Mike Resnick on his Career in Science Fiction - Part 3 

Mike Resnick PART III

WAPYB: What are your top reasons for as you say "vehemently opposing" self-publishing?

MIKE RESNICK: Like it or not, there is a commercial marketplace out there. In our field, it’s taken up primarily by Tor, Ace, Baen, Bantam, Eos, Warner’s, DAW, del Rey, Roc, and some newer houses like Pyr, Orbit, etc. It’s there, and it’s where the good writers sell their works. If you self-publish, no matter what you, your friends and your family think, that book is a public declaration that the author is not good enough to complete in the marketplace, that indeed the book is so bad that no commercial publisher in the world would pay him money for it and he had to foot the publishing bill himself to get it in print. I know youo don’t want to believe it, but it’s a Scarlet A that will follow the author throughout his career. The absolute best he can hope for is that no professional editor he submits to ever finds out that he self-published. 

Are there exceptions? I’m sure you can name a few; so can I. But the real answer is: not enough to matter.  

WAPYB: What, if any, are the exceptions? For instance, people who are perhaps a little more marginalized in our culture may have a more difficult time selling their stories.

MR: I don’t know what you mean by marginalized. If they don’t know the language and they don’t know how to write, well, no one ever said that everyone who wants to write professionally is good enough.

If you mean marginalized in any other sense, I don’t buy it. There are authors no one ever sees or meets. The late James Tiptree Jr. had a shelf of Hugos and Nebulas before anyone learned that “he” was Alice Sheldon. To this day, no one knows who Thomas Pynchon is. And we only learned about Cordwainer Smith being Paul Linebarger when he was all through writing. So if you’re ugly, or smell bad, or have horrible table manners, or are dealing with a bigoted editor who loathes your race or religion, no one ever has to know anything about you except that you are a writer who is good enough to compete in the commercial marketplace.

WAPYB: In books and film is it not a reality that the artist has a chance of being picked up by a major publisher or studio?

MR: Yes, of course. But don’t equate the words “self-published” with “artist”.  
 
WAPYB: What about small or micro presses?

MR: If they don’t pay, they’re a tenth of a step up from self-publishing, and they remain a public declaration that the author couldn’t get coin of the realm for his work (which leads to the absolutely reasonable assumption that it must be inferior).

WAPYB: Any final words of advice or warnings you'd like emphasize when it comes to self-publishing?

MR: If all you want is to see your name in print, start a blog and good luck to you. But if you want to be a professional writer, remember that the operative word in the term is “professional”. Six-year-olds can write. Professionals get paid to write. Never forget the difference, because publishers, editors, and those you would like to think of as your peers sure as hell won’t.

About Mike Resnick

Mike Resnick has won an impressive five Hugos and been nominated for twenty-two more. He has sold forty-eight novels and almost two hundred short stories. He has edited forty anthologies. His work ranges from satirical fair, such as his Lucifer Jones adventures, to weighty examinations of morality and culture, as evidenced by his brilliant tales of Kirinyaga. The series, with 64 major and minor awards and nominations to date, is the most honored series of stories in the history of science fiction.