I write poems and stuff. Lay outs in stanza’s in stuff you want to stand apart from the rest. If its small your illustrations are better off being done bye you to fit what you want to get across it can always be changed later. As for actual publishing. Most companys any more are recycling old stuff with new names to save on paying out royaltys,others are scamming people into signing contracts then throw into a dead pile hoping you self publish so they can sue you. Others will publish in second or third world countrys with out trade agreements with the united states so copy writes wont protect your creative works. If you sign any contracts make sure if you don’t receive royalty’s in a certain amount of time all your creative works and materials revert back to you the author is in the contract. Also if you dont want your stuff messed with make sure author has to agree to any changes made to said work or material is in the contract. Also if you self publish make sure when you sign any printing agreements that you at no point sign over exclusive printing rights. So just be careful world so connected any more and digital even some of the best writers have had their creative works stolen before.
nm.
Self-publishing is very easy (and free), plus it allows us to hold out hope that we just wrote a big hit. There’s no downside for the writer.
In part, but not necessarily in an “elitist” way. They stand between people who think they are producing commercially viable work and the market. I believe that a quality work will always find a publisher; rejection is 95% quality issues and 5% a work not having an adequate market for other reasons. (Your grandfather might be a hell of a writer, but with only 50 people interested in his life story, a commercial publisher isn’t going to be interested.) However, traditional publishing is in such a mess that finding a publisher and seeing the work reach the market can take ridiculously long. The gate becomes a chokehold.
So self-publishing removes the gate; that’s both good and bad.
I’d agree only for fiction. Self-published nonfic is generally much better. I’d put it at around 50-50 that a nonfic book is worth reading, if we weed out the really trivial efforts.
The problem with fiction is that everyone thinks they can write it. Some large number of people can turn out a fiction work they think is good. The number of works that find at least a few admirers is almost as high.
But… real quality writing requires far more effort than that, and it requires unbiased, unstinting feedback. If a writer does not participate in a reading group, work with a coach of some kind or have a quality editor, they are very likely self-deluded about the quality and salability of their work. Being able to to straight to press and market is NOT an asset for fiction writers who can’t or won’t work within a feedback and evaluation process. It just enables the delusion.
So yes, a very large amount of SP fiction is… awful.