Far be it from us to label ourselves gurus in the industry. The truth is that we're far from it. What we know, though, are books - how to spot a good one, what makes a good one, what others should read, etc. And, I've been hearing so much buzz about self-publishing, that I figured I'd offer a few nuggets of information. In advance, thanks for the indulgence.
Self-publishing has such a stigma attached to it, and has for as long as I can remember. I think that stems from the idea that most publishing houses, working authors, agents kind of viewed it as books that never made it in the traditional sense, books that were rejected, books that the author put out there regardless of feedback. I can see, in many scenarios, that the stigma is warranted. Even talking with Laurel Seville a little while back, we chatted it up about the dreaded iUniverse imprint. I said I began to fret when I saw that imprint. She said it was warranted.
Laurel Seville was an iUniverse author.
Truth is, it's a very different game these days. For every book published through conventional means (small press, large press, and the likes) there seem to be ten self-published books. At least, I'm wagering that's the shift. I get sent near a hundred books per month for review and several dozen e-books. Of that, nearly 75% of the ebooks are self-published, and half of the print ones are self-published.
I do attempt to read every single thing that I come across. Most I finish, but there are some that do not warrant my attention. I try, too, not to judge by the self-published status. Truly, I've found some real gems amongst them.
Take David Barbee's "The Superior", which may be on of the best superhero stories I've ever read.
Regardless of my opinion on the writer, J.A. Konrath's latest Jack Daniels mystery - published through Amazon Encore - is remarkable.
Laurel Seville's "Postmortem" has been one of my favorite books of the year.
So, what I'm saying is there are some very good books out there that are self published. Don't just judge based on that imprint, please.
BUT, the other side, the worse side, is that there are some god awful ones out there, as well. So, I offer a few pointers for those writers who have an aspiration of finding their book in the libraries or with a higher ranking at Amazon. Take note, please: your self-published book is going to be more expensive than the others it is up against. You may want to make the reader feel they're justified in their purchase.
1.) If you have typos on the back cover description of your book, I'll not touch it. Kiss your review goodbye. I will not release the author's name or the title, but looking at the book, the back cover description contained more than twenty typos. And these were not just spelling errors. These were things that were blatant ignorance to the English language - using "a" rather than "an", "their" rather than "they're", and man more. Needless to say, this is not the worst sort that I've received like this. Please, folks, amp that cover description. It made me not even crack the cover.
2.) If your cover description grabs me, I'm opening the front page and...YOU HAVE TYPOS ON THE COPYRIGHT PAGE. Nearly had me jumping into paragraph one. But, when you spell Macabre Publishing - Macrabe...you've lost me. But the one that really burns me is when I see: COPYWRIGHT or COPYWRITE. No, I'm not joking.
3.) Everything is starting to look good. But, you've got no idea where to stop. If you're writing, please learn how to write. I like writers. But, one of the main reasons this book didn't go the conventional rout is that you don't know one iota about this craft. Just because Simon and Schuster didn't want your seven hundred page epic, doesn't mean self-publish the thing and send it into the world. Yes, I know you're saying that J.K. Rowling's books were longer. As were George R.R. Martin's, J.R.R. Tolkein's, and Stephen King's. Do you really want me to respond to those?
4.) And finally, without the addition of a hired copy editor, you're really going to need to man up and comb through your work. I've not read one book this year that had fewer than four editorial missteps (including bestsellers). It happens; I get it. But you, you self-published writer, you have nobody combing over your works to eliminate the mistakes down to four. You need to make sure every "there" is appropriate, every "who" and "whom" is distinguished, and rid your yarn of those stupid, no-purpose words like "irregardless".
We'll be back tomorrow with a lighter side of things as we talk to bizarro author Steve Lowe, the author of Muscle Memory.
Until then, keep reading.
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