From an article by Alison Baverstock in The Creative Penn:
It seems to me that writers who self-publish are happier than those going through the conventional route.
Maybe it’s the motivation that comes from finally doing something – and being liberated from waiting for calls/emails that don’t come. Maybe it’s the anticipation of knowing a long-cherished project is within sight. Or perhaps they are just enjoying being the client of one of the highly professional self-publishing firms that today offer expert guidance through the options available, and whose attention they can confidently claim because they are paying.
Building on this, and to my great surprise, their contentment levels were not necessarily tied to the beauty of the finished product. Industry professionals have long assumed that only products that closely resembled their own output – content blended with appropriate format for optimum presentation – could offer any degree of satisfaction.
Try explaining that to a self-published author who has finally typed up the story of her family, as heard from her mother, had it bound and made available through a community history website – and in the process been found by long-lost second-cousins in Canada.
A view of writing as only valid if it can be sold through bookshops shows little understanding that self- publishing is a process, not a single product. Overall, the self-publisher’s motivation is vastly more complicated than has previously been assumed.
I have self published.(Two books.) I did enjoy the process, even though I paid. I am happy with the product, but expected(hoped for) more marketing help, without having to send additional thousands of dollars. I feel the stories are well told, well written, yet due to a lack of promotion, not well sold. If you would like to see some of my work, it is available at Amazon and Authorhouse. Both sites have a “Look Inside the Book” feature. I would greatly value your opinion.
The titles are “28 Days in the Coke Works” and “97 Evergreen West”. Thanks, JGW