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Self-publishing means taking huge financial risks upon one's self to publish, promote and sell your books in a mass-market. With little or no understanding of the business, even through the dreaded vanity presses-which still means little or no understanding of the business, over ninety percent of all such books flop. The writer's months and years of effort can be box after box of their books gathering dust, along with their self-esteem and pride in themselves and their career. The vast majority of all vanity presses (and other types of publishers) gleefully will take the writer's money, publish the book with a so-called list of distributors. Nine times out of ten, the book gets a small mention on a few websites and disappears as quickly as it came out.

The simple reality of writing is that it is a professional career, like a doctor or a lawyer. It requires enormous talent, superior writing skills, and the ability to persevere through countless rejection slips (usually just form letters). Editors and publishers can be crass, unfeeling, uncaring jerks at times, sometimes even rejecting very good stories. Invariably, writers can become so frustrated that they feel that self-publishing by themself or through a vanity press is the only option. Although editors and publishers can be merciless, cold and unfeeling, there can be a good reason for it sometimes. To appear on the list of a reputable publishing house, one's book must be perfect. If it isn't, the publishing house can easily lose its reputation.

That's why, at times, they can be hard on a writer-it's their reputation on the line. It's a business like any other business. In the process, they reject many good titles. That's why writers have to keep plugging their books through as many publishing houses as possible. But if it keeps getting rejected, take that book of yours apart, dissect every line and reconstruct it. You may find many parts of the book that are flawed and in desperate need of a rewrite. If your book-proposal is several years old, you may wish to look at other similar titles in the market to see if the idea hasn't been done to death, or there is a glut of them.

What is advantageous for all writers is to build up a resume of writing credits, whether on the Internet or in print form. This can help a writer's work to be looked at more than just casually, maybe avoiding the tragedy of an editor or publisher rejecting a good manuscript. Even if it isn't exactly what they may want at the time, they may be impressed enough with the other works that you have done to resubmit it in a few months, maybe making a few changes along the way. Good writers are like a close circle of friends or family. If an editor or publisher likes something else of yours, they may be more than eager to work with you on the manuscript you submitted.

In the final analysis, traditional publishing is still the way to gain recognition, fame and maybe even substantial profit for your work. So get to your word processor and start writing!

Learn more about this author, Todd Daigneault.
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