HYDERABAD: Not everyone who writes is an author and not everyone who self-publishes can have the stature of legendary British author Virginia Woolf who founded Hogarth Press along with her husband Leonard and published her famous novels ‘Mrs. Dalloway’ and ‘To the Lighthouse’.
Even poet Ezra Pound self-published his first poetry collection ‘A Lume Spento’ and sold the same on the street! Another example is journalist-turned author Ernest Hemingway, unable to find a traditional publisher, went ahead and self-published his first collection of stories and poems. Rejections by the giant publishing houses led these wordsmiths to opt for other ways that are sneered upon by the same publishing houses.
But we are talking about stalwarts here. Not everyone is a Woolf or a Pound. At the same time, in India and abroad self-publishing is fast becoming the trend with its share of ups and downs, strings and pull-downs.
So, books that are self-published beat the odds? A recent report from Bowker, the US company that issues International Standard Book Numbers better known as ISBN, says that self-publishing has grown over the years. From 2010 to 2015, the number of ISBNs from self-published books has grown by 37 per cent.
The self-publishing platforms, are of course, benefiting. But are the writers and poets benefiting from it? If yes how? City based poet Jameela Nishat, who’s part of Poets Translating Poets Germany Tour organised by Goethe Zentrum, has recently published her poetry book ‘Butterfly Caresses’ from Partridge, a self-publishing organisation, that charges minimum `30,000 from authors. Jameela is happy with their services and elaborates, “I got a free hand while selecting my works, designs and even proofs. I didn’t approach the traditional publishers as I’d not have got so much of say in my work.”
While the skillful writers and poets can get their works published without much interference, unfortunately those who are not ‘writers’ push their works to these publishers, pay them a hefty amount and proclaim themselves as wordsmiths.
That’s where traditional publishers count as in many of the international contests, awards, etc., self-published books aren’t allowed for participation. Criteria for entering Man Booker Prize clearly states: “Self-published works are not eligible where the author is the publisher.” Similarly, The Griffin Poetry Prize offers a whopping C$65,000 for the best collection of poetry in English but debars self-published books stating the same “are not eligible”. They define it as: “A self-published work is one for which the author has paid for and managed all aspects of producing the work.”
“There’s a thin line between vanity publishing and self-publishing. Sometimes a lot of trash writing happens through self-publishing. But again there are journals started by really skilled writers that have proper editorial staff and selection process. It’s the talent and quality of writing that are yardsticks for judging the works,” says poet Inam Hussain Mullick.
That’s how when modern Indian poet Dilip Chitre’s book was published by group of his friends the focus of the literati was only on the poems and not the publishing house. Journalist and author Rana Ayyub’s book ‘Gujarat Files: The Anatomy of a Cover-Up’ is a self-published book based on a sting operation that rocked the nation and made it to the headlines.
So, is self-publication a fad? Says city-based poet and author Nabina Das who has authored a couple of books and is well-known for her international fellowships, “In most cases, sadly, I see self publication as a serious setback to good writing. Especially when there are scores of little places armed with computers and DTP layout experts – no expert in language, plot, theme, characters, style – churning out book after book by mostly young aspirants.” She adds, “As a poet particularly, I’m pained at times to see quickly printed short collections that have never encountered a second set of editorial eyes. The result is shoddy, clichéd and cloying poetry laced with regular tiresome tropes and no surprises or poetic skills.” And she’s correct as sometimes even the titles of the books aren’t checked and get published.
This is what happened in the case of Kovida Yalamanchi’s book ‘The Window Seat and Other Stories’ which was self-published. Another book by the same title has been published by Penguin and is authored by an Australian writer Archie Weller way back in 2009. The writer tries to explain, “We noticed this after the book was rushed into print. But I have used an ampersand instead of ‘and’ that the title of this book published from Penguin has. In that way I am safe.”
Readers, in particular need to be intelligent enough to judge a book on its merit and make right judgement as not many self-publishing houses are like that of Writers Workshop, a Calcutta-based literary publisher, founded by P Lal. The same has editorial staff and a rigorous selection process to separate the gems from pebbles. The house has published glittering names like Ruskin Bond, Keki Daruwalla, Arun Kolatkar among others. If only all self-publishing houses were the same! Talk about quick self-promotion. Talk about vanity publishing.