Here’s how I see it: If your book has typos and poor formatting, OF COURSE, agents, publishers and others will think less of you. But that has nothing to do with self-publishing per se. That’s just someone doing a poor job. My point? Agents, publishers and others used to assume that a self-published book — by definition — was no good. They no longer assume that. The evidence? A number of self-published books have been picked up by traditional publishers and gone on to become bestsellers. Brunonia Barry’s The Lace Reader and Charles Duhigg’s The Power of Habit are two such examples.

“There is one downside of self-publishing.”

I’d like to add a second downside. Self-publishing still carries a stigma. Many agents, readers, and others believe that a self-published book will be riddled with typos and poor formatting. Authors who press the publish button without ensuring a top-quality product perpetuate that stigma.