Fear of the Self Published Part One

As many of you know, I self-published my first book, Deader by the Lake. It was certainly an education for me. I found that many conventionally published authors are quite fearful of those who don't take the usual route to get their work before their readers and the fallout from that fear afflicts not only author "professional" groups but bookstore owners and reviewers.

Now comes the case of "Harlequin Horizons," an imprint of the respected romance publisher. Harlequin joined forces with Author Solutions, a self-publishing house, to create the new division but now, as reported in Publishers Weekly, has changed the name of the imprint after criticism from several author groups. "Harlequin Horizons" is no more...the name now being DellArt Press. According to PW, "There is no mention of Harlequin on DellArte’s Web site."

From the Romance Writers Association to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers to the old-line Mystery Writers of America, author groups that were started by, and continue to have a majority membership of, conventionally published authors are fighting to make certain self-published authors are not given respect or the opportunity to join as full members or enter contests or take part in events which would help them sell their work.

Even the Sisters in Crime organization which claimed to have no prejudice against self-published authors when I was a member several years ago made certain I could not attend a Hollywood pitch session where I would have had the opportunity to network with producers and other studio officials.

MWA made certain I could not hold any office with the organization while I was self-published. Other writers groups and the officials of a number of writers workshops make it clear that only authors who have been conventionally published may speak or sit on panels for those workshops. Some groups, including MWA, have lists of "acceptable publishers" and if a writer was not handled by those houses, they are not considered for full membership in the group.

It is easy to self-publish a book. You write a check and, in a matter of weeks, you will have a bound volume of your work. Most self-publishing houses require no copy or line-editing. They don't even mandate that authors use spell check. There is no requirement for reasonable structure or plotting and no vetting for truth in non-fiction self-published books.

In point of fact, much of the work produced by self-published authors is crap.

Much, but not all. And there are ways writers groups could work with self-published authors to help and not hinder them.

More on that in my next post.