I have a best friend of 30+ years who is a great supporter of my writing and my books. She’s very impressed and proud of what I’ve been able to accomplish. And yet, without fail, every few months she asks, “When are you going to start sending your stuff to a publisher. The answer is always the same– “I’m not.”
I don’t need to. I already publish them myself. Currently, I have a successful play, three novels, and a contribution to someone else’s book. That’s much more than some and considerably less than others. And yet, there’s still a stigma around self-publishing; a general thought that “if your stuff was any good, you wouldn’t have to publish it yourself”. When someone presents that idea, I strongly consider it and then politely suggest they go fuck themselves.
I can’t say this enough– there is absolutely no shame in self-publishing if the work is good and if it was professionally done, meaning the aesthetics, is it using traditional publishing standards?
In fact, there are plenty of reasons not to go the traditional publishing route. Reedsy, over at ReedsyBlog has a great post on the pros and cons of self-publishing vs traditional publishing that every writer should read.
Check it out here and above all, keep writing!