A change is needed !

Jim Cox writes:
With the growing popularity and ease with which authors can turn their manuscripts into finished books simply by writing a check to a Publish On Demand (POD) company, or following such instructive 'how to' manuals as "Dan Poynter's Self-Publishing Manual: How to Write, Print and Sell Your Own Book" or"The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing: Everything You Need to Know to Write, Publish, Promote and Sell Your Own Book" by Marilyn Ross & Sue Collier, the term 'self published' came into widespread usage -- with a consequently commonly encountered problem.

There were so many 'self published' books coming into the market that had serious flaws in them that the term 'self published' became fairly synonymous with 'substandard'. So much so that most professional book review publications and reviewers, book wholesalers and distributors, and bookstore retailers, would not consider a self-published book. This prejudice against self published titles continues to this very day.

But there is an antidote to that discriminatory reflex. A simple change of wording. I recommended that the term "Self Published" should be replaced with the term "Privately Published" in all book marketing related materials -- and most especially in book reviews.