Self-Publishing vs. Working with a Traditional Publisher

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32 pointsdanso4 comments

FWIW, I wrote a short post on my experience with self-publishing (real books, that show up on a palette the size of a table, intimidating the cat and wife): http://www.ac4d.com/2011/03/21/bootstrapped-publishing-diy-f...

Somewhat unrelated, but an excellent and informative read. Thank you.

It's not self-publishing, it's indie publishing. There's a difference. Self-publishing meant paying for the manufacture of physical books. There was no distribution. Normally the books sat on a pallet in the author's garage. Readers consisted of the author's family and friends.

Small press publishing is a business, just done at a smaller scale than the majors.

Indie publishing uses digital media and distribution networks to put texts into the hands of readers. Hundreds, thousands or tens of thousands of readers may read the author's work. This is indie publishing.

This article is talking about games, not books... and the distinction here is between keeping all of the costs in-house from production to distribution and publicity. Indie publishing (whether of games or of books) would still likely involve some cost-distribution to the publisher/distributor.

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