There has been a fair amount of stuff posted on the Casbah about self-publishing . . . but I hate the term. Or more I hate how the term is used as a categorical "non-legacy publishing" brand. Meaning that a self-published author is someone who didn't sign with a traditional publisher, and thus, is by default, of a lower grade of books.
To me, this is flat wrong. There are two kinds of self-published authors: The first is the low budget, self-published author I've just spent the past 60 seconds typing against; the second is the professional self-published author, who does everything--if not more--than a traditional publishing house, and brings a well-edited, finely designed book to market. And a good example of someone from this second group is Barry Eisler.
If you don't know the man, check out his recent interview with NPR.
Just a little brain food on this weekday afternoon.
