Authors: who cares who published your books? Probably no one

I was at a community social event recently to meet some people I knew only through Facebook. I had taken a few copies of a new book to give to them. We were seated in a huge room with hundreds of people and we talked to strangers who were sitting near us. 

When I took the books out and signed them for the FB friends, the strangers immediately asked if they could see them. They flipped through the books and smiled (a good sign). 

One said, "I never met an author before." Another asked where she could buy the book. A third asked how long it takes to write a book. Someone asked if I find it hard to write a book. Another asked how I decide what to write about. 

One question that nobody asked is "what company published the book." 

From what I've observed, a publisher's name on a book is very different from a brand name on a bottle of wine or a pair of shoes. It's more like the name of a TV channel -- pretty darn close to completely irrelevant.

Readers are interested in a book's content and maybe the author's reputation -- not the name of the company that delivered the content. 

• Zoe Winters writes quirky and sometimes dark paranormal romance and fantasy. She says, “The average reader doesn’t care how a book gets to market. If the book is good, it doesn't matter if your Chihuahua published it.” 
• Author Simon Royle wrote, “People don't buy books from publishers. They buy them from authors.” 
• Edward Uhlan founded Exposition Press -- an early and important pay-to-publish company -- in 1936. He said, “Most people can’t tell the difference between a vanity book and a trade book anyway. A book is a book.” 

Concentrate on producing top-quality books, and promote them properly. 

If you will self-publish, choose a good name for your tiny publishing company. Don't for a minute fret that readers will reject you because the logo on your books doesn't belong to Penguin or Simon & Schuster.

You Can Have Your Own Book Publishing Company 

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dog pic from Google Images