You might have thought about self-publishing before, but something stops you from going through with it. Do you know why? Well, it might have to do with the nasty stigma circling self-publishing and self-published authors. This post will discuss why the stigma surrounding self-publishing is fruitless. And hopefully, over time, people will come to fully realize the value of self-publishing.
I’ve chosen to dig into this topic because, admittedly, even though I am a self-published author, I still find myself questionably embarrassed about the fact that I chose that path. I’m often sheepish to reveal that I did it all by myself and did not go through a reputable publisher, small or large. But why should I have to be embarrassed about putting in all the work towards sharing my writing, even if it is not the most traditional path?
Because typically there is the idea that, as the lulu blog, “Self-Publishing Stigma: Have We Overcome It Yet?” puts it, “self-published books are of lower quality.” This mainly has to do with the idea that we, as self-publishers, are not putting in as much money into the process of publishing a book as a “traditional publisher.” Thus, it sparks the idea that self-published books are of lower quality and worth less. However, this most often is not the case.
There are plenty of self-publishers worldwide who invest their money in professional copyeditors, book cover designers, marketers, and more for their books’ self-publication. Just because self-publishers are not going through traditional publishers to find these resources does not mean that the end product is of any less quality than a traditionally published book. But, the general public does not always see it that way. And traditional publishers don’t want them to.
Better yet, have you ever read a published book that had an error in it? Have you ever found a misspelled word, weird spacing issues, or a name that wasn’t capitalized? What about duplicated words, or *gasp* a misplaced comma? Published books are riddled with mistakes all the time! This shows that errors can happen to everyone, and even traditional publishers cannot make the quality of your book 1000% perfect.
The good news is, the stigma surrounding self-publishing is waning. One of the best examples I can give of a recent self-published author who broke that stigma would be Rupi Kaur with her famous poetry collection “Milk and Honey.” Believe it or not, the book that was on the best-sellers list for 41 consecutive weeks in 2016 was originally a self-published work. Now, Kaur has published two more successful books, “the sun and her flowers” and “home body.” When it comes down to it, people care about the content. They care about the story. And whether or not it was self-published or traditionally published does not matter.
