Twenty years ago, self-published authors were regarded by the book publishing industry as second-tier authors who were not quite good enough. How have things changed, and for the better! Today, a self-published author, Michael Winkler, has been longlisted for the Miles Franklin Award for Grimmish, a novel he self-published before it was taken up by a commercial publisher. Good luck, Michael! The truth is that there are not enough commercial publishers for all the amazing books people write and so many amazing books are, as a result, independently published. From chatting to other authors, it seems that traditional publishing houses tend to veer away from taking risks, such as a novel that doesn’t fit the genre mould which is a great pity. I’m published by commercial publishers, and I love working with them, but I guess my style of writing doesn’t challenge the crime fiction genre too much. I’m in awe of authors like Winkler who self-publish because it should never be underestimated how hard it is to have a successful book via that route and how much work it takes to arrange the self-publishing process.