Back in May, 2004 I wrote the blog post, Why Shouldn’t Authors Self-Publish? and like most decent posts, it garnered some attention, and then slowly faded into oblivion, only to be found by people searching about self-publishing. Over the holiday weekend someone added it to the social bookmarking site Reddit (actually, I never heard of this particular social bookmarking site before, and found it thru my referrals), and it has really taken a life of its own. It isn’t anywhere near the traffic from being slashdotted, but still very noticeable when looking at my traffic stats.
The post takes you thru self-publishing a factious 600 page tech book, printed using print on demand and sold thru Amazon, and compares the potential income compared to what a publishing company would pay you (I used APress in this example, since their rates are available on their site).
If you haven’t checked out the original post recently, you may want to take a look again, since there are a bunch of new comments, even Tim O’Rielly chimed in on a comment. Here are a couple of my favorite comments:
- I know of a very good reason for authors to not publish their own work themselves: they don't get help with typesetting, proofreading, layout, peer review, and so on. This article is an example of this problem, as it is riddled with bad writing and blatant errors.
- I've made more on my Amazon link to the book (via Amazon Associates) than I have made on the actual sales ($0) of the book.
- There's one critical dimension that I think is overlooked, though. Buying from reputable publishing firms - Addison Wesley, for instance - provides for a level of trust between the seller and buyer.
- This isn't a point in favor of publishers, BTW. Most editors that work for publishers are free-lance and would just as happily take your money as a publisher's. You can probably get tech reviewing done by local user group buddies or co-workers. The point is: If you're going to charge the same as the big publishers, readers are going to expect the same quality -- better, really, if they realize that you're getting more of they money
- The primary objection to POD is, and has always been, simple stigma. POD is still equated with vanity publishing in the minds of agents, editors, and the general public. Traditional publishing, by contrast, is considered the end product of survival of the fittest: only the best books get through.
The costs I seemed to have missed in my original post were the costs of proofreaders, tech reviewers, typesetting, and indexing. Each one of these items can usually be done by the same folks that the publishers use, since they are usually freelancers. Only the author can determine if their particular book requires these services (and for most tech authors, they probably do need them).
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