In 2008 my debut novel University of Life was picked up by a small publisher, but a year later, in the midst of the recession, its publication was cancelled. After looking at the various other options I stumbled across self-publishing, something I had never really heard of before except for stories of garages full of boxes containing spelling mistake ridden volumes that no one except the author would consider buying. How wrong I was. A few hours of research later there was no doubt in my mind – self-publishing was the new kid on the block, and a kid who was making a big noise. I uploaded my work, ordered a copy and three days later I saw what I’d always dreamed of – my book in print! Of course it wasn’t quite as receiving the finished article from a Hodder or a Random House, but the crux was that I now had a physical book that, with a few tweaks and a decent cover design, I could sell – or convert to an eBook. And all for the cost of the book itself, in my case just £5. Plus, no editorial or marketing interference and no year-long wait to get the thing made. I have been a firm advocate of self-publishing ever since.

What I also discovered during my research was an astonishing attitude towards self-published works by those in the world of traditional publishing. Agents, editors and almost all those in the business looked down on self-publishing in some way, effectively labelling all self-published books as badly written and badly designed wastes of paper and the process reserved only for those bitter at not having got a book deal. Sadly, they have had some ammunition for this – as with any unregulated medium, quality is not guaranteed. And, as the saying goes, everyone (unfortunately) has a book in them. The percentage of quality works is still dwarfed by the number of error-strewn ones, and in an unregulated world there are, naturally, no gate-keepers to judge the quality. Nor should there be. A traditionally published book is taken by most to be a sign of quality, yet we have all read utter stinkers in our time with mistakes and typos scattered liberally here and there, so this theory is clearly bunk. Yet this is the perception that persists. I have nothing against traditional publishers for this, after all books put bread on their tables and they have to protect their own personal wheat fields, but I do wish they could take the approach that the music and film industries have done – find new talent through independent means, nurture it and turn it into something great rather than looking down on it. There have been self-publishing success stories (Traci Hohenstein, Michael J Ward, Louise Voss and Kiera Cass amongst others), but in almost every case publishers only sat up and took notice once the sales were the talking point, not the quality of the book. This is, and I fear for some time will be, the problem facing the industry. It is a shame that publishing companies haven’t learned from others’ mistakes: in the 1980s TV companies tried to fight off the VHS and in the 2000s music companies tried to fight off MP3 before both ended up utilising rather than railing against these so-called threats to their industry. Perhaps publishing houses are scared of the self-publishing industry. If so then they will be masters of their own downfall, for if they continue to turn down genuinely good books in favour of those that will guarantee a profit, how do they think these authors will end up getting their work into the public domain? Through self-publishing of course.

Hopefully this little introduction has given you an idea of where the land lies as far as self-publishing goes. I believe it is the future of publishing, but if my clients are of the book-deal-or-bust mind then I am always happy to give them all the advice I can on how to approach agents, how to construct a quality submission package and how to manage expectations. But I also make sure I mention the 99% rejection rate in there too!

This section of my website outlines the process of self-publishing, its merits and limitations and offers tips on how to do it for yourself. If you have any questions or would like further information, don't hesitate to contact me.