Good Self-Publishing Article

Just read a pretty good article in The New York Times that sums up what role self-publishing can play these days. Basically, if there's a demand for your book that doesn't quite get a traditional publishing house revved up, then self-publishing is a way to go. And it's a way to get noticed if your book has hitherto unnoticed merit and can do something if it's out there.

That said, it's still necessary to ask yourself who besides you and your mom will want to take a second look at that book. You either articulate who the book will appeal to and why, or you're like MIniver Cheevy—born too late, railing that things aren't the way they should be. Personally I would love it if reading books were the only way people could entertain themselves with stories, because it would be a hell of a lot easier to get books published, but it hasn't been that way since Marconi.

Sigh.

But if you want me to grind a bit of peppery optimism on your sorrow salad, I'll add that the article pointed to a National Endowment of the Arts study that said overall literary reading is going up, after a long decline. So in conclusion, let's sum up by saying —uh—whatever!

A few years ago I finished a 50,000-word book as part of the National Novel Writing Month, which is just what it sounds like. This outfit Lulu offered to print it up for free if you got to the finish line, and in due course I got a cheesy-looking pamphlet with the story printed in agate type, which is 5 and a half points, the tiny size used for legal notices and sports statistics. Which I suppose means that self-gratification can, in certain situations, actually end up being bad for your eyesight, like they used to say.