Professional writer finds self-publishing well worthwhile
Editor’s Note: I received the following email from reader Cliff Burns and found it so interesting I asked him if I could publish it as a Reader contribution.
Paul:
Read your comments in the Christian Science Monitor article with much interest.
The e-book format and digitization of publishing had accorded people like me, an indie writer with a strong distaste for the writing “biz”, a newly created and much cherished sense of freedom.
I’ve been a professional writer for 25 years and in that time–thanks, mainly, to the rise of corporate publishing–I’ve seen literary-quality fiction marginalized in favor of commercial, derivative crap.
I no longer submit my stories or novels anywhere, publish them directly on my site and I’ve never been happier. The sense of control, of preserving my artistic integrity and freedom is essential to my worldview.
Plus I have readers, tens of thousands of them, from around the world. That’s all I’ve ever wanted.
At the present time I am following the urgings of a good number of those readers and later this year will be producing print-on-demand versions of my novels.
The gate-keepers of publishing–the agents and editors–have seen their grip weakened, loosened and finally pried off the throats of writers; the humiliation of the submissions process, manuscripts revamped, gutted to meet the marketplace, those days are over.
I’ve written about these matters on my site–hope you’ll pop by for a look.
My best wishes to you–
Cliff Burns, Beautiful Desolation
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