| Somewhere between "Don't Hassel the Hoff-The | | | | Pamphlet blog, Harvard Law professor Stewart |
| David Hasselhoff Story" and "Miles to Go" by Miley | | | | Shieber bemoans the factual inaccuracies and the |
| Cyrus (yes, she is 16), someone got fed up. With | | | | lack of impact generated by self-published |
| head tilted toward the top of the bookstore shelf, | | | | scholarly journals. The same concern, he says, |
| some reader bemoaned "I could write a better | | | | comes from self-publishing, that creating factual |
| memoir than that!" And with this simple assertion, | | | | texts with no oversight lowers the credibility of |
| self-publishing was born. | | | | books as factually accurate. |
| With more and more Americans blazing their own | | | | That's why many self-publishers recommend |
| trail across the blogosphere, self-publishing seems | | | | sticking to a subject you know best: yourself. As |
| like a given. Borders and Barnes & Noble have | | | | most self-published works will never make |
| started self-publishing services and even provide | | | | money, authors looking to self-publish will have the |
| tips and assistance from other authors. But not | | | | most success creating books as a chronicle of |
| everyone is so keen on the idea of everyone | | | | their own life or as an inspirational gift for |
| trying to go it alone onto a bookshelf near you. | | | | someone. Some publishing sites help people tell |
| Derisively called vanity publishing by critics, | | | | their life stories with tips on autobiography writing, |
| self-publishing provides less oversight for what is | | | | journal publishing, and family history keeping. |
| being delivered. Like blogs and user-generated | | | | As blogs continue to clog up the internet, |
| encyclopedia services, fact-checking becomes a | | | | would-be writers interested in sharing their stories |
| concern. When a publishing entity puts out a book, | | | | not only with accidental net searchers but with |
| facts, dates and assertions must be checked to | | | | generations of family members will continue to |
| insure the integrity of the publishing company. In | | | | find ways to get published. Now all they need is a |
| an October 2009 article on his Occasional | | | | cheesy, pun-riddled title of their very own. |