There’s an article on CNN.com today about the growing demand and popularity for web-based print-on-demand services.  If you remember, late last year Faraway published the novella Doing the Dead by K.C. Wilson via Lulu.com.  Now, because of the economic downturn, more and more people are turning to services like Lulu and Author Solutions.

Traditionally, self-publishing has been looked down upon by professional publishers and agents, not to mention readers.  For one thing, turning to self-publishing usually meant that the author could not find a professional publisher willing to publish their work–in other words, their book must not have been very good.  There was also a stigma attached to what the CNN article terms “vanity publishing” where authors would pay to have their books published in bulk and then try to market them by themselves.

Sites like Lulu and Author Solutions are now turning this old thinking on its head.  There are many benefits to self-publishing now: total control over the look and marketing of your book, less stress in trying to find a publisher or being rejected, no up-front cost (as opposed to vanity publishing), and now, according to the article, literary success.  Although most self-publishers don’t sell a whole lot of their books (most books in general don’t sell very well), some are achieving literary fame and success and are doing away with the old stigmas attached with self-publishing.

Something to look into?  Read the rest of the article here.