My guess is that PROFESSIONAL PUBLISHING, by definition, is something more than the author getting their work out.
There has to be others in between the author and the publication, the publishers themselves.
In the old days, there were EDITORS involved in the process, but from what I understand, there is little of that any more.
Also, professional publication involves the publisher handling the expense of printing and distribution. For it to be a professional publication, money should always flow TO the author.
We will see if I am close to reality.
quote:
does that disqualify that writing for professional publishing
No, but you have exercised your first world and electronic rights by publishing yourself digitally (meaning you can't sell those rights to anyone else, only reprint rights.)
When you self-publish, those two filters don't exist. If your definition of professionally publish means going through those two filters, then no, you're not professionally published.
I think the agent/editor part of the publishing process helps give the reader a confidence that the book will be at a certain level. Self-publishing, to me anyway, means the quality of the work is a bit of a crap shoot and should be priced according to the risk the reader takes.
The professional publisher also knows how to market their books and most self-publishers probably don't.
If your work becomes popular on the istore (or whatever) just based on word of mouth, then perhaps publishers might want to acquire it? Or would they still be put off by not having first print rights?