Self-publishing

Personally, I have fairly strong views on self publishing & 'vanity presses', but I wondered what the rest of you thought.

What's got me posting about it now is that I was reading a very good post about it on an author's blog.
It is quite long, though, so I'm only linking to it:
http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2009/06/should-you-self-publish.html

So, has anyone considered going down the self publishing route?

i almost got self published about a year ago ^^

Then my mother pulled out of it and i was left broke v.v

Now i just have to do it the old fashioned way, but self publishing sounds like a good idea to me!

~Akurei Enzeru

I used to be dead against it, until I read a letter in a writing magazine (I think it was UK's The Writing Magazine, but can't be sure). This letter mentioned names of people who had self-published - Lord Alfred Tennyson, among others.

I still wouldn't do it, but I don't hate the ads anymore.

I think one of the main important points from the article is very good - it depends what you want to achieve. If you just want to hold a book with your name on it, in a lovely shiny cover, then self-publishing can be a good idea.

Akurei, why did you choose to try and self-publish?

I researched self-publishing and formed this idea in my mind:

The book is mine, the words are mine....why can't i have all the rights of publish too?

The more i thought about that the more i realized i would love to be able to go into a store and see my book published, but I'd love it even more if i could do it myself and have the feeling of even greater pride when i saw someone look at it.

I don't know...i think some day i will self publish at least one of my novels but for the series it would probably be best to get a company! ^^

~Akurei Enzeru

i just go for the e-book since i'm getting my feet wet. plus my "get published in regional parenting magazines" wouldn't do well as a print book since the magazine go out of business and start up new all the time. i also did a tiny ebook on laid-back parenting just to be funny. i'd have a hard time expanding it. i like instant gratification and the selling process would drive me nuts.