If it's good enough for Samuel Clemens...

Self-publishing may or may not be the future. Then again, back in the 90's people said CDs would never replace analogue recordings. The technology avalanche just keeps building, evolving. Now we have Blueray and I'm going to have to buy Star Wars again.

Being surrounded by younger people much more tech savvy can be intimidating or inspirational. Taking the latter viewpoint as it applies to the publishing industry, you can only see a broader horizon. There are so many options now to get a book into the hands of readers a) very quickly, and b) with full control over the process.

Audrey Owen has a nice site that lays out some of the pros and cons of self-publishing. On the plus side, you have:

• much more control of the process - you choose your formatting, style, cover artwork, et al.
  
• money - self-published writers can earn 40-60% of the sale price of the book as opposed to the standard 10%
• time - the production time alone can take 12-18 months, and let's not get started on the JK Rowling-esque years of endless query letters to agents and publishers.
  

If the reason you're writing is because you have a voice, a vision, or a story you feel compelled to share with others, self-publishing might be an option.

The downside of these same points is that you have to do most of the pre-production work yourself. You invest your own money instead of letting your publisher run the risk, and for some authors, the marketing process can be as frustrating and disheartening as the query-letter-rejection-letter stage.

I'm excited to explore this option and see where it goes (and not just because my husband keeps asking me when I'm going to sell my book and make a million dollars so he can retire). If this really is the next wave, I might as well be on it.

Recommended tea for weighing the pros and cons: Organic Assam (lemon and honey optional)