New Report About Self-Publishing

There’s a new report out about self-publishing

Thanks to Chris Morris of Bristol Writer’s Group for posting this on Facebook.

My thoughts as a self-publisher (also published by the pros)

If you check the acceptance rates for both magazines and publishers you see that they reject 90% of what is submitted simply because they only publish a limited quantity. They hope they pick the best 10% but in any case, they reject a lot of good stuff. Self-publishing means it gets out there, at least.

On the other hand, it means there is LOADS of stuff out there. The selection process has moved from the editor’s desk to the market, for good or ill. There’s a lot of crap self-published now which gives the tag a bad name. I don’t think you should self-publish a book until you’ve had some wee, small, tiny, minute or even infinitesimal acknowledgement from someone in the trade that you can actually write. Getting a short story published for example, even in a non-paying market. At least it means somebody wants it. Of course, ‘crap’ is a matter of judgement. It’s a large grey area with up to fifty shades.