Self Publishing for Fun, Profit, and Your Scholarly Influence Bob Holley Humanities Center Brown Bag October 9, 2013

Summary  More self published books than commercially published books  Reasons for importance of self publishing  General advantages and disadvantages  Self publishing for profit  Self publishing for scholarship  Self publishing and research  Self publishing and libraries

My Credentials  Current research interest  Edited a special segment on self publishing  I have not yet self published

Importance of Self Publishing  750,000 self published out of 1,000,000 titles according to NPR speaker  More conservative estimate of 600,000 in 2015

Reasons for Importance  Rise of ebooks and other forms of digital publishing plus print on demand  Internet as new efficient marketplace  Principle of the long tail  Author control without fear of rejection letters

Reasons for Importance (continued)  Goal of powerful companies like Amazon.com  Eliminate the middle man—publishers  A bit more money for authors  A lot more money for Amazon  Eliminates many of the risks of traditional publishing  Emergence of support services

General Advantages for Both Popular and Academic Publishing  Anyone can publish at minimal cost  Author is in complete control of the final product  Support is available though at a cost

General Disadvantages for Both Popular and Academic Publishing  Publishers add valuable services including making the book more sellable  Final product does not need to be but can be inferior  Support services cost money  Author is responsible for marketing

General Disadvantages for Both Popular and Academic Publishing (continued)  More difficult to take advantage of existing distribution channels  Less likely to be distributed by traditional vendors, even those that sell ebooks  Fewer if any reviews  No CIP cataloging from the Library of Congress—an entry into the distribution network

Self Publishing for Profit-- Advantages  Profits are possible  50 Shades of Grey began as a self published work  Support company reported several self publishing millionaires  Can control pricing to maximize sales  No need to deal with publishers

Self Publishing for Profit-- Disadvantages  Success depends upon aggressive marketing  Sales most often do not meet expectations

Self Publishing for Academics--Advantages  Control over final product including adding data sets, photographs, extensive documentation, etc.  Some academic publications are not suitable for print publication  Distribution at no cost is possible  Potential for profit even with few sales  Outlet for research in less popular areas

Self Publishing for Academics--Disadvantages  Little or new reward in the current tenure and promotion system  Conflict between open access and profit  Open access provides the chance for more scholarly impact and citations  Profit is a direct reward for the effort

Self Publishing and Research  Some self published items have high potential value for research in certain areas as source materials  Memoires of participation in important events  Local history resources

Self Publishing and Libraries  Libraries do not know how to deal with self published materials  Funding issues even for traditional publications  Issues of discovery and identification  Less likely to be available in the standard distribution networks  Some libraries require favorable reviews for purchase

Self Publishing and Libraries (continued)  Stigma of self publication and its lack of quality control is important except for the most comprehensive collections  Issues for public libraries  Local authors pressure library to buy their books and provide publicity

 Major shift in publication and perhaps scholarly communication with mostly unexamined implications  Vast increase in number of publications made available without traditional quality control  Issues of tenure, promotion, and merit increases for academics Conclusions

 Your turn Questions