plenty of publishers attempted to stop J.K. Rowling’s phenomenal Harry Potter series from being seen. Plenty of other outstanding writers have been denied access to the public because a publisher or agent had no idea how to market or sell their books.
Let’s face it, agents and publishers are missing out big time. They have painted themselves into such a corner it’s going to take some serious work to overcome the mad rush of highly talented writers going straight to the self-publishing route. How is this going to effect publisher and agents? Only time will tell.
But what is more interesting in the “now” is why there are still those writers out there awaiting their ticket to the world of publishing? Those writers could well be sitting on veritable gold mines of income. Why wait? Why fight? Why deny the possibilities that await them?
I realize everyone has their reasons for writing just as everyone has their reasons for holding out for that miracle handshake from the great God “Publisher”. For me, I just want readers to have access to entertaining and moving books. Hopefully some of those books will come from the mind and fingertips of Jack Wallen (by way of self publishing).
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