Self-Publishing Spectrum
Toward a History of Self-publishing in American Literature
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jolie Braun
Self-publishing has a negative connotation, commonly dismissed as the domain of bad writing and irrelevant authors. Yet it has been the means of introducing some of our most interesting, important, controversial, and beloved works. American literature is rich with stories of writers who published their own work, including Walt Whitman, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Amiri Baraka. While scholars have studied this topic in relation to specific authors and publications, there has been relatively little focus on the history of self-publishing. Why has this history not been told? What are the benefits and challenges in trying to tell this story? Drawing from an Ohio State University Library exhibition exploring American literature through the lens of self-publishing, this paper reflects on and uses the process of exhibit curation as a starting point for considering these questions, what work has been done on this subject, and what gaps still exist.
Wattpad Self-(un)publisher: Electronic Self-publishing in the Philippines
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Karryl Kim Sagun
I focus on self-publishers on Wattpad, a Canadian-based web application founded in 2006, primarily because of its unusual popularity and success (relative to similar platforms) in the Philippines. What makes Wattpad’s success in this context more intriguing is that in a developing country such as the Philippines, people are still buying printed materials in spite of the availability of the same titles for free, legally, online. I interviewed three Wattpad self-publishers based in the Philippines: Mina V. Esguerra, Noreen Capili, and Kimberly Villanueva. All three agreed to be quoted verbatim, and be referred to by name. They have all published both on electronic platforms (particularly Wattpad) and in print. From their narratives I discover that while authors certainly have less barriers to entry for self-publishing due to newer technologies, their hands are still held by traditional publishers (most of the time assisting them, but in some occasions apparently still taking advantage of them).
