Finalist lists for pretty much every major New Zealand book award these days usually feature several self-published authors. And contrary to the preconception that these are all newbies who can't get publishing houses interested, many are established writers who choose this course. Self publishing may come with the freedom from anyone changing word of your precious script, but that's also one of the potential fishhooks. How do you use self-publishing to your advantage? Angela Curtis has set up SPINZ - the Self-Publishing Institute of New Zealand - as a social enterprise to offer advice to authors wanting to go down this track. The first online course starts this weekend. Lynn Freeman asks Angela what the reaction has been so far.