Mark your calendars: Self-Publishing Book Expo planned for November 7

Apr 15 2009

In a move that signals the continuing growth of the self-publishing arena, the first-ever self-publishing book expo has been announced:

Publishing veterans Diane Mancher and Karen Mender are launching Self-Publishing Book Expo, an event that will focus on self-published books and the companies that produce them. SPBE will offer attending authors a place to exhibit and sell their books to the general public–and agents and publishers–as well as offering representatives from self-publishing companies to showcase their services. The event is slated for November.

You can read the the entire article from Publishers Weekly. And you can visit the book expo website here.

Obviously, I find this great news! With the economy in the tank and traditional publishing houses staying as lean as possible, it’s becoming near impossible for an unknown author to get a book into print nowadays. Even authors with really good books are being rejected from the traditional publishing crowd, since the large houses don’t want to invest the money in an unknown writer.

I’ve always maintained that self-publishing levels the playing field for writers, and the internet is making this easier and easier. By eliminating the middle-man (large publishing houses), authors can keep more control over their work and even earn a larger percentage of book sales.

The one obstacle I see for self-publishing however, is acceptance by mainstream readers and booksellers. There is still a stigma attached to an author that self-publishes his/her own book ("must not have been good enough for a regular publisher" they say). And bookstores are reluctant to carry self-published books because of the whole question of the book being returnable if it doesn’t sell.

I find it odd that in music, indie musicians are seen as rebels and their independence from "the man" is worn as a badge of honor. In the literary world, though, being independent from traditional publishers is seen as not being good enough.

I hope events like this Self-Publishing Book Expo can change that!

Read More: Publishing News, Self-Publishing