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The Reader, The Writer, and The Bad Book in the Self-Publishing Frontier

12/1/2012

19 Comments

 
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I have heard this argument repeated so many times that I feel I need to say something about it. The argument in question comes from two sides. The reader's version states something like "I have bought a self-published book and it was awful. Self-published books have low quality and are badly written. I will never buy a self-published book again!" The writer's version is something like "We self-published writers need to make our work as good as possible because otherwise readers will end up buying sloppily written or edited books that will give self-published writers a bad name. We owe it to ourselves, and to our readers."

I disagree with both.

Let me deal first with the reader. As far as I am concerned, readers are responsible for their purchases. If you purchase a bad product you have no one to blame but yourself. I often think of the analogy of a supermarket. It has products of high and low quality. You walk around with your cart and make shopping decisions based on the quality of the products and your budget. You pick up the items, read the labels, compare one with the other and then make your decision. Why should book buying be any different? So you bought a book and it was bad. Did you read the sample pages? Did you read the reviews? Did you click on the names of the reviewers and check out their other reviews? Did you visit the author's website and read their blog and some free samples? Or did you buy the book because the cover looked good or because it has a high rating on a handful of reviews? The way I see it, the reader HAS the responsibility to find out about the quality of the book they are considering buying. And if a reader buys a bad book I don't appreciate them not owning up to their mistake and chiding all self-published writers in the process.

The argument from the writer's side, although it is a well-meaning call to excellence, falls short of understanding the reality of self-publishing. In self-publishing we are our own boss. We call the shots. The whole point of self-publishing is freedom: freedom from gatekeepers, and freedom to take our work directly to the reader. When you declare that there is freedom, there is someone out there who will use that freedom in ways you won't like. There are authors who put out sloppy books. In fact some do so as a formal strategy where they concentrate on quantity over quality. My approach is to make my book as good as possible within the confines of my personal situation. However, I don't feel I need to embrace a crusading banner and go around trying to encourage others to improve their books for the greater good for the simple reason that I am not a gatekeeper. It is my opinion that any pressure to try to make self-published authors conform to a mold sets a bar, and bars are the warp and woof of gatekeeping. The reason we are self-publishing is to avoid this. Of course there are some commonsense guidelines, and writers ignore them at their own risk. But what you do with your book is your own business. You don't HAVE to do anything and much less OWN IT to anyone. This is the way of the self-publishing frontier.

What do you think?
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19 Comments
Larry Crane link
12/1/2012 03:30:40 am

You're right with respect to readers, Rolando. Book purchasers need to check out the merchandise at least as well as they check out the melons in the produce department before slipping one into the shopping cart. I'm really against writers not doing all they can do to make their book something of value. Of course, value is subjective when it comes to the story or the ideas contained in the book, and I'm pretty lenient here. But, a writer who let's editing errors remain in the finished product that they could have expunged with 55 re-reads of the manuscript is just sloppy and not good, and is as fair a reason as any to pass on future books of this writer's.

Reply
Rolando link
12/1/2012 05:11:09 am

Thanks for your comment Larry. Like you say value is subjective. If readers like my book, and you ask me to choose between doing 10 more re-reads of said book to expunge the last 2 or 3 typos, or working on my next book; I would choose the latter. Of course if the typos are actually pointed out to me, I will fix them. I don't consider myself sloppy, but my time is limited. I just have too much to do. If 80-90% of perfection is enough for the majority of my readers then it is enough for me. If achieving that extra 20-10% perfection will guarantee me book sales, then I will do it. If not, then it's not worth my time.

But the point of the article is that this is MY approach, which is different from yours, and from that of others. We may all have opinions about the work of other authors, but I disagree about voicing them in terms such as "authors HAVE to do this or that for the common good of all self-published writers." My reaction to this is along the lines of "who gave you the right to speak for all of us."

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Barbara Alfaro link
12/2/2012 11:40:10 pm

I have purchased ebooks published by the big, traditional publishing houses that were filled with formatting errors. In the greedy rush to cash in on ebook sales, trad publishers often simply transposed the hardback or paperback text into an ebook without doing the necessary reformatting for ebook editions. One of the traditional publishing houses published an ebook with such weird spacing and so many garbled words it was totally unreadable. It was a philosophy book. I imagine publishers are focusing on trendy mommy porn instead of George Santayana! Yet, I have never read anything about the "low quality" of the hastily and sloppily published ebooks of the big six publishing houses.

Because of negative experiences with the ebooks of trad publishers, I always read reviews of ebooks before purchasing and one of the key phrases I look for is "well formatted."

No one likes to be falsely accused. Personally, I'm weary of hearing about the poor quality of self-published books. I self-published my books three years ago. I'm proud of the quality of my work and that of my colleagues -- and you and your work Rolando, top the list.









