Why, indeed?
And not ‘self-published’, please. Independently published.
First and foremost, not a huge fan of gatekeeping of any kind. I realise that a lack of gatekeeping can equate to a lack of quality control, but when we’re talking about books, poor quality won’t result in a collapsed bridge or a sunken ship.
The market will take care of the crap. Sometimes.
It will always take care of the technical crap—the misspellings, poor grammar, shitty covers—but not always take care of writing crap—poor story structure, weak character arcs, gaping plot holes. Sometimes, inexplicably, those poorly written books become “best sellers” and “money-making movies” and “competitive drinking amongst not-so-lucky other writers”.
Anywho.
The second reason is the timeframes involved. A writer friend, part of a writers’ group I was once a member of, announced that she had signed with a small publisher. Congratulations were justifiably shared.
I don’t remember the exact timeline, but it was in the order of signing the publishing contract in January and the book would be on the shelves by the FOLLOWING MARCH. Fifteen months later.
And she’d have to arrange and bear the cost of most of the marketing.
With indie publishing, when the book is ready, the book is ready. The biggest challenge (after writing the book, and editing the book, and editing the book again) is knowing what “ready” looks like. Traditional publishing offers a layer of professional editors. They aren’t free. Their cost is factored in when your royalties are calculated. But it does buffer the author against editing mistakes. It doesn’t guarantee no mistakes, but it provides a scapegoat for the poor author.
The reality of writing is that unless you’re a top-tier author, the grunt work is on the author’s lap. So you may as well do it on your terms.
Back to the gatekeeping aspect for a closer.
Gatekeeping adds technical quality — most of the time. I read a traditionally published book where a main character’s age changed from something like 53 to 47 over two paragraphs. In another book, the main character left his rifle at the back door of a house he was entering, only to have it in his possession on the next page when he needed it.
Nobody’s perfect.
So, it’s a trade-off for me. In a couple of weeks, I’ll post about how I self-edit the shit out of my stories to lighten that weight of preconceived poor quality just a little bit for the rest of you indie authors.