self publishing

A friend recently decided to self publish a novel.
I have to wonder why he didn't go with a more traditional route.
Anyone want to share some insights into the publishing world?
Are there any really good books coming out of self publishing companies?

I feel like my friend really did himself a disservice by choosing this route.

 

Did he even attempt to find a publisher?

I know of at least one person who has self-published a couple of novels. He couldn't get a publishing company to bite. So instead he wrote the books and is distributing them electronically on Amazon. I haven't read them personally, but a few acquaintances of mine have and thought they were decent to good. I believe he's made in the neighborhood of a few grand off of the books this way. Not huge money, but definitely enough not to scoff at it either. I'm sure his compensation doesn't break down to being much per hour of effort, but since it is something he likes to do anyway, it's free money for having a hobby in his case.

My impression (and by no means am I claiming any expertise) is that it is pretty difficult to break out and get a book published the traditional route, especially a novel. Basically anyone can self publish. And if they get the proper momentum going, and have some real talent, and fill the right niche, they just might end up making some money, or getting a traditional publishing deal.

Hopefully it works out for him. It has to be an incredible amount of work, and take a lot of dedication, to complete any normal length novel.

 

Self-publishing these days is easy to do, and I think that's why most people choose to go that route. I think fanfiction originally proved the concept--people are willing to read things by unknown authors on the Internet.

 

I just remembered, I have read some self-published novels.

I'm not sure if anyone has checked out the Silo series of short stories and novels. But it was self-published, and there are many popular self-published fan fiction sequels, prequels, and short stories.

Silo (series) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

I will respond to this thread when I'm done my day's work on this traditionally published book. It will take some time for me to lay out my thoughts on either route to publication.

 

Tease

 

I know, I know. It's coming.