Thoughts on Publishing

Yes, it's been a while.  No, I haven't been writing every day - get OFF my butt! ;)  Actually, I've been taking a bit of a break after NaNoWriMo.  And since the new year is quickly approaching, I've decided to stop my Write (Almost) Every Day Challenge and begin afresh in the new year.  I plan on jumping right back into my NaNo novel at that point, editing and writing and working on getting it publishable.  


Which is what I wanted to talk about today - publishing.  My friend, Tracy, wrote a blog post a few days ago about self-publishing.  Here is a link to that lovely post:  Building A Bridge.  Go there, read it, come back.  I'll wait.








Wait!  You're supposed to come back!
Yes, I know she has a lot more posts than me.  
Yes, I know she posts WAY more regularly than I do.
Yes, I know she has a lot of witty commentary and sage insight.
Yes, I know that she shares recipes!  And, believe me, I've had her yummy food, the recipes are worth it!
But you're supposed to come back after you read that one post!  You can peruse the rest of her posts later!
Dang!


Well, for those of you that did come back, I'll continue.


Tracy talks about how she feels that experts (literary agents and professional publishers) help to make her story the strongest it can be, and she feels that self-publishing doesn't include these last few strength-boosters in your story.  I totally agree with her, and I had some other thoughts on the subject.  I thought about writing a comment to her post, but my thoughts kept getting bigger and longer and I didn't want to write a novel of a comment, so I decided to write my own blog post on the subject.


The funny thing is, the night before Tracy wrote this post, I had a dream that my husband's brother, Josh, wrote a book and had it published.  He was not self-publishing, but I was quite irked in my dream that he was having a book published.  I was jealous, of course, but I also had other thoughts on the fact that Josh was publishing a book.  Did I mention it was a BIG book?  That didn't help my jealousy.  


But seriously, I was mostly upset because Josh is not a writer.  He is an aspiring actor living in L.A.  Now, I don't mean to say that non-writers shouldn't write and have their books published.  I actually don't mind that.  The thing I mind is that non-writers who are celebrities (Nicole Richie, Hilary Duff, Sarah Palin, etc.) have an easy time publishing.  I understand why - publishing companies know that they will be able to sell a book written by Sarah Palin - they have no idea if they'll be able to sell a book by little old me.  But my point is that, in the past, publishing has been HARD.  There is a format, a process, a LONG wait, and an emotional tailspin created by thousands of reject letters.  Authors go through all of this and then when they finally get a yes they rejoice, run around in their living rooms, shouting and rushing towards the closest bottle of champagne.  Somehow I can't see celebrities doing this.  I actually imagine them kind of shrugging, like, "Yeah, I wrote a book."  (Not all celebrities - I actually can't imagine the agony that Portia de Rossi went through while writing her personal experiences with bulimia in her recent work, Unbearable Lightness.)  


But this is how I feel about self-publishing, too.  It takes away a lot of the process, the hardship, the struggle of becoming a "published author."  I also feel that it kind of takes away a bit of the power and prestige of the title of "published author."  It's like, hey, anyone can do it, so what does it matter that you're a "published author?"  Who cares?


That said, I have a friend who is in the process of self-publishing.  I do not mean to belittle him in any way. I will be buying his book and giggling like a giddy school girl, most likely telling everyone around me that "I know this author!"  The only problem is - so far, the only places to buy his book will be on Amazon, Ebay, and the Barnes and Noble website.  Which, I will admit, is awesome.  But all I know is that, if I ever get a book published, I want to be able to walk into any book store and see it on the shelf.  It's a lot of hard work to write a novel, and I'm willing to work even harder to get it published.  One of these days...