by Lucius Trae

Created on: April 12, 2010

It would be foolhardy to suggest that book publishers are for everyone, but if we are generalizing, they are certainly preferable to self-publishing. If you're goal is to publish a book, there are a few reasons you might do this. You may want to reach a wide audience, make money, gain fame, etc. If you simply want to have published a book, it seems like cheating to merely self-publish. Part of the struggle of being a writer is gaining the recognition of a legitimate publisher. Self-publishing and publishing under poorly reputed publishers don't really say "I wrote something that was recognized by qualified readers as marketable and good."

We all have a tendency to think we're better than we are. I'm certainly guilty of it sometimes, though I tend to be more self-critical than narcissistic. The point is that I've read amateur writing online for years, and most of it is absolutely terrible. My writing isn't going to win a blue ribbon either, of course. But I realize that, and many people surround themselves with positive influences. They forget the importance of someone who is respectful enough to give honest advice. Non-critical writers can create environments where everyone enables one another to feel like they write well while, in their heads, they all think they are terrible.

Now if we assume you have a novel that people would enjoy, you need to market it. You might think that by marketing yourself you can keep more of the profit, but you don't get the prestige of being published by a company. On top of that, these companies make money by marketing authors. They focus their energy into marketing the way a great author focuses on writing. If you have the ability and talent to be an amazing marketer and write good novels, you might consider self-publishing. But the reality is that many publishing companies invest money into products before they even sell. The average person doesn't have the finances to properly market a book.

Now with the Internet, especially on Helium, many of us will be cynical. We use twitter and other sites to improve our revenue. However, advertising revenue is indirect. People think they are "too smart" to fall for ads so they don't think of visiting sites as costing them money. Directly asking people to purchase a book is a big difference. With e-book markets, it might be slightly more feasible, but it's still going to difficult.

So ultimately if you want to be an author, at least, I'd suggest going with a publishing company. Many of

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