Join The Fight To Give Self-publishers An Even Playing Field
- Posted by Essays Blog in Essays Blog |
- August 27th, 2008 |
- Comments
Are you a self-published author who is disgusted getting the door slammed in your face by reviewers, contests, conferences and more just because your books aren’t published by a conventional publisher? Join the club! And I do mean join. If we as self-publishers don’t begin to activity unitedly to combat the bias against our activity, we are going to continue to be activated as and feel like second-class citizens of the writing community.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not expression that poorly written, unedited, crummy-looking books should be given the same discourse as high-quality books. But I am expression that books should be judged on their own merits, not on whether they are published by the author or by individual related to the author, and not by the number of copies that are printed at a time. How can individual judge a book when they haven’t even seen it?
People have authors only self-publish because they can’t get a conventional publisher. That’s not my account. I chose to publish my mystery novel, Also NEAR THE EDGE, finished my family publishing company, PMI Books. I didn’t send the novel to any agents or publishers first. I made the self-publishing decision based on my experience with my cardinal published nonfiction books&ndashone, self-published has oversubscribed over 50,000 copies and is now in its 4th edition; the other was published by a major conventional publisher oversubscribed about 5,000 copies and is now out of print.
My self-published novel, Also NEAR THE EDGE has gotten good reviews from online reviewers and won a silver for best regional fiction in the 2007 Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY) contest. It’s available on Amazon and other online sites, and I can keep it in print as long as I deprivation. But if I deprivation it to sell, I have to promote it, which is harder than it should be due to the bias against self-publishers.
I believe that approximately 800 books are published every day and reviewers are deluged with books to review. But I hate that like a trendy new NYC bar, they man the door so that only the well-connected get in. Reviewers should be in the business of judging books not judging publishers. Just give our books a chance.
And why should self-published authors be given 2nd class position at conferences? Here’s what happened to me after I found out that the annual “Left Coast Crime Convention,” (LLC) meeting&ndasha mystery convention sponsored by mystery fans, for mystery fans&ndashwill be in my area in 2008. I figured this would be a chance to go to a regional conference as an author, meet fans, and maybe even get my book in the “book room” to sell. But, no. It turns out that to be considered an author at the LLC I have to either meet the requirements for active membership in the Mystery Writers of America or be shortlisted for a major mystery award like the Edgar or the Anthony. That means I have to have been paid at least $1,000 in advances and/or royalties for my book, which had an initial print run of at least 500 copies. But even so, I can’t be considered an author at their conference if my book is self-published or cooperatively published. My publisher must have been in business for at least cardinal years and publish at least five other authors per year, none of whom may be an employee, business partner, or a relative of the publisher. And my publisher must be on the MWA list of approved publishers.
Advantageously my publishing company, PMI Books, belongs to PMA, and we are reputable&ndashbut clearly, given all their criteria, they aren’t going to put us on their approved list.
So I proved to get in low award abstraction. My book isn’t shortlisted for the mystery awards they list, but I wrote them a real polite email asking if the IPPY would qualify me to be an author at their conference. They replied that I don’t meet the eligibility requirements and that awards like the IPPY are not on the list, “since they are primarily awarded to authors from non-traditional publishing houses.”
Enough!! These criteria are outdated, cheating and shortsighted. They arbitrarily exclude books and authors based not on the quality of the books but on the publisher and method of printing. Thither must be a better artifact. Self-publishers need to activity unitedly to end this bias against us.
I’ve started a new blog&ndashThe Populist Publisher&ndashwhere I hope self-published authors can come unitedly to change our image. I invite you to join us.