[stylist] Topic for discussion

[Julie J.]

I do agree that there are some crap self published books out there.  I've 
also read some real awful stuff that passed for writing from well known 
publishers.  Some of it is personal taste.  Also what is considered 
brilliant changes with time and culture.

I appreciate that self published books stand, or fall, on their own merit. 
There is not a single person in some distant office that decides the fate of 
your book.  Instead the reviews from the readers decide if it's good or not, 
and more importantly why, so future readers can decide for themselves.

I really, really, really like to decide things for myself.  I want others to 
have that opportunity as well.  So yes, I self published and I will continue 
to do so for all of my books.

Julie
New lowered price on my book:
Courage to Dare: A Blind Woman's Quest to Train her Own Guide Dog
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00QXZSMOC
-----Original Message----- 
From: Tessa via stylist
Sent: Thursday, October 06, 2016 6:18 AM
To: stylist at nfbnet.org
Cc: Tessa
Subject: Re: [stylist] Topic for discussion

Hi Bridgit
I don't know about throwing your mfa in the trash but it doesn't help.
Last year I attended a talk by a member of the Ontario Arts Council, they 
provide grants for artists enabling them to carry out their art. In order to 
apply for an arts grant you must have 2 or 3 published pieces and self 
publishing is not allowed. I think the reasoning is that publishing 
validates your work, someone else besides yourself feels your work is good 
enough to publish, whereas in self publishing there's no outside validation. 
As I said in another post anyone and everyone can self publish, because 
they're self publishing they don't feel the need necessarily to be as 
critical of their work that they would if they were sending it to a 
publisher. The problem of course is that there are fewer and fewer 
publishers publishing fewer and fewer books so it's getting more difficult 
to go the traditional route.
You read about authors who received dozens of rejections before finally 
finding a publisher for their material, it's disheartening to say the least.
Personally I think I'm going to go the traditional route as much as I can.
The thing with self publishing is that you have to do it all writing and 
marketing. If you get a publisher they help out with the marketing. and 
promotion, of course they take a good cut of the book income but they're 
doing the work. I know people who have gone both routes, one of the ladies 
in our little writing group writers northwest four women who share writing 
and critique for one another had a book accepted by a publisher only to have 
them go out of business, a second publisher accepted one of her books then 
proceeded to slash it to a point where she was having to write almost an 
entirely new book. So definite prose and cons either way.
Tessa



----- Original Message -----
From: Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter via stylist  <stylist at nfbnet.org>
To: his'Writers' Division Mailing List'"  <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Date: Wednesday, October 5, 2016 11:03 pm
Subject: [stylist] Topic for discussion

>
>
> I'm curious to see what others on the list think of this. I thought it 
> might
> make for a good writers discussion.
>
> I'm getting my MFA in creative writing. I've been told by the program,
> editors and publishers that if we self-publish, we are throwing our MFA in
> the garbage. I recently sat in on a lecture with a publisher from Red Hen
> Press who once again backed this comment up. He advised against us
> self-publishing because it would be a waste of our MFAs.
>
> Discuss, please.
>
> Bridgit
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Writers Division web site
> http://writers.nfb.org/
> stylist mailing list
> stylist at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/stylist_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
> stylist:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/stylist_nfbnet.org/puppycat%40tbaytel.net

_______________________________________________
Writers Division web site
http://writers.nfb.org/
stylist mailing list
stylist at nfbnet.org
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/stylist_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
stylist:
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/stylist_nfbnet.org/julielj%40neb.rr.com


-----
No virus found in this message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 2012.0.2265 / Virus Database: 4365/12643 - Release Date: 10/04/16