Once upon a time, though not so very long ago, writers who wanted to become published authors had to pass through several gates to meet their goal. First, they had to attract the attention of a decent literary agent to represent their work. If the agent liked the manuscript and felt the writer was worth their time and effort, they’d offer a contract, and the writer passed through their second gate.

They met the third gate when a publishing house (or, if the manuscript was extraordinarily good, more than one house) offered a contract to take that manuscript and transform it into a printed book. For their work, they would — like the agent — collect a percentage based on any revenue from the book, sometimes including any media, translation or other additional sales.

Agents risked hundreds of hours of effort and publishers put thousands of dollars in printing costs on the line, as well as the time and personnel it took to work out any final edits, marketing efforts, and many other necessary tasks. All before they saw a nickel for their efforts.

They had to be sure. They had to select only the books they knew would sell — and sell well, to make up for all that investment.

Enter Self-Publishing

Self-publishing set writers free from all those tedious, time-consuming steps. We could go directly from manuscript to book — ebook, hardcover, paperback, audio book — all by ourselves. The gates to publishing have been flung wide open, and we can plow past them as fast as we can click the “Upload” and “Publish” buttons.

Woohoo!

Or maybe not.

Without those gatekeepers — the agents and publishing houses — reading massive numbers of manuscripts and saying “no thanks” to 99% of them, tens of thousands (maybe millions) of poorly-written and sloppily edited manuscripts have become books.

Where I’m going with this

I’m a voracious reader. I’m a trained reader. I worked my way through a respected MFA-Creative Writing program. I know a good book when I read one. Sadly, I’ve read too many published books that aren’t worth the small price I paid for them — and some that I got for free that weren’t worth that, either.

I really hate saying that. But writing a good book is hard. Very hard. That’s why there are a gazillion books on How To Write a Novel. That’s why you could read an entire book just on characterization or plotting or setting if you wanted to.

To my fellow writers out there

If you’ve decided to write a book even though you haven’t written one before, haven’t had training in it via a specialized degree or intensive conference attendance or personal tutoring, haven’t got the foggiest notion how to use a semicolon, or find reading books boring because you’d rather write them, then I have this to say to you:

Please respect your readers.

If you’ve decided to charge for your book, make sure it’s worth whatever price you’re asking them to pay. If they don’t know you or your work, they probably won’t be plunking down $5 or $10 and certainly not more than that. There are too many other terrific books out there by writers they know, books by writers with a strong national or international reputation. They are your competition for your readers’ money.

Those best-selling authors are also your competition for your readers’ time. Recognize that when someone chooses to read your book they’ve decided to invest precious hours with your characters, in the world you created on the page, to the exclusion of all other books.

That’s pretty special. You need to respect that. You need to give those readers something special in return: a good book.

Find your gatekeepers

If you decide to self-publish, find your own gatekeepers. Find a good editor. Honest beta readers.

Don’t assume because those gates aren’t being guarded that you should ignore their importance. Those traditional gatekeepers continue to ensure books of a high quality are published.

Make sure yours is, too. Or please don’t bother.