S***! When did ‘Self-Published’ become a dirty word?

There are many toxic environments on the internet. Honestly, it can be extremely difficult to avoid them, even when you’re actively trying. While I often (proudly) proclaim that I thrive on spite, I still try to surround myself with as little negativity as possible. I was doing a pretty good job, all things considered.

Until I became an author.

No, really. It’s true. Now, this isn’t a vent post. I’m not going to bitch and moan about how callous the writing/reading online community can be. I have thick skin, and the positivity in my life and surrounding my writing far outweighs the negativity (not a brag, I just have an amazingly supportive friend group and family. Okay, maybe a small brag). No, the reason I bring this up is that, well, it’s important. And I think we need to talk about it.

Facebook. There, I got the hardest part out of the way: addressing the platform I’m going to talk about by name. Anyone who spends any amount of time on social media knows exactly how abrasive and cruel (not to mention clueless, ignorant, racist, and sexist) the average Facebook comment section can be. You don’t need to look hard to find exhaustive threads of arguing strangers, going at each other’s throats like their lives are being threatened (which, in some cases, they are. That’s still a crime, by the way, even if the threat is issued on an internet forum). Like many social media sites, Facebook has become a cesspool of disgusting, heartless commentary and the near-constant confusion between opinion and fact.

So, why do I bring this up?

As an author, I try to be present in the community. I joined reading groups, writer support groups, book appreciation groups, etc. I made accounts on almost all social media platforms and update them at least semi-regularly. I’ll admit, I was excited to meet more like-minded people who were as enthusiastic about books and writing as I am. I’ve found some truly wonderful friends through these platforms, so it’s not all bad. However, I didn’t expect to find the level of elitism, ableism, sexism, and general discriminatory attitudes heavily present within these groups.

This blog post's title asks when self-publishing became a dirty word, so let’s start there. I have a short anecdote.

In one of the groups I’m a member of, I recently saw a post debating the legitimacy of claiming you’re a “published author” if you’ve self-published your book. To be honest, I thought it was a shaming post meant to highlight how ridiculous that opinion was (I mean, hello? The word ‘published’ is literally in the name!) A quick glance at the comment section informed me that I was very, very wrong. There were people earnestly and ferociously arguing that claiming you’re a published author when you’ve self-published your book is akin to false advertising and should be punished accordingly. Seriously?

Full disclosure, I’ve self-published my book and I’m in the process of self-publishing my next book. I chose to take this route for a number of reasons that I won’t get into now, but I’d like to emphasize that this was a choice I made, consciously.

After reading through a selection of comments ranging from downright nasty to condescendingly articulate, I gathered a few key pieces of information. Firstly, there is the assumption that self-published authors did so because their book was rejected by traditional publishing houses. Secondly, and this is something I’ve talked about before, the perception of self-published books is that they are of lesser quality than traditionally published simply due to the accessibility of self-publishing platforms. Let’s quickly dispel a couple of these points.

I know from experience that not all self-published authors chose this route as a last resort. Speaking for myself, I’m a bit of a control freak when it comes to my creative endeavors, so self-publishing was the more attractive option for me. I’ve been told that I could have gone the traditional route, as my writing has been described as easily marketable and highly consumable (stop, stop, you’re making me blush), but that’s just not what I wanted to do. Moreover, traditional publishing is struggling to keep up with the book market. With ebooks and online shopping becoming more and more popular, and break-out self-published books making bestseller lists, authors are beginning to find that self-publishing is an attractive means of getting their story out there. Given the current publishing climate, I believe it’s ignorant to say that self-published authors chose their methods strictly as a last resort. That’s just not true.

I’ve already talked about the quality of traditionally published vs self-published media, so I’ll just do a quick summary here. The general public assumes that since traditionally published media goes through hired editors and several rounds of screening, the end product is automatically better than something self-published. I won’t even go into detail here, I’ll just point you to Rotten Tomato’s worst movies of all time section with the gentle reminder that a lot of those films had high budgets and teams of dozens or hundreds working on them.

The point of all this, and the point of every opinion-based post on my website, is not to convince you to agree with me. If you don’t like the idea of self-publishing, or if you prefer traditional publishing, you’re fully entitled to that preference. The goal here is simply to get you to think. Going back to my post on gatekeeping, there are enough barriers to enjoyment in this world. Don’t be ashamed of being a self-published author. Don’t feel the need to clarify that you’re not really published, you’re self-published, because it doesn’t matter. Good writing is good writing, no matter what medium it’s presented through. If you want to clarify, feel free! But don’t feel like you’re misleading people if you don’t. The beautiful thing about our world is that it’s constantly changing, and that includes industry standards, terminology, and platforms.

A special shout out to that one guy on Facebook that tried to argue with me about linguistic evolution and subsequently jumped ship after realizing that, not only am I a spiteful bitch, but I’m also right. And I’m not afraid to tell you about it.

(Was that petty? Yes. Yes it was.)

Happy spooky season!