The mainstream publishing industry has popularized the stereotype that “self-published” books are inferior to “traditional” ones because the author does not receive an advance and the services provid-ed are less professional. The reality is that the Big Four publishers attained their enormous market share by, at least initially, relying on author subsidies. When advances were paid, they were typically loans that had to be repaid if a book failed to sell a volume of books that would cover the advance. The top classical American and British authors either founded their own publishing ventures, or oc-casionally subsidized their less “marketable” books. Authors’ greatest obstacle since the earliest books were released thousands of years ago has been censorship of radical, non-conformist, reform-ist, and otherwise contrary positions that stood in conflict with monarchs, presidents, corruption, and crime. Giant publishers use self-censorship to appease the demands of despots. It takes a radical self-publishing author to realize divergent idea.
From Texas:
Canonical and Influential Author-Publishers
by Anna Faktorovich, PhD