There was a time when self-publishing was frowned upon by traditional publishers and by writers who were published by the traditional publishers. The premise was that all good books were published by the kings of industry and if you were not a traditionally published author, you were no good.
South Africa has a very small traditional publishing setup. We have amazing publishers and they love the work of South African writers. But our SA stories are not always what the rest of the world wants to read, so the market is often limited to what people in South Africa will buy, whereas the US publishers can market their authors to the world, even to South Africans who love to read American fiction. Many of our untold stories need to be told, but the writers' words have been stilled by logistics, numbers and profit margins. Our SA publishers do what they can, and we want them to continue to make good decisions that will keep them in business so that we can read what they offer. But a young country like South Africa with a dynamic history and present, has many stories which need to be told. And unless a way is found, these stories will never be heard by the very people for whom they are intended.
The old rules of the publishing game no longer apply and they are absolutely irrelevant in South Africa. Now it is okay to call yourself a writer even if you have to pay the costs of your own printing and distribution. Now it is the readership who decides whether a book is any good. People vote with their wallets and a writer who can pen a good story, make sure it is edited well, dress it in a fabulous cover, and print or place online can earn something for their efforts.
But writers are usually just writers. A large publishing house employs scores of designers and editors and experts in various fields. The solitary writer wanting to self-publish does not have those resources on hand. Fortunately, times have changed and the world is getting smaller and if you want to learn to do something, you just have to search the internet and you will find all sorts of information that you can apply.
Amazon has changed the playing fields somewhat, and any writer can be published and have his work available around the world within 24 hours. Some will argue that Amazon is filled with self-publishing rubbish, and perhaps much of the ebooks available there are poor quality and should have rather been left in the bottom drawer. But there are independently published masterpieces on Amazon, and the readers decide what is acceptable and what is not.
If you are looking to publish your own writing, but are not sure how, then keep an eye out for our series: Self-Pubbing for Writers Who Can Write -- but know little about anything else. Kiewiet Publishing will be guiding you each step of the process and by the time you have worked through the steps, your book will be on Amazon. Then you will know whether you are ready to take the next step -- publishing in print.
So stick around. It's not brain surgery and it's FREE.
