Frederick,
I agree with you that sometimes self-publishing is the only way for a
writer to go in Goa. But I strongly feel that it should be the final option,
after the professional (or commercial) publishing houses have been tried.
Surprisingly often, a commercial house will turn down a manuscript for
a very valid reason: it is badly written. At the lowest level of bad
writing, the manuscript may be riddled with grammatical errors and
misspellings; at a higher level, the manuscript may be letter-perfect, but
the author may have nothing worthwhile to say. Unfortunately, many of us
writers are so dazzled by our own work that we refuse to admit it may not be
worth publishing.
At a workshop I held at the Fundacao Oriente a year or two ago, the
focus was obliquely on self-publication; a table was littered with dozens of
examples of self-published books that suffered precisely because they had
been self-published. The authors had paid somebody---sometimes the local
printer---a good bit of money, but the manuscript had not then been treated
with the professionalism that was called for. In many cases, the authors had
not bothered to personally edit and revise their manuscript; in most cases,
the book had not been professionally edited; often, the local printer had no
proofreader on hand to look the pages over. The end result: a mess!
I believe that authors have a responsibility to the people who buy
their books: the books must be as good as they can make them. If they can't
get or afford to get professional help with editing and proofreading, then
they must educate themselves in those fields and do the best they can. So my
advice to authors who wish to go the self-publishing route is simply this:
Write, edit, and produce the best book you possibly can. Have a credible
professional look at it. Then go ahead and publish, but be sure to read and
reread every page before you okay the final proofs. By all means, if the
book turns out well, charge a price for it. But if it falls far beneath
professional standards in basic matters of language and format, please don't
ask people to pay for it---give it away free. Then, make the next book
better.
Regards to all,
Victor Rangel-Ribeiro
"Frederick \"FN\" Noronha" wrote:
I fail to understand how Dr Santosh can look down upon
"self-publication of books". I would believe that there are certain
contexts where self-publication is the only option.
