Salon article:
http://www.salon.com/2013/05/30/self_publishing_has_become_a_cult/
http://www.salon.com/2013/05/30/self_publishing_has_become_a_cult/
And novice writers, hungry for instant gratification in an industry known for anything but, gobble it up. It’s the easy answer, even though it isn’t always the right one. Why slog through years of the query-agent-publisher process when you can just slap your book up at Amazon next week?
Look, any avenue that offers you a high rate of return, creative control, and a viable path for reaching an audience is a good thing. How could it not be? But sometimes self-publishing feels less like a movement and more like a jihad; take a position that’s any less than full-on worship, and you aren’t just wrong, you’re an enemy combatant.
Meanwhile, those of us in the middle, who are happy to support both sides, are castigated, flagellated and cast out as heathens.
(Which, by the way, is the same type of behavior the self-publishing advocates have used to demonize the denizens of traditional publishing.)
This is why the yoke of self-publishing is still so damn heavy. It gains a little ground, before getting dragged down by actions and rhetoric that are downright unprofessional.