Okay, those of you on my f'list probably read about Gary's encounter with a reporter who assumed his work was self-published. Today, sarajlarson told me she and some author friends went out to dinner at a restaurant, and the waiter likewise asked them if they were self-published.

So, it seems a whole lot of people are not understanding the professional writer = that writer gets paid equation, or (more likely) they've been seeing (and believing) a lot of shiny, shiny ads from BookSurge etc.

Which led me to think of a hypothetical situation.

It is entirely possible for a self-published writer to have enough aesthetic sense and money to get a decent, professional-looking book cover and to put up a professional-looking website that, to a casual observer, might make it seem like they're identical to an author who slogged through the writing trenches and actually sold his/her book to an estabished publisher, got a professional advance, etc. But having a self-published book with a pretty cover and a slick website doesn't mean the book has actual merit.

The self-published writer in question has no short fiction/article sales listed on the site. Which could either mean they're not a good writer, or it could mean they simply don't do short work. There are no reviews of the self-published book available anywhere as far as you can see. Which again could mean the book sucks, or it could mean it simply hasn't been reviewed yet.

So let's assume the book could go either way: it could be the well-considered, well-written, professionally-edited product of a literary rebel, or it could be a mediocre-to-bad work that wasn't well-written enough to attract the attention of even a small press. You don't know.

Here's the hypothetical situation:

You're a professionally-published author with a few dozen story sales and two novels from a mass-market publisher to your credit. You've slugged it out in the slushpiles for years, have worked hard on your craft, and you're finally feeling like you've got a real writing career on your hands. Hooah!

You get an email from the organizers of an SF convention: they've invited you to be a 2nd-tier author guest at the next con. They're offering you a free membership and a listing on their website, but no reimbursement of travel costs etc.

Then you visit the site and discover that the aforementioned self-published writer with the shiny website is listed as a 2nd-tier author guest.

How does this make you feel about the convention and its organizers?