This post was inspired by a sloppy series of tweets I put out last week, as a response to Library of a Viking’s video about what he discovered reading twenty-five self-published books. I was immensely hungover but my tweet thread wasn’t trying to argue against the video. That video just spawned a tangent where I shared my experiences dealing with traditional publishers and why I never want to deal with that shit again.
So, now I will try to state things more clearly and elaborate on my points because tweets are small and you have to whittle down your thoughts into morsels.
In that video this statement was uttered, which sparked my tangent: "Society generally still looks down at self-published books..."
Well, I look down at current society... and traditional publishers (TP). With self-published (SP) books, there's going to be a lot of crap out there. Although, TP puts a lot of crap out too… and they chase trends (a year or two too late) while stifling writers’ voices.
As a writer, these trends are hard to keep up with, as it takes serious time to write a book in the TP style and to get everything right. Not to mention the added time it takes for it to go through their editors, their marketing team, scheduling, and distribution. Also, in the realm of fantasy, TP corporations want fucking bricks not books.
Additionally, if you are a new writer with a work you really love and want to publish, add in the time of finding an agent, then that agent finding the right TP house for you, and then add in the time it takes to do all the stuff laid out in the previous paragraph.
In an industry that chases trends, your chances of getting that book you adore out there and for it to check the right boxes at the right time is a massive blow to your efforts. And then… is it still the book you loved when you were first outlining it? Is it still your voice and your story?
I'd rather authors write whatever the hell they want, trends be damned, and just put it out there, find their audience, and speak to them in their voice without the meddling of the mainstream TP giants.
Mainstream entertainment, in all it's forms, is wilting and if that’s not apparent to you, you might be the brainlet they need you to be. At this point, mainstream entertainment is the fast food of “content”. That’s all it is. Content to be consumed and forgotten so that new content can also be consumed and forgotten, and so on.
A dozen years ago, I went thru the early parts of TP. The experience was awful and ultimately, I thought that if my work was good enough for them to want to publish, it was good enough to publish myself… for better or worse. The main thing I wanted was control of my words and my schedule. Also, I wanted to maintain ownership of my work. With a TP company involved, I would lose those things.
However, going the SP route came with the loss of mainstream marketing and a lot of potential sales. For me, the trade off was still worth it, even if those books about politics and economics weren't hits.
Twelve years later, as a fiction writer, I still feel the same way. Actually, I feel that way even more so, as I’m not a fan of what the current TP trends are: big ass bricks of stories with a lot of filler crap that bogs down the story’s momentum and has to have modern wokeism injected into it.
That is not the book I want to read or write. The style of book I write now wouldn't be published by anyone in the TP space because it's not in-line with these trends, which are failing, by the way.
The thing is, I know there is an audience that wants badass, fun, short pulp adventure fiction that isn't the size of a shoebox. If that's a small audience, so be it, but they are there. I also know, as I keep pushing my books, that the audience isn’t as small as one might think.
Most people just want good stories that don’t shove “the message” down their throats like they’re dumb children that need to reach some sort of social and political enlightenment that can only be provided by greedy corporations that only espouse this shit to pander when certain months roll around or when nine weirdos backed by dozens of bots get itchy assholes on Twitter.
What I love about SP is that it can create its own neat, little communities of like-minded fans. TP wants mass appeal as much as possible in a time in history where no one agrees on anything. I like writing for my small, unique group, and as I’m finding out, that group can grow rather quickly and it is.
That's not to say that I wouldn’t love mass appeal and the treats that come with it.
The last thing I’ll say is that TP firms are gatekeepers. The reality, though, is that you do not need their permission to do anything. They want you to think that you’re not a real writer if you do it yourself. But of course they do! You are their competition. If you don’t believe that, just look at how the mainstream media sources attack YouTubers that get more views than they do and have earned the trust of more people.
If you are passionate about what you’re doing, get it the fuck out there! Put in the work! Don’t ask permission, just do it! In fact, the best thing you can do to break the mainstream’s already dying system is to actively work against it. Just publish your own book!
There are so many tools you can use now with various social media platforms and the Internet at large. Empower yourself and be creative with it. It’s this type of power that is hurting the old systems, as you don’t need those systems to reach a lot of people. You can do it on your own. In fact, I think it’s better if you do. None of us really want to answer to someone else pulling the strings of our destiny. Pull your own fucking strings! Just make sure the product is good.
In the end, it will be a lot of work to get your book in front of people but the fruits of that labor will be much greater than TP royalties split between multiple parties.