by Milton Johanides

Created on: October 06, 2009   Last Updated: October 07, 2009

What I like most about the current rush towards self publishing is that it gives power back to where it belongs - with the author. The Internet, of course, has been the great spur for this revolution and we ought to greet it with glee. Till now the trend has been towards a bland formulaic literary output which conformed with traditional publishers' pre-prescribed view of what they can sell. Of course, no sensible publisher is going to risk putting out five thousand copies of something that is not ninety percent guaranteed to sell. But how do you get to ninety percent guarantee? Either you publish an author that is already in demand, is already well known (and not necessarily famous for writing - these days the guys making all the money in books are nearly all chefs!), or a unique discovery that just happens to tap the right buttons. There is no room in this scenario for original, revolutionary, off the wall, or even not very good talent. We forget sometimes that people who can't write like Pushkin, nevertheless, have some very important things to say. Self-publishing gives everyone a voice.

I am personally grateful to websites like Helium that provide an outlet for my writing mania. Before Helium, I was a frustrated writer like millions of others who stacked up wardrobes full of typewritten sheets that would never get read. I collected my fair share of reject slips. The self-publishing revolution has changed all that. I look forward to self-publishing my first novel soon. Not only have writers now got some power back in their own hands and, as a result, we shall see some great original talent emerging in the next few years, but they can also promote their own work on the Internet and reach a far wider audience than even traditional publishers used to get in the old days before computers.

Of course traditional publishing must never go away. Thank God for traditional publishers too! Nobody can distribute and fill millions of bookshops around the world they way the big guys do it. Nothing can beat the sight of a bookshop well stocked with all the latest best sellers or old Classics. The industry needs its Dan Browns and Lee Childs and all the other great million selling authors who are out there, just as Hollywood needs its stars to keep the movie industry going. But to have a voice, even a small voice, among this cacophony of brilliant writing, is a huge reward in my life. The written word is now everywhere, powerful and strident, and long may it continue so!

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