Self-Publishing: When to Do It, When Not to Do It, and More

Christina Baker Kline has posted a round-robin interview on self-publishing that took place on Facebook when Matthew Nadelhaft queried a few authors through Facebook's email. Participants included Minister Faust, Stephen Dedman, Eugie Foster, Jennifer Stevenson, Michael Stackpole, and myself. Go check it out--lots of good stuff.I self-published my first fiction collection, The Book of Frog, and also The Surgeon's Tale & Other Tales (with Cat Rambo)--the context for each consistent with my views on self-publishing as it exists today. If you can't get traction in the publishing world with a first collection despite having had stories in good publications, I think it's okay to self-publish. If you've got books out from major publishers and you want to do a less commercial project, I think it's okay to self-publish. That said, within five to ten years, self-publishing in general will probably lose its stigma altogether and we'll have a situation closer to what you find in indie music.Anyway, some of what I set forth in the conversations piece is also in my forthcoming Booklife: Strategies & Survival Tips for the 21st-Century Writer, like this bit:It’s also good, in a time when “book” means a lot of different things, to boil down the book lifecycle to the following:• Creation and perfection of content• Acquisition of a platform (or format) for the content• Creation and perfection of the “skin” (aesthetic) and context for the content• Accessibility to the content• Visibility for the content