Just as a tour guide is for a tourist, a publisher is for a writer. Someone who guides, leads, manages and solves issues along the way. For a manuscript to reach readers in its complete form, it has to pass through several doors: editing, design, marketing, and distribution. Publishers open these doors for the writers if they consider their work worthwhile. So the fate of a manuscript prepared by a writer depends on the publisher’s approval or rejection. However, today writers have found a new way to reach their audience: by becoming their own publishers.
Self-Publishing has many routes: print-on-demand services, online publishing platforms and even social media. This has given writers a range of options beyond traditional professional publications. A manuscript no longer needs the approval of an authority to reach its audience. This form has given writers quite some advantages — most importantly, control.
Control is an important asset for writers. They can decide what to write, how they want their work to look, and when they want it to reach readers. They do not have to wait for the publisher to show interest in their work or to determine whether it is commercially viable. This control over their work is especially beneficial for those writers whose work would appeal to a more niche audience. With the emerging use of social media, aspiring writers now have the opportunity to explore a vast audience as well. They can now build communities on social media platforms and directly engage with the readers. They can also communicate with fellow writers and take their opinions into account.
Though this might seem like an ideal situation in which writers have complete control over their work, this freedom comes with a catch. A publisher is not only a gatekeeper between a writer and their readers but, after a manuscript is accepted, is also responsible for bringing it to the intended audience through various stages. By passing this route, the responsibility falls upon the writers themselves.
This creates a dilemma for the writers. While they would want complete freedom in their work, not having to depend on publishers and being able to make decisions themselves, they would also need to take on additional financial and professional burdens.
Another edge that publishing houses have, which should be acknowledged, is their prestige, which they have earned in their profession. As for writers, it is a long and tiring process of building credibility for their work. Reviews, recommendations, social media connections, reader communities and consistent quality — all of this, along with the burden of becoming their own publishers while focusing on their writing, can get stressful for writers. So, being associated with a publishing house automatically gives readers the impression that the work has undergone the required formal process of editing and proofreading, serving as a signal of quality. While self-publishing undoubtedly reaches a wider audience and amplifies more voices, it makes it difficult for readers to distinguish between carefully proofread and poorly edited work.
Yet this does not mean that, to become successful, a writer’s best shot is to get a publisher to trust their work. Publications have their own set of standards, which limit many voices. Not just for the quality of the work, but also for other reasons, such as commercial potential and personal interests and priorities, good work gets rejected.
This creates the perspective that self-publishing might not be a replacement for traditional publishing but rather an alternative. Surely it has opened many literary spaces for those writers who otherwise might have remained unheard of — but this independence comes with a price. Whether the writer is willing to pay that price or not is the real question.
Self-Publishing has democratised literature by making it more accessible to anyone who wants to create it. Whether it eventually makes the literary world more diverse and sustainable depends on whether the community of writers can build an ecosystem around it, similar to the traditional publishing landscape.