That is an excellent recommendation. Small publishing houses and self-publishing can face an uphill battle and a very limited market. There was a time here when the government decided to publish work for anyone who claimed to be a writer—ranging from cookbooks to poetry and self-help books. There was no quality control; it was simply publishing for the sake of publishing. The country became flooded with books lacking literary merit, which caused small publishers to go bankrupt and left many readers disappointed with Venezuelan literature. I know many writer friends who work office jobs to save up enough money to publish their books. Others have turned to competitions, hoping to win prizes and get their work published. What I love about you is the clear understanding you have of this craft. You have certainly walked this path many times. Hugs, Eric
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Thanks Nancy. It can be so troublesome to navigate the world of self-publishing. I think the main issue is most authors' forte leans more to the creative side and they aren't as interested in the business aspect of publishing. That certainly was my main stumbling block when I first got started. To be successful you have to wear both the creative hat and the business hat when it's necessary—even though the latter isn't always much fun.
That would have been horrible to be flooded with so much spam in book form! This is a lot like the self publishing market worldwide now. Opportunists try to get rich fast and publish lots of nonsensical books like coloring books and AI-generated slop and offer them for sale on Amazon. The market is flooded because publishing is so cheap and easy now.
I think we all have to be a little crazy to tackle this in today's world. A person has to have a deep love of the craft or else it just isn't worth the work and the hassle. I wish you a wonderful week Nancy!