So far in the Publishing 101 blog series, I’ve covered the Four Basic Choices, NY Big Boy Publishers, Literary Agents, and Independent Publishers. This next segment, “Self-Publishing,” is quite fuzzy. The boundaries of this choice bleed into both Independent Publishers on one end and Vanity Publishing on the other, thus the quotation marks.

Unfortunately for those authors who have quality work, “Self-Publishing” has a stigma attached to it. Many readers, upon hearing the words “self-published,” conjure up images of badly Photoshopped covers, poor layout, and shotty writing.

In short, there is no quality control unless the author takes it upon him/herself to ensure quality. More often than not, this means a lot of money out to professional editors, graphic artists, and desktop publishers.

However, many other “self-published” books are excellent. Fresh, new ideas that don’t fit into the Big Boy box. Many other readers seek out self-published works because they enjoy something other than the same-ol’, same-ol’.

Truly, the same can be said about books published through the Big Boys. Some are great. Some suck. But they are all professional edited, layed out, and designed.

It has never been a better time to “self-publish” your work, and over the next few days, I will walk you through exactly how to have a quality book that gets into bookstores.

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