Publish Yourself

Rachel Maddow is not a literary snob, but she made a strangely dismissive comment about self-published authors in a recent show. She associated them with political hacks. 

Describing the Republican candidate for governor of Colorado who brags that he once killed someone whom he will not name and that he is an exorcist who can rid you of demons by phone, “The elections this year have basic plots that have to be rejected even by people who have to field pitches for self-published novels,” she said in her Aug. 26 show and podcast.

There are such workers in the self-publishing industry. But take care, you poor dreamers humiliated by rejection by returned mail. Many of these people selling themselves as agents are scammers. 

What used to be called the “vanity press” has been updated by print-on-command technology. Push a button and out comes a book, or a dozen books. The author, of course, pays the cost in advance and accepts total liability. Internet retailers like Amazon or Barnes and Noble will list anything with an ISBN. And buyers, usually friends of the authors, can leave comments that in effect are positive reviews.

Quoting R. R. Bowker, the company that assigns ISBN numbers, Publishers Weekly said 4.2 million books were published in 2025. Of these print plus digital and audio titles, 3.6 million – over 80 percent – were self-published. The number of self-published ISBN titles increased 44 per cent from 2024 to 2025.  A marketing manager for Bowker said one reason for the remarkable increase was “new tools” available for authors. 

The common standard advice from publishers is: do not submit an unsolicited manuscript. They will return it unread. There are two reasons for this relatively recent policy: 1. they don’t want to give you an opportunity to sue them for stealing something in your manuscript, and 2. they don’t have the staff to read it in the first place. 

What you need if you dream of showing your manuscript to a book editor with power to publish is this:  hire an agent. But as I warned, be careful.  As soon as my book on the New Mexico courthouse raid was listed on Amazon, I began getting calls.  

 “Mr.Larry? I am from (mumble, mumble) and we think your book is very good for the bestsellers and the book fairs.” I hung up as soon as I realized they had not read the book and could not even pronounce the title – “Shaking Rio Arriba Down” – coherently. They were masquerading as agents. It is safe to assume true agents never cold call. 

So why not avoid the trouble and cost of finding a professional agent who can open doors in New York or Boston? Why even dream about getting rich from a book when nine out of ten published authors need day jobs?

So self-publish.  Give the damn book away to friends and influential community leaders. And write another one.