The Self-Publishing Conflict?

I have long thought the self-publishing craze, on the whole, is a good thing — for writers, readers, and society at large. But I also have come to see that it also has created many challenges and problems. Let me explain.

Whereas self-publishing theoretically democratizes the book publishing process — allowing any book to get published regardless of what the publishing trade gatekeepers miss or intentionally keep out — it also floods the market with boring books, ordinary books, poorly written/edited books, and books lacking fact-checking or even a second opinion. This means we lack a uniform quality standard by which all books should be filtered through.

Consumers are overwhelmed by their unfiltered choices. There just are too many books pumped into the marketplace — more than 7500 daily.

Bookstores can’t house all of these titles. Even super stores with three or four floors of stacked books carry fewer than two percent of books published this past decade.

Libraries can’t afford to acquire even one percentage point of one percent of the 2.7 million titles published in a year’s time. No budget, no space, and no time to even evaluate all of their acquisition options.

The pool of citizens who have the ability to read, expendable time, the desire, and the discretionary funds to buy and read more than a few books a year is shrinking and limited.

The self-published world can be a minor league operation that feeds the Big 5, auditioning books that could become popular with the right marketing and distribution.

The self-publishing experiment has not yet proved that more books betters society. There are too many side effects to the cure that it sought. But that does not mean we just give up or declare defeat. No, we must refine things, make them better. Always.

First, authors need more restraint and self-discipline. Don’t publish a book that is:

Not needed or desired
Not edited well
Not any better than the majority of others in its genre

Second, we need to have more people reading books — and more such readers reading more books.

Third, we need a real ranking and review system that has uniform qualities and standards to evaluate a book. The current system is broken. Who really trusts Amazon reviews? Professional media outlets can only review thousands of books when millions are published — and their opinion and methods to reach their conclusions varies greatly. Every book deserves an evaluation, based on an unbiased and informed method.

Fourth, self-publishing companies should have to hold their authors that self-publish to a higher standard. Who fact-checks the contents? Who ensures a book is edited?

So, what do we do next?

Authors will likely publish more books this year than last. Self-publishing can be an amazing vehicle to get a book published quickly and without the permission of anyone. But it can also be an abused tool to publish mediocrity and garbage, which then floods and overwhelms the book ecosystem.

As with every freedom or invention, we seek to balance the human proclivity to abuse something on one end with one overly restricting on the other end. We want a rich marketplace of ideas to produce the best possible books. It does. But they are buried amongst a lot of junk, and our ability to weed out diamonds from fakes is a laborious chore.

Do You Need Book Marketing & PR Help?

Brian Feinblum, the founder of this award-winning blog, with over four million page views, can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com  He is available to help authors like you to promote your story, sell your book, and grow your brand. He has over 30 years of experience in successfully helping thousands of authors in all genres. Let him be your advocate, teacher, and motivator!

 

About Brian Feinblum

This award-winning blog has generated over four million pageviews. With 5,000+ posts over the past dozen years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby  http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.”  Copyright 2025.

 

For the past three decades, Brian Feinblum has helped thousands of authors. He formed his own book publicity firm in 2020. Prior to that, for 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and as the director of publicity at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler.

 

His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/whats-needed-to-promote-a-book-successfully).

 

He hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and has spoken at ASJA, BookCAMP, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, Morgan James Publishing, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. He served as a judge for the 2024 IBPA Book Awards.

 

His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. His first published book was The Florida Homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook.  It was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.

 

Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog.

 

You can connect with him at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum/ or https://www.facebook.com/brian.feinblum