This weekend, I made the monumental decision to self-publish HIS GOOD OPINION. There are dozens of reasons why I believe this is the right choice for me and my book, but I'm only going to share three with you today.
1) I can speak my mind. I'm not the type to mouth off about agents or the publishing industry as a whole, so that's not what I mean. However, those same agents tend to look down on NaNoWriMo, and I am heavily involved with that program. Not only was HIS GOOD OPINION originally written during NaNoWriMo, I actually run my local region. I've censored myself more than once on Twitter or in a blog post, afraid a potential agent would run if they knew.
2) The market is ripe for self-published authors. In fact, current events might skew it in favor of indies. Eric at Pimp My Novel made an interesting point today about the effect Borders' bankruptcy could have on the midlist author. As that is what I am/will be, I definitely took notice. Meanwhile, the establishment is finally showing some respect to the indies. USA Today included self-published works in their bestseller list for the first time last week, and eventually others will follow.
3) I am fiercely independent. I didn't realize how independent until I decided to do this. The sheer excitement is almost overwhelming. I will choose the cover, I will make marketing decisions, I will connect with local bookstores. It's definitely a lot of work, but I love the thought of doing it all myself.
The strange thing is that I've never thought of myself as an entrepreneur. My brother is the business person in our family; I'm the artist/creative type. But writing is a business too, and when it comes to the business aspect of my own livelihood, I want to handle it myself.
Those are three of the biggest reasons. I have others, some of which I'll share later. Feel free to ask questions in the comments; if several of you ask the same thing, I'll probably answer in another post.
EDIT, 8/12/11: Some of those other reasons were explained on Indie Jane today.
