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All it takes is one reader being affected by a book that was self-published to prove Grafton's theory--and the self-publishing naysayers--wrong. We're not talking about self-publishing a great book versus honing your craft while waiting for The Universe to shine a spotlight on you and your really great book. We're talking about self-publishing a great book or potentially dying with your great book imprisoned on a hard-drive.
Back in January I was Googling myself to make sure my most recent republication was showing up in the results and I found a book called Alex by Adam J Nicolai (I am now officially 'the other Adam Nicolai'). It had a dozen or so five-star reviews on Amazon. I made and promptly misplaced a mental note to buy it. I stumbled across it again in March, noticed it had thirty-five reviews, and decided to toss a few bucks to my doppelgänger even though I am not particularly interested in that genre. I read it and was floored--the damn thing made me cry.
I'm a grown, medicated man. I haven't cried for dead pets or dead relatives or sick children or anything at all since 1999. And yet one part of this self-published "paranormal fiction" book hit hard and had me weeping. I went back to Amazon just now to make sure the book was still there before I took the trouble to write this post. Alex now has 140 reviews averaged out to five stars.
Grafton's sweeping generalization is wrong. And self-publishing is not vanity publishing. It is not vain to know you are good at something and take matters into your own hands rather than wait to be discovered. There are seven billion people on this planet and the handful of folks doing the "discovering" are becoming increasingly impotent and trending toward extinction. Sure, inexperienced writers can self-publish and peddle low-quality material when they should be working solely on creating high-quality material. But there are also experienced writers self-publishing exceptional material.
If Justin Bieber had taken Grafton's advice he would still be singing in the shower instead of having the gall to let everyone see what he already knew. There's nothing wrong with believing in yourself and putting yourself out there. The rest of the world is chomping at the bit to let inexperienced creators know they should get back to honing their craft (and yes, 'honing their craft' is definitely a euphemism there).
Self-publishing is the way to go today--and it will be the way to go tomorrow as well. Amateur journalists and photographers self-publish their articles and art on blogs. Amateur bands and movie-makers self-publish their songs and movies on Youtube. Amateur programmers even self-publish their applications and games. Grafton's "Universe" is actually the voting block of seven-billion humans. It's that mass of voters that makes or breaks us, not some sneaky Universal Agent peeking in the window to make sure we are honed enough to spot that plot hole or comma splice.
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