Self-publishing is really a catch-all term that applies to so much these days, it’s confusing. To truly self-publish, you take on all of the tasks a publishing house would, managing it yourself. Or, you can hire a publisher to do some or all of these things for you. There are a number of programs available now to do this.

To me, what matters is the end product. I just did a Virtual Book Tour with an author whose book is top-notch in every way (cover, editing, design), and his is an example of what one can do with a self-published book, in a positive way. (See http://www.aksjimcyr.com.) Usually I can tell a self-published book because of the unprofessional look of it. That’s no longer necessarily an issue.

Plenty of successful authors are and were self-published. There need not be a stigma. I think the bottom line is the quality of the product. But–there are so many publishing programs out there, it’s difficult to know which are legitimate and which are ripoffs. (Plenty of the latter, I’m afraid.) I suggest to anyone looking at a particular program, to get in touch with me first for a consultation to go over what the company offers and interpret the “fine print” to see whether it’s legitimate or not.

Diane Eble provides a wealth of writing and publishing wisdom on her Words to Profit website. She also writes a great blog called Your Book Publishing Coach. This article on Diane’s Words to Profit site caught my attention this weekend….

I read your post with great interest, but I did want to comment about self-publishing. There seems to be such a stigma attached to it, that in my limited experience, people have been reluctant to be so labeled. I’m multi-published by small press, and the discussions I’ve heard indicate most believe that people who release their own work have been denied access to publishing through normal channels. The evidence, unfortunately, bears witness to the rumors, when you read books chock full of common editorial errors and misspellings. It’s hard enough to overcome people doubting the work of authors published by houses which provide editing, so how do you defend the shoddy products that debut when there is no type of quality control in place? There ARE places that will print anything for the money. Or have I totally missed the point?