Tired of agents and publishers fighting the last war, Christopher Joll decided to self-publish. It worked out well, eventually, but fellow travellers must be aware that Author House and others exist to make money from - not via - their authors.
When, in 2012, the mighty Penguin paid $112 million for Author Solutions, it could be said that self-publishing had come of age. No longer could self-published books be sneered at as vanity publishing or, as Lady Mazzini in Kind Hearts and Coronets might have said: "Authors of quite good books go in for self-publishing now, I understand..." Indeed. But, for the author who decides to go down this route, there is a question as big as that facing the conventional publisher looking at manuscripts: which one to choose?
