Essayist, nonfiction author and poet Priscilla Long has given me permission to share an excerpt from her recently released new edition of her already classic book for writers, The Writer’s Portable Mentor. All of Priscilla’s advice is clear and sound. I am grateful for the opportunity to share some of her thinking with Writing It Real members. I think reading this short opinion about how and when to consider self-publishing and how and when to consider publishing with an established press will help you decide how to go about publishing and make the decision that is right for you.

Excerpt from Chapter 27 “Sending Your Work Out,” rrom The Writer’s Portable Mentor: A Guide to Art, Craft, and the Writing Life, second edition, by Priscilla Long. Copyright © 2018 University of New Mexico Press, 2018.

WHAT ABOUT SELF-PUBLISHING?

It’s an idea. It’s a possibility. It has always been a possibility. It was a possibility before print-on-demand, before the digital age, before there were seven hundred thousand books self-published in the United States (in 2015, latest figures from Bowker). Here I present no answers but only considerations and questions—and a few personal experiences.

With some regularity I hear folks relating success stories about best-selling or at any rate nicely selling self-published books. True stories. What we hear little about are poorly selling self-published books. Much more common.

The process of getting a book published by a “real” publisher can be long, arduous, and even at times tortuous. Why put up with it?

I have witnessed many writers put up with it. And I have put up with it. What I note is that in the process, which can take years, the work gets better and better. It gets rejected and revised and rejected and revised again, rethought, revised, rejected, and finally accepted. And then it succeeds. It is well-published and it takes its place in the world. If this writer had given up after a year, after a few rejections, if this writer had self-published instead, it would not have been so accomplished. And—perhaps—it would not have found much of a place in the world.

But there is another side to this story. Or, maybe, several other sides. The success stories are true stories. And maybe some books should be self-published. If you have a work that is complete and polished and no one in sight to put it out and there is a pressing reason why it should appear this year rather than next year or the year after, why not educate yourself as to how to do it properly and go for it?

What would be a pressing reason? One is our own mortality. I have a good friend, Geri Gale, who composed a gorgeous nonmainstream work (a blended genre she calls a “poemella”). Patrice: A Poemella was ready to go. About then, the author, Geri Gale, came up with breast cancer. She sent Patrice on its rounds, received ninety rejections, but no takers. She self-published the work. Her stunning prose is presented within a stunning design, and it’s available—information on her website. Now the cancer is gone, thank goodness. And Patrice is out in the world. And Geri Gale is at work on further works of literary art. As her work becomes gradually better known, it’s important that Patrice is out there, available, not sitting in a box under the bed.

Or take the first edition of this book. The manuscript of the first edition was agented, shopped around, and rejected by acquiring editors, who felt, mostly, that the market for how-to-write books was saturated. But I knew that writers needed this book and I knew its own market was not saturated. I founded Wallingford Press for the purpose of publishing it. The first edition of The Writer’s Portable Mentor was printed (on demand) by Lightning Source and distributed by PartnersWest (before that firm went out of business) and also by Ingram Book Co. (I did all the marketing work.) It sold more than eight thousand copies. I declare it a success story.

But I have four other books (to date) that are published by other publishers. And I am working on further books that I do not wish to self-publish. I want the affirmation of another publisher. I want to write the books and help to market, but I don’t want to be entirely responsible.

So I present this idea. Some works should be self-published. Other works should be sent out, revised, sent out, revised . . . They should wind through that arduous—but ultimately rewarding—process of finding a home away from home.

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1. Steven Piersanti, “The 10 Awful Truths about Book Publishing,” Berrett-Koehler Publishers, accessed September 2017, https://www.bkconnection.com/the-10-awful-truths-about-book-publishing.

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What is your experience with the decision to self-publish? What has your publication experience been? What are your questions after reading this excerpt? Let us know in the comment box below.