| The
last refuge of the author disgusted with rejection & sick of
dealing with dim-witted editors, is to self publish. Called vanity
publishing, this path is fraught with hardship & peril, but
sometimes it is the yellow brick road to OZ. There are vanity press
publishers who offer a good product at a reasonable price, and offer
other alternatives you may have overlooked. Publishing a few hundred
copies can give you confidence in dealing with other publishers.
It can make a wannabe into a published author in a single step,
and may be an intelligent alternative when seeking to break into
the market.
The
down side is a necessary aspect to consider. First & foremost,
you are breaking an unwritten rule, by competing directly in the
marketplace against the very people you want to accept you and to
give you work. For all intents & purposes you are taking up
the publishing business attempting to sell to the very retailers
your publisher is contacting.
A
new "contemporary" alternative is to produce an online
ebook. Several sources offer to produce an ebook. make it available
online and provide publicity. As you might imagine these are very
low end alternatives, and you get what you pay for at most if you
are lucky.
There
is a philosophical imperative for the artist which translates well
for any creative discipline - keep the creativity at the forefront
of your mind - doing the work must come first - recognition: fame
& fortune might be nice but the major reward and satisfaction
must be found in doing the work and doing it well.
After
doing your research, working to please your inner child, polishing
revising & editing comes the business of contacting your chosen
publisher(s) and putting your best foot forward. Vanity publishing
is a last resort after all else has failed. High tech or not - it
is not yet the wave of the future. It is only a side street away
from main stream publishing and yet it is a neighborhood with a
bad reputation. Make sure of your plan if you choose this last resort.
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