Self Publishing a Good Idea?

[minachan16]

One thing I notice in a lot of talk about ABDL stories is that our stories don't have wide appeal. Do you think this just because we are a niche lifestyle group or because we don't make an effort to appeal to a more mainstream audience?

[Elfy]

The problem with self-publishing is there is no quality filter.

[Dr_J]

I published my first story I wrote here on Amazon, and have received some pretty awesome support from my readers as a result. It's hard to get your foot in the door, and it's definitely tough for folks to sift through the...lacking...stories that are in eBook/Kindle format, but I haven't given up hope yet.

[BabyJune]

AB/DL stories do have a limited audience, however I have five AB/DL novels self-published and they are selling quite well, especially in the United Kingdom. Use the philosophy "write it and they will come" (No pun intended there--hee hee). If people are looking for such stories, they will find them. And if they are well-written, readers will seek out more of your work. All five of my novels are completely different themes; that's one key that you should add variety and not write about the same stuff all the time.

[willnotwill]

Self publishing used to be a racket that preyed on the vain who couldn't get published any other way (it was often called the Vanity press).

[pandorarose3]

I published my first story I wrote here on Amazon, and have received some pretty awesome support from my readers as a result. It's hard to get your foot in the door, and it's definitely tough for folks to sift through the...lacking...stories that are in eBook/Kindle format, but I haven't given up hope yet.

[Cute_Kitten]

For self publishing an AB story/ novel, it seems to have works for some people so I'd say its worth a shot.

As far as general publishing goes- again that might be the way to go. I've never tried it myself so I don't know much about it. As a reader I will say I tend to avoid buying self published books. There are only a select few self published authors I buy. Biggest reason is ....well, no guarantee of quality. There are some awesome self published books, and some in the past have done so well they were picked up by a traditional, big publishing house. ("The Shack" being one of them I believe.) I've read some traditionally published books and wondered how the hell they ever got published.

going the traditional route is hard. You don't just need an agent- you need a good agent. To get am agent you need to build credentials. One way to do that is winning some legit writing contests and publishing short stories in magazines. Or attending writing conventions where there will be agents you can rub elbows with.

Then there's all the hoopla with query letters, etc. With self publishing you get to avoid all that xD.

I think it all boils down to doing your research, weighing the pros and cons of each and deciding what's best for you.

[WBDaddy]

Yeah, if your writing is confined to fetish-related materials (I hate using the word "fetish" when referring to AB, but it's the most usable term available) then self-publishing is your route unless you write more mainstream fetish stuff along with your AB writing, because there just aren't any publications out there, fetish-related or not, that will accept AB submissions.

[BabyJune]

For self publishing an AB story/ novel, it seems to have works for some people so I'd say its worth a shot.

As far as general publishing goes- again that might be the way to go. I've never tried it myself so I don't know much about it. As a reader I will say I tend to avoid buying self published books. There are only a select few self published authors I buy. Biggest reason is ....well, no guarantee of quality. There are some awesome self published books, and some in the past have done so well they were picked up by a traditional, big publishing house. ("The Shack" being one of them I believe.) I've read some traditionally published books and wondered how the hell they ever got published.

going the traditional route is hard. You don't just need an agent- you need a good agent. To get am agent you need to build credentials. One way to do that is winning some legit writing contests and publishing short stories in magazines. Or attending writing conventions where there will be agents you can rub elbows with.

Then there's all the hoopla with query letters, etc. With self publishing you get to avoid all that xD.

I think it all boils down to doing your research, weighing the pros and cons of each and deciding what's best for you.

Your post here says it best. You simply cannot land an agent without credentials, nor can you approach large publishing houses on your own; they'll simply ignore your work.

[Cute_Kitten]

You've also touched on another problem with publishing general fiction- promotion, promotion, promotion. With general publishing, the audience has to be found and reached. Publishing houses don't give all their authors the same amount of promotional help.

[Tailie]

I was thinking of trying this out too. Though, I don't have any "street cred" on this site, yet. Can anyone tell me just how long the average Adult Baby "Novel" is that others have published and sold?

[BabyJune]

I was thinking of trying this out too. Though, I don't have any "street cred" on this site, yet. Can anyone tell me just how long the average Adult Baby "Novel" is that others have published and sold?

An average novel is between 50,000-150,000 words (we don't count pages in the publishing industry) My AB/DL novels rarely exceed 65,000 words simply because the stories i write don't require more than that. If your writing it "tight," you won't waste a lot of words by filling it up with details that people don't want to read. Basically, tell the story and git 'er done.

[Tailie]

An average novel is between 50,000-150,000 words (we don't count pages in the publishing industry) My AB/DL novels rarely exceed 65,000 words simply because the stories i write don't require more than that. If your writing it "tight," you won't waste a lot of words by filling it up with details that people don't want to read. Basically, tell the story and git 'er done.

Well, I guess I already knew that. Heh, I picked up a Adult Baby Furry "novel" the other day and started reading. I couldn't believe it had been printed out. When characters spoke they didn't make a new paragraph for each time, it was pretty bad grammar.

[willnotwill]

Yep, you should see how bad some commercial books are before editing.

[BabyJune]

Yep, you should see how bad some commercial books are before editing.

[willnotwill]

It was a computer book.

[Anael]

The problem with self-publishing is there is no quality filter.

[Elfy]

Except you have picked out two examples out of the thousands and thousands of books that get published, it is hardly a representative sample.

The "50 Shades of Grey" example even proves my point. It is widely seen as an awful book (I haven't read it so I give way to majority opinion) just because it sold well doesn't make it any less rubbish. You using that as an example of why self-publishing isn't too good when it is an awful book that would never have been picked up by a major publisher if it didn't get success through self-publishing.

The major benefit of publishing companies to consumers is that the publishing companies weed out a lot of the rubbish. As others have noted above getting accepted by them takes work and a good example of your writing. Which means for the most part what they publish is well written, obviously sometimes they slip up and let something poorly written through but that is the same for the film industry and hollywood and any other entertainment. The difference in the film industry is that if you want to go make a film independently it still costs quite a large sum of money even if it is made cheaply. With self-publishing of books it doesn't take a lot of money at all and that means a lot of people have done it even if their work isn't very good.

I have no doubt some really good books came out of the self-publishing area, but those are real diamonds in quite a huge area of coal.

If people want to self-publish that is fine and I wish luck to them but they are adding to a sea of books most of which will never get seen, I would have liked to self-publish my story but with all the competition and such, it feels pointless. I found one place that said in 2012 there were 391,000 self-published books in 2012. I can only imagine it has stayed at a similar number or even increased each year. There are literally millions of self-published works and I guarantee a vast majority of them are really bad.

[Anael]

I agree.

[Zinaya]

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