Hal Clement is one of the reasons I don't go to SF cons anymore. There's a big empty Harry-shaped space (with of course a big empty camera-shaped space attached ... was he
born with that thing?) ... as I said in another thread, there are too many ghosts.
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It's a quandary. There are lots of folks with a vested interest pushing self-publishing as the solution for writers trying to get a book out there. And there are probably instances where self-publishing is the way to go, such as books that appeal to a niche market too small for a regular publisher to address. But for most folks, sorry, but submit and get rejected by someone who might pay you until you break through is still the way to go. Going self-published to avoid the possibility of rejection is an automatic fail.
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I may go the self-publishing route, ebook variety, with something I'm writing right now. It's just a story I'm messing around with for fun and to get it out of my system so I can get more productive work done. There is, in all probability, either no market for it or a very, very small one. That's the kind of case where there's really no choice except self-publishing because of the strictly limited commercial appeal. (and it will probably be bereft of professional editing, because I can't shell out the cash for a book that will probably sell 5 copies, all of them to MR members who like my forum posts)
But that, I think, is an exception. I know going in that there's no damn market for it. It's not something a publisher would buy, not because it's not well-written, but because sales to 5 MR members won't pay for them to take the manuscript out of the envelope. If I thought it had commercial potential, I'd be shopping for an agent. Since I know it doesn't, I'm thankful that there is a way to deliver it to the 5 people in the world who would want to buy it.