A distrubing trend.

On the continuation of yesterday's post, I began thinking about another dangerous trend in today's industry.

The Self Published Writer.

Now, not every self published writer is inherently bad. Some people choose to self publish simply because they want to get their book straight out to the readers, rather than deal with the middle man. And some of them are good enough writers to pull it off. But there are others--a frighteningly large percentage--who have no right being published in any sense of the word.

Established publishers serve a purpose. They can market your book, for starters. Even shitty writers (we've all read them) can make millions, simply because their agent was able to negotiate a sweet marketing deal with the publisher. Publishers can also take a huge weight off of your shoulders, dealing with all of the "little things" that happen between the book coming off of your printer and hitting the shelves of your local bookstore. That's why they take a percentage of your profits.

As a little guy, you don't have much negotiating room. As you become more established, you gain more leverage. This is no different than every other industry in the world. Start small, work your way up the chain, become big man on totem pole. Huff puff.

Professional publishers also serve another purpose: they have staff on hand who not only know what they are doing when it comes to editing, but they are passionate about the subject matter. Let me give you an example. An editor for Tor, for example, is passionate about fantasy work. An editor for Baen Books is more towards science fiction. A publisher for Bantam will depend on the genre of the story being written. The point is, you don't want your fantasy story being edited by an action-adventure spy-thriller editor, or your science-fiction story being edited by a children's story editor. By using the proper channels you can insure that your story is being read by an editor who not only understands the subject matter, but can help you mold your story into professional fare that will earn you a readership base, a nice chunk of change, and a return visit to the publisher when your book pays off.

Self published writers skip that step. They dump their product onto the market and more often times than not...it's trash. Pure drivel. And the sad thing is that these same authors will suddenly jump up and claim "I'm a published author!".

I recently saw a woman who said "I have 28 publications to my name". I went and did some research. Not a single title was published by a professional publication. Every single title was a self-published e-book. Now, I'm not familiar with her writing, but the fact that she had pushed out 28 novels in the course of a mere 5 years cause me to shake my head and just simply boggle. that's over 5 novels per year, and I'm sorry to be judgemental, but I find it highly circumspect that her novels were of a high calibre.

As someone who is established in the journalism, magazine and website articles, and content generation portion of the modern-day industry, I can appreciate that it is often times difficult to break into a certain market. I may be a successful writer, but there are still areas of the industry that I am not established in yet, and it may very well take several tries before I move into those parts. But I'm also not one of those people who believes in self-publishing. I know my limitations. I'm a good writer. Perhaps even a great writer. But every great writer needs a great editor behind them, pushing them to be better, helping them hone their craft, weed out mistakes, and so on and so forth. I fully believe in hiring editors, just as I always hired an accountant to do my taxes for me when I ran a construction company. Every person has a unique job that they can cover, and I'm not afraid to pay a professional to do their job. In fact, I want the professional overseeing my work because I want to know that my work is being judged on a professional level...not purely by my own, jaded opinion.

I think ego plays some part of it. I'm guilty of it myself. Every writer thinks their project is "special". Some writers will go so far as to say "I don't care if no one else gets it...it's a good project, and I want it published!", subsequently pushing out 28 novels in 5 years without a single professional editor ever taking a glance at it.

As someone who is beginning to branch out into the fiction world, I submit to a lot of publications, world-wide. I recently did a blind submit to a magazine and them immediately regretted my decision when a couple of days later I read up on his publication. The guy is a self published author of three novels who started a fiction magazine a couple of years ago and self publishes the fiction magazine as the acting editor in chief, art director....and the only guy on the staff. I have to wonder at the credibility of such a publication when there is no professional guidance being given to the owner/operator. He is basically running willy-nilly through the brush with his undies on fire, claiming that there's no such thing as flame.

So, in closing...while a bad editor is indeed an atrocity, a professional editor is your saving grace.