Self-Publishing, Does it Actually Work?

his post is in response to a comment from C-Check on my AWP post.

As I understand it, like anything, there are advantages and disadvantages to both self-publishing and publishing through a publishing house. Self-publishing is a method of publishing that rose as a backlash to the increasing difficulty of getting a manuscript published by a publishing house. Many publishing houses these days won’t even accept unsolicited manuscripts–manuscripts without a literary agent, or manuscripts from an unknown author–which is something that authors should always keep in mind in order to seem professional. Always check to see if a publisher accepts unsolicited manuscripts before you send yours off, otherwise you could end up wasting your time and looking unprofessional.

Getting a literary agent can sometimes be costly, and can almost always be time consuming. In my research on self-publishing, one of the main things people cited as a plus to self-publishing is that it’s immediate, or nearly so, whereas going through a publisher will always take months, if not years for new authors.

Of course the advantage of putting up with soliciting your manuscript and waiting for responses is that the publishing and advertising of your book is all taken care of by the publisher. The publisher will design your cover, front the money for the printing, find you bookstore space, and sell copies of your book (while taking a chunk of the profits, of course). This is the conventional way to make it big, and though the allure of controlling everything and self-publishing can be strong, it’s hard to deny the benefits of having a publisher to get your book on the shelves.

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