I think they lookĪ friend went to a romance conference this past weekend in Atlanta, As for covers, the books represented in theĬollage on this page are all self-published books. Even books editedĪnd published by The Big Five have glaring mistakes and typos. Writing career, I made mistakes, but I and others learned quickly what They’d say I’d have first rateĮditing and outstanding covers. If I wrote the same books for a big publisher, would my books be anyīetter? Some would argue that they would. We have a seat on a panel at a big writers’ convention? When will we be We appreciate them and hope more of us join their ranks. They’ve been great advocates for the rest of us. Many self-pubbed authors are also writing terrific books and I understand that bestselling authors bring more The insult is that “traditionally published” authors aren’t held to the Six well-received and highly ranked books, could not. Witnessed first-time authors participate while I, who at the time had I recently attended a conference where I was barred to be on a panel. That so many good self-published and small-press authors don’t exist? Organizations who host these conferences, but how long can they pretend Self-published authors want an even playing field. That’s not the only example of the caste system snobbery within the Writers making these judgments were searching for publication acceptance We want to learnĪbout good writers we haven’t heard about. Hosting big name authors, but we all know the big guys. I understand bloggers want to draw in readers by Readers, supporters, and blogging hosts, and both were embarrassed and Standards meant published by a major publisher. Press, who were bluntly rejected to guest on a writers’ blog because myįriends weren’t “traditionally” published, which by the bloggers’

I have two friends, one self-published and one published by a small Who is to judge which writers are acceptable and which are not? WhatĪbout rankings or reviews on sales outlets? Should that be a method ofĮvaluation? By what calculus should we be judged? “active” members, then by what criteria? Should we be accepted on theīasis of how much money we’ve earned? And if that doesn’t guaranteeĪcceptance, what does? How about the quality or quantity of our work? If self-published authors are to be included in these organizations as Should I support them with my hard-earned money?

I gave up my membership in that group a while backīecause, as a self-published author, they didn’t support me, so why That organization just sent out a questionnaire to its members to askįor their opinions. Good enough to be included in one of the big writers’ organizations? There has been a lot of talk on one of my writers’ loops about theĭisrespect given to self-published and small-press authors.

InSight by Polly Iyer