by Gianna Murphy
We live in a world where now more than ever, people have access to all the materials needed to become authors. The how-to guides, the word docs, and even the platforms large enough to grow traction to actually sell these books. So why is there still a supposed hierarchy, and sense of superiority in the way in which people choose to publish their books?
Romance author, Ally Corcoran, who publishes books under a pen name different to her own name, made the decision to self-publish her books quite early on in her career. She describes this decision as a “no-brainer”, stating that she feels like self-publishing allows her to have “more creative freedom, and flexibility in terms of writing the books [I] want to write.”
It’s now been over ten years since Corcoran first published her debut novel using Amazon’s ‘Kindle Direct Publishing’, and she finds herself reflecting on the early days of being a published author. “It was hard,” she admitted. “I found it quite hard to get readers to take me seriously, because there is this idea that books that aren’t traditionally published are bad quality.” It took Corcoran five years before her books began to find their audience.
“If I was given the opportunity to go the traditional route, I don’t think I would. In all honesty, I don’t see the need to. It wouldn’t make me any more of an author than I already am, I don’t think I need a literary agent or a publishing company to tell me how good or bad my work is.” Corcoran revealed.
On the other side, Ellie Wright, has been a literary agent for almost five years and now has over 20 authors under her belt. This job, she says, has been her dream since she was a little girl, and she says she’s “living the dream everyday”. Wright is known by her peers and clients for having very strong opinions on what makes a ‘good book’, or consequently, what makes a good writer. Because of this, her views on self-published fiction can be deemed quite harsh. “I don’t think, if you want to make it as a full-time, high-quality author, that self-publishing is the way to go. When there’s a label attached to your work, you seem better, more professional, whereas self-pub can, and usually is, seen as lazy.”
She went on to say that “[my] personal experience with self-published authors who are looking to manoeuvre over in trad (traditional publishing) isn’t that great. [I’ve] found them quite entitled, a lot less likely to respond well to criticism or feedback, and it definitely in their writing. It’s just not the same quality. It’s not even close.”
While both of these views differ quite significantly, the deciding vote finds itself in the hands of the people on the other side of the stories. The readers. One reader in particular, Alisha Monroe, has built up a platform on social media and has managed to make reading and rating books into her full-time job. Monroe reviews both traditionally and self-published books on her TikTok page, and holds them both to the same literary standards. “I think in the span of me reviewing books online, I’ve reviewed a pretty even split of trad and self-published books,” she revealed. “To be honest, most of the time you can’t even tell the difference between the two.”
Monroe went on to discuss the main ‘differences’ between the two different forms of publishing that people most often mention. “I’ve heard people claim that self-published authors and lazier, and less talented, and that that’s why they chose to do it themselves, but honestly that’s just not true. If you put a traditionally published book and a self-published book on a table and told someone to read it, I highly doubt they’d know which is which.
“The quality of the book, and the experience that the reader gains from it doesn’t come from the publisher. It comes from the quality of the author and the editor. Honestly, most of the worst-edited books I’ve ever read are traditionally published, because, again, it’s not about the publisher.”
So, there we have it. According to readers, the people in charge of platforming and building author’s careers, there is no right or wrong way to be an author. Whether books are published through platforms like Amazon or Lulu, or they go through traditional routes of being picked up by agents and publishers, every book written is just as valuable as any other. It’s time to stop tearing down independent authors, and start giving them the same praise and appreciation that traditionally published authors are already getting.
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