Just when you thought you were on a “real” imprint, you realized you really aren’t.
It’s come to my attention this holiday season that too many people, particularly writers and writer adjacents, are too festive in thinking that self-publishing in the 21st century is exactly what it meant in the 20th century. Newsflash, it is not.
Self-publishing in the 20th century was bootlegged books being made the old-fashioned way before everybody got the internet without AOL online disks. Printed copies on 8.5 x11 paper, maybe horrible cut or bent, then stapled or hand glued. No quality covers or anything that looked like something in Waldenbooks. Most means of distribution weren’t bookstores but out of the trunk or bookbag. Think zines and such.
That type of self-publishing shit is dead as the dinosaurs.
In the 21st century, Amazon has redefined the term self-publishing as a dirty swear that is scorned amongst the literary hunted and agent seeking desperates. Thanks to their evil swallowing up the entire distribution network of PenguinRandomSchuster in an unholy alliance, self-publishing is no longer an individual, solo endeavor. This is one of the reasons why I am the founder of the Fuck Amazon Fraternity, Inc., and trust me, I have a lot of reasons.
So, for the plain ignorant on the subject going through an established indie press, the denialists that want to act as if they are big time on some micro press that five people know about, and the assholes that think their three figure deal on some third tier PenguinRandomSchuster imprint got them on the road to superstardom – if you or your imprint goes through any print on demand services, i.e. Amazon KDP, you are indeed self-publishing in the twentieth century.
I recently had someone argue this point with me online, who graciously had to cope harder once I directed them to the main page of KDP (which you can see for yourself in living color here: https://kdp.amazon.com). It says right there is big bold Amazon bullshit print “Self-publish print and digital books, and reach millions of readers around the world on Amazon”. There is nothing separate for imprints there, now is it?
The hard truth is, too many people in this business love and feign ignorance. I said this before – They indulge in it like it’s a personal security blanket. They jump on micro, mini, small, and medium imprints unaffiliated with PenguinRandomSchuster, because they think it’s a shortcut to PenguinRandomSchuster. What they don’t know is that those imprints are literally doing what they could be doing themselves, since registering with Ingram Spark or KDP is FREE, and they are literally taking shit split deals because they just didn’t know or were too lazy to sign up and set up an account themselves for their book. This is the secret as to why micro, mini, small, and medium imprints now are considered self-publishers, contracts be damned. Only about 2% of American micro, mini, small, and medium publishers are registered businesses with S-Corp or LLCs, which means they are paying state and federal taxes. Half of them even bother to do that! Many micro, mini, small, and medium imprints, while they spend zero money distributing the book and giving Amazon their 55% fee now, do pay for ISBNs, which in America is cost prohibitive. Granted, anybody can pay for them, as making an account with Bowker is free and if you got the money, they are assigned to you once you pay an arm and leg for them.
So don’t be confused. All of this shit is self-publishing.
The only difference is how much control over your book you’re willing to give to somebody else to get your work out there, when all this shit is do it yourself to begin with. You go through Amazon, Ingram Spark, Lulu, Draft2Digital or anybody affiliated with them, you’re giving up something. It’s not your platform. You don’t control means of production, i.e. like you would in the real days of self-publishing. They can let you sell in their marketplaces or kick you off, choosing not to pay what they owe when they see fit with or without malice. And you’re being charged a premium to do it before you break bread with your imprint.
Merry Fucking Xmas writers.
