Unspeakable Horror!

Yesterday, the New York Times published a fascinating article on the success of self-publishing:

"Self-Publishers Flourish as Writers Pay the Tab"

This article is very exciting to me because of the numerous issues related to self-publishing that the article presents, and this week I launched my new business, Coaching for Horror Writers, which specializes in horror writers who want to self-publish.  The headline itself implies a negative attitude toward self-publishing, I think, but the article presents many aspects of self-publishing, both positive and negative.  I really enjoy the controversy because of the exciting potential successes self-publishing offers, despite the numerous pitfalls (I'm a college writing teacher--I know all about the pitfalls of bad writing. I've written some spectacularly bad horror novels myself, actually!).  Even the intensity of the controversy suggests to me that this is a dynamic and expanding field and marketplace.  I want to offer my position on some of the viewpoints and criticisms, but it might take several blog postings to cover them all.

The public perception of self-publishing is a fascinating subject. There are a myriad of various opinions about the rise of self-publishing. I recommend reading some of the comments for the NYT article on the newspaper's website and you will see what I mean, and the article itself also represents a variety of viewpoints about the publishing phenomenon.

The choice of whether or not to self-publish is overwhelming enough, but contending with all of the opinions out there about self-publishing can also be a challenge. I discovered this when I self-published a collection of poetry on Lulu.com (in the NYT article, the chief executive of Lulu is quoted as saying, "We have easily published the largest collection of bad poetry in the history of mankind."  Not very encouraging for his poetry clients--let's hope he wasn't talking about my book, which I know isn't bad).  Selecting a POD publisher requires lots of close examination of publisher websites and lots of comparing and contrasting the features of various packages.  Then, when asking friends, colleagues, and other writers about self-publishing, you receive a wide array of positive and negative response, especially if you work in the book world. 

Personally, I think the way to cut through all of the confusion is to decide what you really want to accomplish by publishing a book.  Taking the time to really clarifiy your motivations and goals makes deciding which route to pursue profoundly easier.  Many writers never take the time to figure out why they are writing.  I think it is especially beneficial to take this to a personal level and figure out which positive feelings you hope to garner by achieving publication.

Ultimately, you figure out what you think about self-publishing, and that enables you to take a course of action.  No matter how you view self-publishing, you will find lots of supporting and contradictory opinions out there. 

I will continue blogging about this, but I want to conclude this post by mentioning an important aspect of self-publishing that is largely overlooked in the article.  Self-publishing is a facet of the revolution in the publishing market (similar to the revolution of the record industry).  I believe success for writers in the new phase means creating a well-rounded digital presence with social networking, blogging, twittering, You-Tube-ing, facebook-ing, podcasting (and whatever the future holds), and self publishing is an aspect of a larger online presence in the changing marketplace.  This is very exciting. 

So, how will consumers know which books to buy in a crowded marketplace?  They will buy books because they are already following that authors works through these various mediums!  And the succcessful authors will have a very focused, specialized niche, so the readers can find them in the first place.

I think horror writing fits especially well in this new marketplace.  I've been running the Unspeakable Horror website for almost three years now, and I have seen that horror writers are really thriving in this new online milieu.  The online culture of horror writers is really a lot of fun. 

Maybe the book business is in crisis, but I truly believe exciting things are happening.