Lately I have been reading a ton about people who self publish on the Kindle through Amazon.com. It seems to be an interesting way to develop a readership while not waiting forever to get approval from the "powers that be" before moving on to another project.
The problem as I see it, when it comes to traditional publishing avenues, isn't that you get rejected but that the development time takes so damn long. It can take a writer anywhere from a week to years to develop an idea and commence with writing the actual novel. Then you have to wait anywhere from a week to years to be accepted or give up on the project due to an obscene amount of rejections from agents or whomever.
What you write could be stale or you just might be plain sick of it by the time it is ready to be marketed, sold, etc. I don't know how other people work, but I am an idea guy and I have to strike while the iron is hot. The alternative is a relative limbo where you languish between writing the book, fixing it, and wondering if anyone, anywhere, will ever read it. That is IF an agent actually makes it through a slush pile a mile high, actually reads your whole manuscript, and then is able to successfully pitch it to a publishing house.
I am trying to find reasons why I should not pursue this avenue. It would mean instant and global possibilities as it pertains to readership. It makes it even harder to resist because as I research the subject there seems to be an abundance of relatively obscure authors who have had a good bit of success doing this.
Don't get me wrong, I still want to find an agent and go the traditional publishing route as well. But now I might not have to wait for their approval before putting my product into the hands of the reader. The only down side that I can see, seems to be that the end product MIGHT not be as polished as it would be after going through the publishing house gauntlet of editors. I am starting to think that the down side is much smaller than the upside.
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