As a fellow struggling author, I am also dealing with not only the insanity-inspiring process of searching out an agent, while at the same time wondering if, by the time I get a book published, there will even still be book publishing.

The problem I see with self-publishing being the next incarnation is, as David says above, quality control. Nine years ago, I got fed up with the search for agents (one having ripped me off already) and decided to self-publish. In my mind, I thought it was ready and went for it.

I ended up making the money back on the publishing itself, with a little extra, but within the past couple of years happened across the book on my shelf and flipped through it, becoming immediately embarrassed by it.

Writing is an evolutionary craft with every style and voice taking years to develop. Between then and now, that became obvious and I quickly set out to rewrite the entire book. I am currently on the first edit after the rewrite and luckily, as one benefit to self-publishing, own the rights so can replace the old with the new when it is ready.

Traditional publishing has its merits in that the rejection process, while cold and heartless, allows authors to develop and learn to improve their work before it is too late. Yes, that is something of a contradiction as I just proved that, with self-publishing, it is never too late. However, if the industry goes to this and authors are allowed to replace their books on a whim, we’ll possibly end up with a world where either authors are no longer prolific (no one will ever let their work rest) or the readers lose their trust that buying a book means buying the actual story, not just this version of it.

Granted, mine may be a unique experience and everyone else would be a better judge of their own writing from the beginning, but looking at and reading some of the self-published books out there makes me a fervent believer in the world of agents and traditional publishers…quality control.

If you are writing because you want to see your name in lights, then you will want a traditional publishing house with an agent and the whole works (similarly, in scholarly publishing, you will want to publish in a high-impact journal).

But if you are writing because you just want someone–anyone–to read your words, then the message outweighs the medium and you might as well post it on your own Web site for free, forever.

Even if self-publishing proves its worth by finding readers, it’s still so much harder to find an audience – no matter the book’s worth – as books are generally online-only. So it’s a kind of last resort, but a totally valid avenue, given the current climate.

I’m working on another post that explores one other lesson that self-published writers might learn from the scholarly publishing world. In trying to answer the question of whether a self-published writer should give his work away for free (for a limited period of time) in an attempt to build up an audience, I’m going to take a look at the “free for a few years” strategy that some newly launched journals use. Should have that one up next week.