It is my belief that for years writers have been stifled. Yes, the traditional way of publishing has always put a writer in a box. Either you write for one genre or another. You don't mix and match. Well, I have to say that is just so much crap.
When I first started writing and sending out manuscripts to traditional publishers, there was always the same old remarks. Too long, not right for this publisher, just not special enough, blah blah blah. And the main thing that got me was that you had to write to fit a certain market. If you wrote romance, heaven forbid that you had more than one hero and heroine in your script, and if you didn't end your story on a happy note with both the hero and the heroine falling into each others arms without a care in the world, then you were not writing a romance.
There were many other restrictions as well. You could not have a romance and a mystery tied up together. You could have a romantic suspense but that had to be formatted to fit the publishers expectations. There was no such thing as writing freely what was on your mind and in your heart to do so. There were always 'those guidelines' to remember and think about. Heaven forbid if you broke one and stepped out of the box.
Self publishing is absolute freedom! When you write a story, you can write it the way you want to write it, end it the way you want to end it. And I think readers are having an absolutely great time reading stuff that would have never been taken from the slush pile to the printer. You can make a story as long or as short as you want it to be. You can choose your own cover, and who better than the author to know what should be on the cover? After all, who wrote the damn thing?
By now you have probably figured out that I don't like restrictions, and I don't think readers should have to be restricted to what they write. The publisher governing days are over. Finally writers have found the freedom they've been searching for. The freedom to be themselves, to write what they want and feel good about it. Writing is not all about making a fortune. It's nice when you find an audience for your work, that's for sure, however, most writers write just because they need to write. And those that format their work just so they can sell what they write, well...that's their right isn't it? And believe me, they do find a market. Why is that? Mainly because readers have become so conditioned to search out and read the same old stuff that they always did (that dictated by the big publishers) that it will take some time to recondition their minds.
Never let it be said that uniqueness is not special and every once in a while a really special and unique book comes along. Sad to say though that because of the brain washing of the traditional publishers way, a lot of readers are still in that zombie state.
So hail the self publisher and the new days to come. Writers can write freely, work exhaustively and publish as often as they wish. Take heart all you new writers. If you still wish to go the traditional route, be prepared to have your work tramped on, scoffed at, changed and belittled. Be prepared to watch your precious novel be teared apart before your very eyes. And when all has settled into the proper format, be prepared to do as most self publishers do today...promote your own work. Yes, the days of having someone hold your hand, edit your typos, put your book into a salable state and then promote you wildly are sadly gone.
So, hop out of the box and write to your heart's content. Write what you want, when you want, where you want and do it freely with passion and joy. Happy writing to all free spirits who want only to write and present that writing to the reading public.