Comments on: Business Realities for the Beginning Writer

By: John Catsis

John Catsis — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 16:04:26 +0000

I am a member of Rocky Mountain Outdoor Writers and Photographers, Inc. See our
website at rmowp.org. We publish a regular newsletter, and I would like your
permission to reprint this article (Business Realities for the Beginning Writer) in it. May we?

By: DavidBCoe

DavidBCoe — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 21:33:52 +0000

Thanks for the question, Daniel. As with so many things in publishing, the answer to your question depends largely on what you want to get out of writing. If you’re a hobbyist and would love to see your book in print and don’t really envision writing as a career choice, self-publishing can be a great way to go. On the other hand, if you want to be a professional writer and hope someday to be published by one of the big NY publishing houses, self-publishing can actually hurt you more than it helps. Fair or not, there is still a stigma attached to self-pub, and many houses won’t touch a book that has previously been self-pubbed. Some won’t even touch an author who’s gone that route with a previous book. There are a few authors who have self-pubbed and gone on to have successful careers with big publishers, but they are few in number and very much the exceptions to the rule. Hope that’s helpful.

By: Daniel R Davis

Daniel R Davis — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 21:16:47 +0000

So has anyone posted the differences between getting published traditionally and self-publishing? Other than a friend of mine thinking that self-publishing is a cop-out and doesn’t make you an author, just a hack, which I don’t agree with.