I read Jim C Hines post today in which he states “it isn’t an us vs them thing” (regarding self publishing verses traditional publishing).

I found the post through Reddit, and I agreed with it. As I commented on the post, Self Publishing is about giving authors options. The more options you have, the better decision you can make.

So I went into the comments on Reddit, and what did I find? Several would be authors saying how much better traditional publishing is. (Not a single one of them, from what I can tell, were published in any way.)

Sigh. You guys… you missed the point.

Not to say that self publishing doesn’t have it’s fair share of elitists. This thread was just filled with traditional publishing elitists.
“Self publishing is for people in a hurry to get published”… well, yes.
“Self publishing is full of rank amateurs.” Sure. So it everything else.
“SP is all drivel…” No. Just, no.

The route of self publishing isn’t better, or worse. It is what you make of it. How much time and effort you put in. How much insight you want to share. Or just plain fun.

It is an option that, by it’s very existence, gives authors avenues they did not have just ten years ago. It gives them the ability to stand up to a publisher and say “this contract isn’t good enough, I’ll do it myself.”

Now, is it right for everyone? Of course not. But that is up to the author to decide, not the mass of people on some shitty forum that can’t get their head out of their ass.

(Too far?)

Seriously, people. We have enough entitled elitists making rules for other people to live by. Just stop it. We defeated the gate keepers. We have open access to the world. But that doesn’t entitle us to be dicks about it.

“Don’t be a dick.” Wheaton’s law. Learn it. Live it. Good!