"Self-published books have the reputation of being amateurishly written, poorly edited, and a last resort for writers who can't sell their books to "real" publishers. And it may once have been true. Today, however, as technology revamps the printing and marketing worlds, the rules of self-publishing are being largely rewritten.
Take the case of David A. Anderson. Since the early 1990s, the 42-year-old Centre College professor has published five books with traditional publishers. But recently, when he wanted to produce a high-quality environmental economics book and price it reasonably, he didn't even talk to a traditional publisher. Instead, he found his own printer and put the book together himself.
"The major publishers have dozens of books, little time to market, and a pure profit motive," Anderson said. "They're not able to do what I can do."
What can he do? Above all, he can give focused energy to marketing. Traditional publishers, he said, usually listed his books in a catalog - and that was about it. For his two self-published books, Environmental Economics and Sometimes I Get So Angry, Anderson has taken advantage of new technology to market himself. He spends a few hours a week e-mailing press releases and articles, updating his Web site, and contacting potential buyers through the Internet.
Anderson isn't getting rich on self-publishing. But even if he sells fewer copies of each book than he would with a traditional publisher, he can earn more overall by receiving a larger profit on each book sold.
Some self-publishers do hope to make good money. Steve Demaree, 58, of Lexington, decided six years ago to interrupt a traditional career in sales to devote himself full-time to writing and selling his self-published books. Working with a printer in Nebraska, he's produced five books so far.
His goal is to sell 10,000 copies a year of his books, which could earn him upwards of $50,000. He's not there yet, but since 2000, he has sold "in the thousands" of books, and has "built a cadre of customers." He sells his books mostly at arts and crafts fairs, and through personal contacts. "I even do a little bit of door-to-door," he said.
The increasing ease and quality of self-publishing has been a particular boon for those who write books for reasons other than immediate profit. Lexington lawyer Gatewood Galbraith self-published his autobiography, The Last Free Man in America, to share his libertarian political philosophy. (To his surprise, it landed on Joseph-Beth Bookseller's best-seller list for several weeks.) He now plans to print 100,000 copies as campaign literature for a 2007 run for Kentucky governor.
Another self-published author, Lexington businesswoman Ariel Gobert, also has a social agenda. She hopes her book, Red Hot Revolution, will build a national movement of women who are "hot, sexy, and over fifty." Her motto for these women of a certain age: "It is time to be electric, not eccentric."
As technology improves, authors find an increasing variety of self-publishing options. Some authors use local printing shops. Others use specialty printers from other states, or even overseas. Still others pay on-line publishers like iUniverse and AuthorHouse to put their books together. Each approach has advantages and disadvantages, the authors say, but all have one thing in common: They can get a book into print in a matter of weeks.
This speed was important to Jack DuArte, 65, a retired Lexington businessman, and self-published author of The Resistance. Last year, DuArte decided to self-published the World War II thriller after he had a triple bypass operation. "I wasn't going to wait around for two years" while publishers decided on the worthiness of his book, he said.
Speed also mattered to Ric McGee, 57, executive director of a local retirement community. McGee went the self-publishing route with her novel, Harmony House. Why? "Several of the (retirement home) residents helped me with the book. Their average age is 86 years old. If I went with a (traditional) publisher, they might not be alive when the book came out."
Neil Chethik is writer-in-residence at the Carnegie Center and author of two books: FatherLoss (Hyperion 2001) and VoiceMale (Simon & Schuster 2006).