I’ve never self-published before. I’m old enough (50) to remember when readers at large frowned upon self-publishing. You’re not good enough for the Big Leagues. Why should I bother reading your crap?

Fortunately, that stigma, while not entirely gone, has been taken down a few pegs. Some of the most popular books (Legends & Lattes, Dungeon Crawler Carl, The Martian, We Are Legion [We Are Bob]) were all first self-published and are now massively successful. There are several other examples I could name.

So, it’s not that they’re not ready for the Big Leagues. They had to prove they were. And boy did they.

Many other authors got followers through independence, built a fan base, and were later picked up by the Big Five. It’s possible.

But when do you pull the trigger? At what point do you convince yourself that it’s you and nobody else?

I’m not there yet, but I am open to it. And I’d love to hear about when people reached their breaking points and hit publish on their own.

Is there anybody out there? (Say it like Roger Waters did from Pink Floyd’s The Wall.)