Why I'm self-publishing…

I've frequently been scornful of what used to be called "vanity presses." They've been around forever and the "vanity" part comes from the fact that you can pay someone to publish a book. In fact, anyone can pay someone to publish a book. Once I learned how the vanity biz worked, I was determined that I would never use such a service. To clarify, a traditional publisher does not charge you to publish your work; instead, they actually pay you an advance sum of money because they believe your book will sell a certain number of copies. Anything they publish will go through a lengthy editorial review process and then an art department will design a cover and the promotional department will decide how best to market the book and if it merits some actual advertising. If the book does sell, the author gets a percentage (a rather small percentage) of the sales price once enough copies have been sold to cover the advance already paid out. On the other hand, there's no testing of quality on a self-published book; anyone with the funds can publish their epic poem about antique tractors or their history of the milk carton or their collection of blurry photos found in thrift shops.
So I always told myself that if a "real" publisher didn't want to publish a book I'd written, then it probably wasn't worth publishing at all. A few years ago, I managed to complete a novel. I shopped it around, collecting a plethora of rejection letters from various agents and publishers. I eventually gave up. I didn't have the drive to go back and rewrite the book and I was weary of the constant rejection.
Fast forward. After I took over writing the column in Riverbend's weekly bulletin, I began to get feedback. Good feedback. People I'd never met would stop me on Sunday morning and tell me how they looked forward to reading the column each week. Some told me they sent it to other friends or family. Many asked me if I would eventually assemble them into a book. After a couple of years, I realized I had written enough to fill up a small book. Should I start sending it around to publishers or agents? I was reluctant to do so, because I realized that many of the columns are very Riverbend-specific. I wasn't sure that an audience from outside Austin would find the topics interesting…and they would not have the personal contact with me that has grown through years of singing, preaching and writing for my home church. So I decided I would publish the book myself and only offer it for sale right here where I live and work. I understand there's still a chance that it could be taken on by a real publisher at some point. I've heard that if you can sell a thousand copies of a book on your own that many publishers will at least take a good look at buying it. But that's just a dream at this point. I want to make the book available to the people who encouraged me and appreciated my efforts from the beginning: the Riverbend family.
Next time: how I decided who would print Shiny Spots In The Rust.