Voices of Fiction - Traditional or Self-Publication - Part One

Welcome back to Voices of Fiction.

The world of publishing changes with each passing day. Self-Publication has become easier than it was in the past. And many authors are jumping on board for this new direction, while many steer toward the traditional route.

Which direction will you choose? Join us over the next few weeks as our group of authors discusses their preferred method and reasons for their choice.

Please welcome this week's group.

Reno Charlton works from home as a full-time copywriter, providing clients around the world with content for websites, magazines and other media. She’s also the author of three children’s fantasy novels. Under the pen name, Emily Ho, she’s published two short stories, winning the Curtis Brown Short Story Competition with ‘The Journey Home.’ - Amazon UK, Amazon, Goodreads

Catrina Barton is a licensed Kung Fu Instructor of the Black Dragon style and draws on that experience to make her fight scenes both realistic and action packed. She enjoys being surrounded by the stark beauty of mother nature, such as a moon lit starry sky, or a picnic by a peaceful waterfall cascading from the mountain side. - Amazon, Blog

Karina Kantas is the author of six titles, In Times of Violence, Lawless Justice, Road Rage and Huntress (which is published by MMP.) She's also the author of Stone Cold a YA supernatural thriller and Heads & Tales, a short story collection. Karina originates from the UK but now lives in Greece with her husband and two beautiful daughters. - Amazon, Barnes/Noble, Website

Cherie Reich is a writer, freelance editor, book blogger, and library assistant living in Virginia. - Website, Blog



Welcome Authors! It's wonderful to have you back.

What is your publishing method choice: Traditional or Self-Publication? Why?

Reno Charlton - Although I would love to get the advance that sometimes comes with traditional as well as the publicity, self-pub means that you have greater control and do not have to cope with huge amounts of rejections. There are pros and cons to both in my opinion.

Catrina Barton - Self-publication. I love a good challenge, always have. Plus, after putting so much blood, sweat, and tears into my novels, I'm not about to have someone else tell me my best scenes have to be cut out because of word counts.

Karina Kantas - I work with both, but I've started a new scheme where readers can pay me direct. I'm making more money this way than I ever did with my publisher.

Cherie Reich - Right now, it is self-publishing. So far, I have novelettes and novellas published as well as a flash fiction collection and a short story collection. Some small publishers accept that length, but the bigger publishers don't, unless you're an established writer. I work as a freelance editor, so I do feel with my ability to edit and having some of the best critique partners around that I can edit a story as well as most publishers. Formatting wasn't too hard to figure out (Smashwords Style Guide is wonderful!), and one of my critique partners has a good eye for designing covers for me. So right now, self-publishing works best. But I'm not against trying more traditional publishers when I get ready to submit my novel-length works for the fact that they have a better ability to gather reviews and could help me contact book bloggers that don't accept self-published novels.

Thank you all for joining us today.

Readers and Authors, feel free to ask questions and leave comments concerning this topic in the comment section below. You may also send questions to chergreen@chergreen.com

(Disclaimer - Bios and photos submitted by authors.)