It’s official.  Self-publishing.  It’s no longer a dirty word.  Don’t believe me?  Read about it in the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/28/books/28selfpub.html?em

The judgment comes from no less a publishing luminary than Louise Burke, publisher of Pocket Books.  Self-publishing, she says, “is no longer a dirty word.”

Now I don’t want to brag that here, at Screw Iowa!, we’ve been ahead of the curve, but let’s just say we’re firmly a part of it.  The world is changing.  Traditional publishing models no longer satisfy readers or writers.  Instead, more and more authors are deciding to go it alone, either by using existing print-on-demand services or by creating entirely new presses. 

Granted, neither route is likely to make you rich or famous.  According to the Times, the average number of copies sold by print-on-demand services is only 150 copies.  If you measure your book against blockbusters that reach millions of readers, 150 copies can seem like a paltry number.  On the other hand, in comparison to the zero readers your book will have if you leave it unpublished, sitting in a box in your garage or under your bed, 150 is huge.

Think about it for a minute.  If you put your book into print, there is every reason to expect that over one hundred people will read it.  Not only that, but since you will be marketing it on your own, the chances are that you will be in contact with most—if not all—of those readers.  You will hear back from a good number of them, as they tell you what they thought of your book and what it meant to them, and you will have the pleasure of watching your audience grow.

What more could a writer ask for?

From where we sit, self-publishing is one grassroots movements that is bound to keep growing, because of its ability to be both personally and socially transformational.  A dirty word?  We never thought so.  It’s nice to see the rest of the world take note.

 

In memory of John Updike.  You set the bar so high, we knew we would never reach it, but we were bound to become better just by trying.  You will be sorely missed.