Writing, Self-Publishing, Book Marketing

In the words of Wordclay’s president Dave McCauley, “Now it’s all about the independent artists…” which, in actuality, sums up the entire DIY publishing mission in one simple phrase.

On Friday, Feb. 22, ReadWriteWeb published an article, Online Print On Demand Space Heats Up, in which their bloggers examine the recent explosion in POD technology and services within the publishing industry. Lucky for us Wordclay bloggers, McCauley not only possesses a remarkable insight into publishing, but a handy knack for expressing the complicated creative and business issues surrounding self-publishing in a straightforward and concise way. 

(Note: It can never hurt to flatter the president of your company.) 

But flattery aside, McCauley just so happens to be right as well.  

In the ReadWriteWeb article, McCauley makes some pretty insightful observations about self-publishing and print-on-demand technology, likening DIY publishing to the upsurge of the indie music scene as well as examining the recurring costs of traditional publishers. 

Business-wise, traditional publishers have all these production and promotion cost barriers, and they’re usually stuck with the bill for editing, design, marketing materials, you name it. Even if a specific title doesn’t need these services, a traditional publisher needs to cover all their bases, and pay out the wazzo in the meantime.  

Like authors such as Alice Munro or Margaret Atwood need to be edited. Really? But the editors are paid, and they go to work on Munro and Atwood’s stuff, just like the rest.  

McCauley’s other point – DIY publishing being similar to DIY music production and marketing – is definitely worth considering. Look – it was only a matter of time before writers started trusting their instincts instead of just implicitly trusting the editors (most of whom writers never have and never will meet) of traditional publishing companies.  

Personally, I consider the timely emergence of the self-publishing company as a kind of democracy in the face of an aristocracy. Fact of the matter is with a publisher like Random House or W.W. Norton & Company, you must trust the claim that their editors know best. But with a company like Wordclay, massive audiences decide the value of your book and authorship.  

Being a pragmatist, you’ll never catch me cursing the whole traditional publishing industry, defending the honor of self-publishers everywhere. There will always be companies that we trust, with books (the publications of Houghton Mifflin have rarely disappointed me), with music (the albums put out by Merge or Messthetics are among my favorites), with magazines (you’ll find me mentioning Canteen, Found Magazine or Stop Smiling at any given moment), or with any art form you can imagine.  

But that we trust certain companies and their artistic choices doesn’t mean that there isn’t room for a publishing democracy, a community of people who want to represent their own artistic product themselves.  

And as companies like Wordclay work to correct the negative stigma surrounding self-publishing, the POD industry is only going to grow, evolve and carve out a useful place in the regular future of people. 

This is Justin Dimos, again blogcasting from Wordclay, signing off.