Who Wants to Read Your Self-Published Book?

SELF-PUBLISHING?

You may have read an interesting article in the Washington Post recently, entitled, “No, I don’t want to read your self-published book.”

This particular article evolved from a letter from the editor in Horn Book Magazine.

The context of the letter is to explain, essentially, to indie writers why publications that review traditionally published books can’t consider reviewing self-published books.

This is in spite of the big “BUT”—i.e. but there are a few outstanding indie books, yet there are also some bad traditionally published books.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

I think it’s great news for self-published authors:

• In the beginning, traditional publishers and professional book reviewers simply IGNORED self-published books.
• Self-publishing has grown tremendously. There are many millions of self-published books being sold and read each year, taking up a very significant market share.
• We’ve finally caught the attention of traditional publishers and, now, even editors who…