Are you a self-published author who is tired of getting the door slammed in your face by reviewers, contests, conferences and more just because your books aren’t published by a traditional publisher? Join the club! And I do mean join. If we as self-publishers don’t begin to work together to combat the bias against our work, we are going to continue to be treated as and feel like second-class citizens of the writing community.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that poorly written, unedited, crummy-looking books should be given the same treatment as high-quality books. But I am saying that books should be judged on their own merits, not on whether they are published by the author or by someone related to the author, and not by the number of copies that are printed at a time. How can someone judge a book when they haven’t even seen it?
People say authors only self-publish because they can’t get a traditional publisher. That’s not my story. I chose to publish my mystery novel, TOO NEAR THE EDGE, through my family publishing company, PMI Books. I didn’t send the novel to any agents or publishers first. I made the self-publishing decision based on my experience with my two published nonfiction books