Self Publishing
Self publishing has long been more popular in the areas of science fiction and fantasy than in other genres - except possibly poetry (of course, there's self-published scifi poetry too). On any convention visit, you'll see books in odd formats here and there on stands. You won't see them so often in bookshops, but they're appearing on websites now - Amazon sell some, and you'll often see a "buy my book" link on personal sites and blogs. Some of this is vanity publishing, but more and more, I'm seeing real self-publishing happening. Diane Duane is putting out The Big Meow to an appreciative audience chapter by chapter, and will be selling printed editions when she's done. Deirdre Ruane is publishing her travel stories from an epic trip across Asia via a British printing company. Wolfgang Baur is offering the chance to decide what he writes for a D&D adventure. I'm sure there are more such projects out there, too - the days of desktop publishing really seem to have come at last.
The urge to see stuff in print on paper is very great, and I'm thinking that when I finally finish the base details for the Starbound setting, I'll probably work them into a book - a bible, as they say of TV series setting books - and run off a dozen copies or so, for friends or people who want to write in the setting. Or maybe more people will want them, and I'll print a few dozen.
Posted by Drew Shiel at April 1, 2006 7:34 PM
I have one out there too - an novel that is both an insider's portrait of nuclear power and a thriller. See the reader comments at my home page for reviews.
Posted by: James Aach at April 1, 2006 8:11 PM