Discussing the state of the self-publishing world recently, someone asserted that the stigma of self-publishing was gone. Someone else said, “Well, maybe it shouldn’t be.” I had to push for a clearer explanation. When I got it, I thought, Yeah, he may have a point. Here’s how:

The stigma of self-publishing wasn’t related to just one characteristic. It related to quality issues, sales issues, and the general perception that someone who self-published didn’t have what it took to make it in the commercial publishing world. Looking over that list, some of those issues have changed:

- The sales issue was tied up in the lack of access to good distribution. Today, authors can find all kinds of great distribution options. Brick-and-mortar access is still tough (unless you have a budget to play with the big boys), but you can be available and connected with readers in ways that publishers aren’t nimble enough to rival.

- the “not-good-enough” issue is being stood on its head as more than just a few commercially published authors are slipping away from their publishers and beginning to publish themselves. Some of them are going eBook only, while others are using a combination of eBooks and POD technology to be available to their readers where-ever the readers want them. However they accomplish it, they’re taking control of their own publishing endeavors — they are self-publishing.

But, here’s where my conversation partner had a point: the quality issue. Commercially published books aren’t perfect. In fact, if you’re the kind of reader I am, you may get a little bit of glee over catching errors. (I know, I know, how tremendously petty!). But, they do attain to a certain standard of quality. Even if it’s not the type of book you usually read, there is a bar set for quality that the vast majority of the titles will meet or exceed.

Compare that to self-publishing. If you ordered 10 random self-published titles from your favorite distributor or retailer, you’d get a mixed bag of results. You might get a few with great covers and a few with covers so bad they’re practically criminal. As you read, you might find that some of them were tremendously well edited. More of them, however, would be barely edited at all, leaving you to wonder about the author’s own ability to concoct a brilliant sentence. The interior design of some will be up to industry standards. Others will use all the wrong fonts and be completely illegible.

So, consider this an open challenge: If you’re going to self-publish, it’s up to you to ensure that you don’t deserve the stigma of self-publishing. You can choose to do great work (and hire the right people) and have a high-quality book. Do it. Don’t let yourself wind up with a book that gets in the way of your message. Don’t deserve the stigma!