Alliance Command

The ability to create a professional, quality novel—independent of a publishing house—has advanced to mature levels. With personal investment and determined effort, anyone can produce a novel matching the standards of a traditional publisher. As in the case of The Contra Alliance Trilogy, a team effort is required to accomplish this. Thus, finding an editor, copy editor, proofreader, interior designer, jacket designer, artists, webmaster, offset printer, etc. is a must.

Does this require extensive energy? Yes, but if you are willing and capable than this effort provides vast opportunity to deliver your work directly to readers. However, even though distribution channels exist to support the sale of your novel, major challenges persist. While the evolution of publishing access has enabled authors to produce worthy products independently, and a system of distribution has kept pace, there is a MAJOR problem. What is it? Simply, it is the notion of a “Self-Published” work being an inferior product.

There is good reason for such skepticism.

Thousands of self-published products hardly receive a proofread, never mind the careful edit of a professional. The ability to DISTINGUISH the difference in kind of an independently developed product is the problem…and that’s it. Nothing else. There is no current method by which to recognize or separate the difference between an amateur effort and a developed product, which followed all or most steps used in traditional publishing houses.

The fix is surprisingly easy and can simplify consumer and publishing recognition of self-produced products by breaking such works into two camps: Self-Published and Independently Published. In tomorrow’s post, Part II of Self-Publishing vs. Independent Publishing: Framework for the Future, I will break down the surprisingly easy fix.

File Under:   Contra Alliance · Publishing