There was a great story on NPR this morning about self-publishing and how the book publishing industry is starting to get involved. Self-Publishing: No Longer Just A Vanity Project profiles some folks who took a chance on themselves and the gamble paid off big time.
In an ironic twist, now Simon & Schuster is getting into the self-publishing arena.
The story starts out: “They used to call it the “vanity press,” and the phrase itself spoke volumes. Self-published authors were considered not good enough to get a real publishing contract. They had to pay to see their book in print. But with the advent of e-books, self-publishing has exploded, and a handful of writers have had huge best-sellers.”
The comments on the NPR story are as illuminating as the story itself. There are a lot of people who took the self-publishing route since the industry and the technology has changed to favor the individual who wants their work to been seen in print (or in electrons in the case of ebooks).
Did you know my award-winning book A Good Goodbye: Funeral Planning for Those Who Don’t Plan to Die is self-published? Not only is it available in print, it’s available for e-reader platforms at $9.99 or less: iBookstore, Amazon’s Kindle, Barnes & Noble’s NOOK, the Sony Reader and more!
Hope you’ll check it out if you haven’t yet.