Quote:
Originally Posted by ApK
Perhaps it's a little different for self-publishing print books via a vanity press or the like,
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Whenever people talk about self-publishing the vanity press will be the elephant in the room, and it's best to get that out in the open rather than dance around it. Vanity publishing has had such a corrosive effect on readers' perceptions that it will remain your primary barrier for a long time.
Anyone who knows much about the publishing trade knows that editors don't pick books based on literary merit - they pick the books they think they can sell, so publishing is not, in fact, providing the sort of gatekeeping role they used to. But readers still want some sort of gatekeeper, and that's a reasonable desire. Reviews, particularly from other authors who are established in the field (and whose books a prospective reader might already have enjoyed) are probably the best way of fulfilling this need.