#ISPF2013, 19-20 October 2013, Foro Annonario, Senigallia [/ caption] For some time I’ve been doing a sort of homemade survey among the authors who self-publish with Narcissus, asking some of them what they would do in the event that were contacted by a “big publisher” to be introduced into the “big publishing” circuit.
There are still some who do not hesitate to say that they would feel “flattered” by the attention of a traditional publisher. But in order to give you an idea of the trend and the moods which are increasingly prevalent among our self-publishers, I would offer up what was written to me by one of them, who has gone the other way (from a traditional publisher to self-publishing, rather than the other way around)
“Based on my previous experiences with typical publishers I would say: Narcissus all the way. I come from [Big Name Publisher] and I believe strongly in self-publishing. In YOUR form of self-publishing. And in Simplicissimus. You are the best, full stop ;-)”
Now, aside from the compliment for our platform – that I send completely to my tribe: well done! – I would say: dear publishers, can you really still afford to deny or disparage, or simply ignore the phenomenon of self-publishing? And be warned: do you really think this only means using self-publishing as a reservoir of talent from which to pick out the choicest morsels at will?
Or in other words: what was physically and bodily manifested at #ISPF2013, which is that self-publishing is a possible site for a renaissance of publishing, with all its trades intact, has that been understood? [And how many publishers were there taking part, among the 1200 or so crowding into the square?].
