The 7 Deadly Myths of Self-Publishing Debunked!

If you spend any time cruising message boards and e-groups of writers you will soon notice that there is a small but loud group of people who take every opportunity to bash the self-publishing process. Often-times the credentials of these "book-snobs" are dubious at best. In most cases the ones who bash self-publishing the most have published the least...or nothing at all. The ones who actually may have published a book the traditional way are quite happy to let those reading their posts remain ignorant about the true level of their accomplishments. Take for instance the author who has published 41 books throughout his career. Come to find out his books were not books at all, they were scripts for one act plays ranging from 14 to 26 pages. If that wasn't bad enough, the poor fellow collaborated with his wife on over 30 of them. To combat the wisdom of such experts, following are the 7 biggest myths (and the truths) that are most commonly spouted out by those who I like to call the "book snobs".

Myth #1

No self published books have become a commercial success.

This myth always rears its ugly head and always comes from a person with little to no "street cred" Often the phrase they use is "Someone just show me one self published book that became a best seller (insert magnanimous smirk here)".

Even though this is the most often spouted out myth it is the most ludicrous of the seven. The fact is that many, actually too many to be listed here, books have had their start as self published books. My favorite recent example is Financial Peace by David Ramsey. The daytime financial talk host began selling Financial Peace from the back of his car. As his financial radio program grew in popularity he was able to sell the continuing rights to Financial Peace, thus cementing his own financial future. One good site to reference is the Self Publishing Hall of Fame at www.bookmarket.com/selfpublish.html. This site details a near complete history of the success stories in self-publishing.

Myth #2

Self-published books cannot get reviewed.