Cory has great points in his article.

When I finished writing “In Her Name” back in 1994, my query letters resulted in nothing but a pile of rejection notices from the traditional publishers. Big surprise. Frustrated, I tossed the manuscript into a box and used it as a footrest. Writing the book had been great fun, but it looked like that was all the further I was going to be able to take it.

The manuscript sat under my desk until I learned about Kindle publishing in late 2007. Figuring I had nothing to lose, I spent the winter of that year scanning it in, edited the resulting Word file as best I could (although it’s less than perfect, I’m sure), and published it in May 2008 in the Kindle store.

An amazing thing happened: I sold three copies that month. The next month I think I sold eight. People seemed to enjoy them, and encouraged me to write more. And for the first time in fourteen years, I hit the keyboard again, doing something I vaguely remembered that I loved to do.

So, what’s my point? Well, with seven books on Amazon (and other retail channels) now, and after I got the hang of how to use Twitter effectively earlier this year, my royalties went from a few hundred dollars a month this January to thirty thousand – yes, for the month – in both June and July, and I sold just shy of 80,000 copies (just in the Kindle store, mind you) for the year through the end of July. August is a little slow: it looks like I’m only going to make about twenty-five thousand dollars, but I’m looking for a rebound when I launch the next book of the “In Her Name” series in early October.

The “self-publishing myth” has totally changed my life. Two weeks ago I quit my well-paying government day job of 26 years so I could write full-time, because that’s what I love to do and financially I couldn’t afford *not* to. Now my commute is walking downstairs in my bunny slippers to the rehabilitated junk room that serves as my office. I’m home when my wife and kids get up, and I’m here when the kids get home from school. I can take a nap if I feel like it. Or more than one. And we travel a lot more, because I can write anywhere and don’t have to worry about burning up limited vacation time. And we can afford to go places we only could have dreamed of before.

I’ll be the first to say that self-publishing isn’t an easy road. I work long hours and have to cover a lot of bases between writing, preparing to publish, and promoting. I agree with the OP on that much. But that self-publishing is a myth? Well, if a myth can put $20-30K a month in my bank account, then I’ll take it.

BTW – Joe Konrath, if you happen to read this, I wanted to thank you for your inspiration. I’ve been reading your blog for a while now, and have been meaning to get off my duff and post some comments thanking you. Then you wrote that I should be writing instead, so…

Maybe you missed that part at the very beginning of my comment where I mentioned that I just put the book out? As in it went live on Amazon a little more than a week ago? I didn’t expect much in the first month, or several for that matter. I have gotten 59 downloads on Smashwords so far, where the book is posted for free. Go me.

The thing is, buzz out of the gate isn’t relevant in digital publishing. It’s nice, sure. Doesn’t hurt one bit. Sales are always a good thing. But ebooks are forever. Forever is a long time to find an audience. Being an independent publisher, even if I only publish me, is a new business for me. Business take time to establish and grow. Judging my success by the first two weeks is a little bit premature, financial or otherwise.

For me, as a new author, success is having my work available to be read, with no compromises in control over content or rights. I wouldn’t be anywhere near that with a legacy publisher, or an agent. I would be depending on people other than the reader (my customer) to decide whether my work was fit to be read. Depending on employees and distributors to determine the fate of my product. No thanks (not without big bags of money involved, which isn’t going to happen.)

But thanks for checking out my –first– book, anyway.

Perhaps now you might address my actual points rather than engaging in ad hominem attacks on my credibility?

Your book has been out since August 4 and its Amazon numbers are still over 1 million. In other words, your book is not even out of the gate and it is already doing poorly.

How sad for you! But what a common lesson for all who self publish.

HOWEVER the distribution in so many avenues that a big publisher provides are closed to most self-published authors. AND the MEDIA knows that most self published books have not been “curated”, as Adrian says, and therefore could contain any wild content hidden somewhere in the middle. It’s much, much safer to put on television an author whose book comes from Random House than one who comes from “Joe’s Publishing Company & Grill”. We know RH puts out good stuff that has been vetted by many professionals from the agent forward.

This is a difficult decision for most, because the the efficacy of the marketing is better with a big publisher, but the author still needs to do much of it.

Questioning the time it takes to get a good book through the system is like complaining that the grape juice meant for kids isn’t a fine wine yet, dammit. It’s a process of refinement and quality control.

Would you agree, as I do, that for some people who are prominent already in their world, have amassed a large group of followers, have a large enough staff (freelance or employees) who can manage the process for them, and who are willing to do the daily work it takes to make a book stand out in the current avalanche of words, that self publishing is a good option?

I do believe that’s the case. But for those poor writers who really think the industry is designed to keep them out, or who have something to do every day other than promote themselves and their book, I suspect it is not always a good choice.

Other than that, your willingness to improve your content, your self and your marketing presence BEFORE finding an agent like me or my colleagues is crucial.

That’s right! Robin, the reason your book got relegated to being self-published is one or all of these factors:

1. It is poorly written
2. There is too much similar content and you didn’t take the time to differentiate yours
3. You have no platform and/or credibility to be writing on this topic

That’s it. That’s why you and every other author doesn’t get picked up. I see between 8000-10000 ideas per year at my agency. Every single time we see a good idea, we pounce on it at once – and usually, if the emerging author has also submitted it to many other agents, we find that there are many other agents also interested.

The opposite is also true.

The harsh reality from your side of the world: you have to work to improve your content before my world gets interested, but if it is good it will get attention.

There are SO few excellent book ideas in the world. As an agent, my whole life is about constantly searching for them. I take no pleasure and make no money by spurning hopefuls with marginal quality materials.

Theoretically, while any author – or any person – can certainly learn a new skill, most people who want to write books are not the same as those of us in the business of books. While it is true that if I started studying now, one day perhaps I could build a house from scratch, do my own surgery or speak fluent Farsi like a native, is it really the best investment of my time? Why should someone who apparently wants to write and promote their message also take on the onerous burdens typically delegated to professionals?