Yesterday, I checked my email and there was an email from a "representative" of Xilbris; this person had read my Becoming Shadows blog, and "found [my] writing to have tremendous potential and impact."
Unh. Hunh.
Well, Xilbris is a vanity press. Yes, a "publisher" that I pay instead of the other way around (and the more respectable way.)
The email was a shock, because my Bel Esprit blog is not "out there" yet, and probably has only one consistent reader (thanks, MJ), and my Becoming Shadows blog has been abandoned to continue my work under less scrutiny. So, how this "representative" found my blog is most likely from the NaNoBlogMo blog, where every NaNo participant who shared the URL to their blog probably received the same email and found that their writing, too, has "tremendous potential and impact."
I was discussing with my brother about how being a self-published author is way less respectable than a musician who decides to hawk copies of a labored CD from the trunk of his or her car. Hey, Ani DiFranco, Jay-Z and countless other musicians have done it, and it's considered a terrific grassroots effort to stardom. But...in publishing, ha! Self-publishing is a LAST RESORT. Either the author's book is not marketable or before its time or just plain leaky.
I know there are authors who have self-published successfully. And if their work is up to par, then most of these authors are scooped up by a "real" publisher. Making self-publishing sound even more small-time and desperate.
My motto: If I can't land a publisher the traditional way, and get paid for my work, then I just wont be published. Plain as that. So, no thank you, Xilbris.
Okay, that's all. I'm off to listen to Fantasia Barinno's "Summertime" for the tenth time this morning, and work on Chapter Nine of Becoming Shadows.
2 comments:
Hey, thanks for mentioning me in your post. I wouldn't self-publish a novel. If the NYC publishing-industrial complex doesn't approve of my stuff, then I'll accept that fate. You know how people say, "if they can get their novels published, then you can"? It's not true. It's impossible to even get an agent.
I agree with you, MJ. Self-publishing is a last resort that I'm not willing to resort to. I'm not knocking it for anyone who wants to go that route, but it's not for me.
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