A while back I read another article decrying the poor quality of self-published books. Apparently someone who had never bought self-published books before decided to "take a look" and bought a few. The author of the article said she was "horrified" to find poor writing and formatting, typos, and even spelling mistakes. She then went on a rant about how self-published books are lowering the standards and how she will never buy self-published books again.
This happened some time ago and I did not react immediately. I can't remember who the author was and I don't know whether the article is still up on the net. But this article lingered in my mind and only recently did it resurface to annoy me. Today I will respond to it. I have only one thing to say.
It's a market! OK? It's a #%&* market!
I mean, really, when you go to your local market do you brainlessly place items in your shopping cart and buy them without taking a look at them? Then why do you think Amazon or B&N are any different? All markets have products of different quality. If you did not examine the book before buying it, if you just bought it, for example, because it had a nice cover or because it cost only $0.99, then whose fault is it if you find you didn't like it?
To avoid these problems please do these things before buying a book.
1) Check the sample pages. Do not buy the book if the sample pages look lousy.
2) Check the reviews of the book. Do not buy a book with no reviews or a bad overall review.
3) Visit the author's web-site and sample their work. If you don't like the author's writing the odds are you won't like that particular book.
In the self-published world there are no gatekeepers. No editor is going to do the thinking for you. You are the buyer and it is up to you to decide whether the book you are about to buy is good enough for you. Please follow these simple rules and spare us from yet another article about the poor quality of self-published books.
Thank you.
Please check out my first collection of short stories, The Sun Zebra.
This happened some time ago and I did not react immediately. I can't remember who the author was and I don't know whether the article is still up on the net. But this article lingered in my mind and only recently did it resurface to annoy me. Today I will respond to it. I have only one thing to say.
It's a market! OK? It's a #%&* market!
I mean, really, when you go to your local market do you brainlessly place items in your shopping cart and buy them without taking a look at them? Then why do you think Amazon or B&N are any different? All markets have products of different quality. If you did not examine the book before buying it, if you just bought it, for example, because it had a nice cover or because it cost only $0.99, then whose fault is it if you find you didn't like it?
To avoid these problems please do these things before buying a book.
1) Check the sample pages. Do not buy the book if the sample pages look lousy.
2) Check the reviews of the book. Do not buy a book with no reviews or a bad overall review.
3) Visit the author's web-site and sample their work. If you don't like the author's writing the odds are you won't like that particular book.
In the self-published world there are no gatekeepers. No editor is going to do the thinking for you. You are the buyer and it is up to you to decide whether the book you are about to buy is good enough for you. Please follow these simple rules and spare us from yet another article about the poor quality of self-published books.
Thank you.
Please check out my first collection of short stories, The Sun Zebra.
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