Hi s
I'm sending this review, just because.
Positives
It's clear that you spent a lot of time thinking about this topic and laying out your thoughts on the pros and cons of self-publishing. While I'm more of a fan of self-publishing than you are, I can respect your opinion and I think you've done a pretty good job of laying out the reasons for that opinion.
Knowing that your opinion is different from mine, please note that the suggestions below are not intended to be aimed at changing your mind or convincing you that your opinion is wrong; they're merely my own thoughts and impressions as I read through this item.
Suggestions
As mentioned in your newsfeed post ("Note: I've added a new entry to my [Link To Item ..."), I think the biggest issue with the piece is that you twice mentioned that self-publishing is different from hybrid/vanity publishing, without explaining the difference between the two (or detailing anything about hybrid/vanity publishing at all). Given that repeated assertion, I think it's important to differentiate what those two types of publishing entail, especially since hybrid/vanity publishing can be awfully difficult to discern and comes in many forms. It would be good to know, for example, if you define hybrid/vanity publishers as any publisher without a traditional publishing apparatus (e.g., printing their own books, relationships with retain booksellers, etc.), any publisher that charges you a fee to publish, or something in between (i.e., a publisher that provides some services like editing and/or marketing, but still ultimately just uploads your book to Amazon and/or uses KDP or IngramSpark to provide print-on-demand physical books. (And, for the record, I completely agree... while we can differ on our opinions of how appealing self-publishing may be, I think we both agree that engaging a third-party to essentially self-publish your work for you is the worst of both worlds!)
A couple of different places in your piece, you acknowledge that self-publishing might be a good fit for those who want complete control over the process (i.e., to engage in the business of publishing as well as writing the actual books), but in your "For whom is self-publishing preferred?" section, your only three categories are the sick/elderly, marginalized people, and those with no social media, leading to the inference that self-publishing is basically only for outcasts who can't otherwise manage to lock down an actual deal with a real publisher. I think if you also mentioned those who choose self-publishing as a business option, it would come across as a bit less condescending, as if the only reason a person would choose to self-publish is because they have no other options. There are a number of very successful self-published authors who are self-published by choice, who make a (very good) living that way, and have turned down traditional publishing contracts as a result.
I think it's also important to note that social media/marketing can be critical for self-published authors (arguably even more so if they don't have the marketing/advertising department of a big publishing house behind them!). Your point about publishers expecting their authors to have an audience to help market their books is well-taken, but I think it's important to also point out the flip side of that coin which is that while self-publishing may appeal to people who don't want to do any selling of their books (and thus are likely to receive very few sales), it might also appeal to people who enjoy marketing and going direct-to-consumer.
The last suggestion I have is to clarify the "Plays, Scripts, and Performance Work" section. I'm a little confused at the part about how the advice for poetry applies here. Aside from the only two major markets I'm aware of (i.e., published stage plays for theatrical performance, and published screenplays of released feature films and television episodes), it's not really an issue of not having enough publishers who operate in the space or enough of a market; it's a matter of these types of writing (especially screenwriting) not being the finished form. There's no market for publishing unproduced screenplays because unproduced screenplays are not something that people buy from a publisher (either on the consumer end of things or on the filmmaking end of things). I think this particular area undercuts your argument about self-publishing being vital for this type of writing, because unlike the other forms of writing, it's not because it's a niche form of publishing. It's kind of like arguing that people should self-publish architectural blueprints because there's no traditional publishing market for them... that might be true, but that's because there's NO market at all for them. It might make more sense to point aspiring screenwriters and playwrights to resources that will benefit them rather than implying that self-publishing is a viable alternative for those writing endeavors.
Overall
I think there are definitely valid arguments to be made on both sides of the argument about whether self-publishing is viable option. For myself personally, I would definitely agree with your assertion that "if it's not good enough for a publisher, it's not good enough for the public," and I would definitely agree that a whole lot of people self-publish stuff that they probably shouldn't. But I also think there are writers who have adopted self-publishing as a preferred business model for a variety of reasons, and who take their craft seriously (e.g., spending money on professional editing, cover design, marketing, etc. to create a professional high-quality product). For that reason, with so many different types of writers falling under the category of self-publishing, I'm hesitant to rule it out as an inferior form of publishing is an overly-broad generalization.
That said, I hope you'll take the above suggestions for what they are intended to be; just my own personal thoughts on how I think you could improve your piece to better make the points you're trying to make (even if I don't necessarily agree with all of them). This is an important conversation to have, and quality authors who are considering traditional publishing versus self-publishing should have access to the best arguments for each avenue. And understand why hybrid/vanity publishing is so potentially dangerous!
Thanks for sharing your perspective on self-publishing... and for entertaining mine.
I hope you've found this review helpful. If so, please consider paying it forward by reviewing the work of another Writing.com author!
Respectfully,
Jeff
"Rating & Reviewing Philosophy"
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