Publishing Hub: Has the phrase "self-published writer" had its day?

Harry

My own feeling is that there is nothing wrong with self published as the meaning is the same however it is dressed up. How many ‘officer’ titles in fact mean clerk in today’s business world…Titles do not change an operation or the person doing the operation

Oliver

It is funny how there used to be such a strong negative connotation to being an ‘independent author’ even just 10 years ago when there was nothing negative about being an independent musician. Record labels now fulfil the role of picking up artists once they’ve reached a certain level and helping them push further. I’m sure that is the way we’ll see books go as well and the digital revolution is only going to make it happen quicker.

Harry

Oli I am sure you are right but what bugs me is the change in title for an entity that remains the same. I see no reason to change a name, the problem here is deciding what the original title may have been…self published or independent author…all means the same. I have heard a number of descriptions put to self published works over the years and the fact cannot be escaped that we are self published…and what is wrong with that? Providing we are not paying through the nose and obviously doing it for vanity purposes then absolutely nothing…so again why the fuss about a title?

Oliver

Whole heartedly agree, a change in title has little meaning. The real changes are the changes in technology which make self-publishing commercially viable and to a large extent the change in industry and consumer attitude.

Having said that, although the name should change nothing, re-branding might help those with old fashioned preconceptions put a label on what it is today – a cost effective way to publish books with limited resources.

Harry

Now that, Oli, is a sound argument with which I will agree. Of course there is new generation up and coming who are all too familiar with the band producing its own CDs and I am hoping that my new book about local history will be seen in a somewhat similar vein as other things are planned that will reflect upon this…probably music as well as our chair runs a popular acoustic guitar club and a few of us play anyway…then a local brewer is to produce a beer for our society with the Twmbarlwm name…so all is connected…and further ideas for the written word are in the offing…

Branding I agree is all important and in a small way it has even worked with my books as some are referring to them as the 4Ms investigation…[I term the pair of books volumes 1 and 2 of Megalith Masonry Myth and Measure]. A very long term marketing project here that will take along time to pan out I am afraid. However we keep plodding and plugging but the audience is relatively small and very fickle….

Cheers

H

Colin

Glad to hear you are still in there and kicking Harry. It’s a long uphill battle but we persevere. You seem to have done a lot with the marketing. I find it very time consuming and sometimes discouraging especially with the results not being known util it’s royalty time. (Next March in my case) Two books published now in the series of three. I have now however changed my genre and started a new project recently. I put four chapters of it on to a site and received an E mail from an Editor of a national and well known publishing company. She expressed a great deal of interest and asked me to forward the completed manuscript (whenever) As I’ve only written some 12,00 words and the aim is 90,000 -100,000, it willprobably be some time before I can get round to doing that.
Any way it has spurred me on a bit and given me something to look forward to.

Colin Author of the soon to be completed ( I hope) book, ‘Billy’

Harry

Hi Colin,

Good to hear that things are progressing.

My stint on Graham Hancock’s site did not lead to many sales…very low single figures but did create an interest in my investigations. I have left there now…only a handful of people interested of the regulars and too many folks who are only there to try to denigrate those who do have something to offer…and of course those who have off the wall fantasies that they firmly believe are valid historical theories… Nowt wrong with faction or historical fiction but the intention should be clear…

The latest project is taking a little more in terms of research than I anticipated but is not a problem and while I hoped to be writing by now that is still a week or three away…I have some loose ends to tie up…if they can be tied up…all associated with various factions of the Norman families who invaded us a while ago…

Some elements of my previous work will inevitably emerge in this work which is a book for the new Cwmdeithas Twmbarlwm Society [‘Society’ was tagged on the end for the non Welsh speakers!] like me in fact but I did understand that the adjective is placed after the noun in Welsh hence the noun here is society [Cwmdeithas] and Twmbarlwm describes the society…and of course is the name of the hill around which this study and the society revolves.

I hope to create further interest in my investigations via this book but that remains to be seen…At least I have woken some up to what some ancient texts have been telling us and why they have been misunderstood along with describing the history of measures of the ancient…and not so ancient worlds. The fact that books are not selling is immaterial in reality as the subject matter is a little specialised anyway…albeit of interest to many …the Deluge and Atlantis…

I am now in the position of having to say if it sells all well and good, if it doesn’t but it gets read free on line then at least someone is getting some valuable historical education that they will not get elswhere…and more to the point, the evidence in my works cannot be refuted which is not the case with other books describing the flood or Atlantis….for that matter some works on measures leave a lot to be desired as well…So I get some satisfaction from knowing that my work is available for those who wish to learn.

It would be good if they were selling but serious history is still a non-starter among the publishers and this is far from mainstream but is nonetheless valid and in fact should be a part of education as I show the source and development of the measures in use until metrication and what the Biblical flood tale is about, an allegorical account of astronomy copied from India…

So I battle on but have to write another book to get some local publicity…if interest is shown then, I just may write another but that is doubtful, Gill retires in a year next April and while we can we want to do as much as possible together…and she will have had enough of me writing by then! But, if there is sufficient interest out there I may do something further associated with my particular interest…we shall see.

Best of luck with your publications Colin…is all we can do is keep battling in our respective ways and hope all comes right in the end…and it is doen’t… well at least we have tried!

All the best

Harry

Hermione

This sounds good, since there is so much taboo linked with self-publishing. I think it is good to air work on these sites and grow as writers. After all singer songwriters are able to make records, grow and gradually increase their fanbase. Of course we have to write many more words…

Tom

For a while now I have seen myself as the scribe and generator and publishers as potential partners – love this idea too … the Indies are coming