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Rolando link
12/3/2012 01:54:11 am

Thank you for your comment Barbara, although I have read phillosophy books that were unreadable despite excellent formatting anf editing, LOL! If anyone complains about the poor quality of self-published books they should be reading books like your "Mirror Talk" or "First Kiss," or the books of any of our group of writer friends. How do we bring these great books to readers? Maybe it takes a writer to discover another one!

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Laura Novak
12/3/2012 05:09:29 am

Rolando, this is such a well written piece and I couldn't agree wit you more. Having been my own boss and having owned all my errors and successes and failures, I am acutely sensitive to the "plight" of the self-pubilshed. It is not easy, but it IS liberating. So, when I read a self-printed e-book, I make allowances for small typos or odd spacing now and then. But Barbara's right: I can read a major work of literature or even a Penguin Agatha Christie on my Kindle that is as messy as anything. Errors and formatting issues abound! We try and that's all we can do. But knowing what authors go through, if I don't care for the inexpensive produce I've bought, then I keep quiet about it. No need to bash the writer. It was my choice to help them along.

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Rolando link
12/3/2012 07:13:01 am

I agree with you Laura. Being a self-published author sensitizes you to the enormous amount of work that is involved in writing, publishing, and promoting a book. That is why if I read a bad book, I prefer to suggest to the author ways of improving it instead of leaving a bad review. Thanks for your comment.

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Louise Sorensen link
12/3/2012 05:26:06 am

Hi Rolando. You present an interesting point of view and I'm glad to hear it.
I have read some pretty poor ebooks. Some with great reviews, some that started off well and never went anywhere, some full of typos.
My standard of typos in ebooks is that they shouldn't exceed the number of typos in printed books. I think that's pretty reasonable.
And I'm getting used to filling in the gaps on ebook typos and formatting. Most of them are not too bad, and I always download a sample now before buying.
I haven't bought any paper books in the last 6 months, but I have bought at least 20 ebooks. Discovering some wonderful authors of ebooks, reviewing and giving their next book a try too!
I think the ebook reputation has got to get better eventually as fewer books are paper printed and more are available only online.
It's not the medium, but the words that are important.


Reply
Rolando link
12/3/2012 07:52:06 am

"It's not the medium, but the words that are important."

I like that because I think that it is the story that is important, and a great story can overcome writing that is not perfect. Thanks for your comment Louise!

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Steve Ullom
12/4/2012 12:30:17 pm

Great post, Rolando. Like what you said. Like Barbara, the big boys publish stuff with errors, too.

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Rolando link
12/5/2012 01:33:46 am

Thanks for your comment Steve. The traditional argument is that because print books take longer to publish they are reviewed by more people and have fewer mistakes. But this all depends on the publishing house and how overworked their staff is. Nowadays with all the cost cutting and competition in the publishing industry, these standards have fallen.

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Michael Hopkins link
12/6/2012 11:59:10 pm

Hello Rolando:

In my view quality has nothing to do with being published by a big publishing house or by oneself. Value is based on imagination in my opinion.

Value is often fantasy and a celeb can sell millions of copies that have been written by Ghost writers and only sell because of the name of the author.

Often famous writers are not discovered until after death and there may be economic reasons for this.

Read what interests you and save your eyes & energy for a good read, whatever that may be in your mind.

Take care,
Mike



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Rolando link
12/7/2012 07:06:02 am

Thanks for your comment Michael. Discoverability is indeed the bottleneck. Everyone has talent that would be appreciated by certain people. The problem is getting these people to know you exist!

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Mike link
12/7/2012 06:44:56 pm

Yes, It's a constant self-promotion and marketing of oneself to become know.

Brian Meeks link
12/8/2012 03:15:23 am

Great post. I had never thought about the responsibility of the reader, but you are absolutely right.

I don't care one bit what someone else does in self-publishing their books. I hire editors, have beta readers, sometimes hire an artist for a cover, and try to get a clean high quality book. Like you, if an error is pointed out, I fix it...because I'm the publisher!!! It is easy.

I don't agree that if someone else publishes a sloppy book it has anything to do with mine.

Reply
Rolando link
12/8/2012 06:55:34 am

I have a very laissez-faire attitude towards these matters. That is why I self-published. I don't pressure anyone into doing anything and they don't pressure me. Thanks for your comment Brian.

Reply
M. Davis link
12/8/2012 04:53:45 am

I completely agree with the comment to the reader.

I am less then comfortable agreeing with the comment to the writer. Yes, self-publishing is a great way to get out there and it draws many into the untamed frontier of getting books out to the public. And, I do agree (to a point) that we are not gatekeepers for others.

However, I've edited the manuscripts of people who just "want to be a writer" and don't care about the craft (several who self-published without editing their manuscripts just so they could say they were "bestselling authors"). To me, that's like wanting to be a doctor while refusing to go to medical school. I'm not saying that in order to write we all have to have MFA after our names (I would immediately be disqualified if that were the case), but surely there is some room for a call among the community for bettering ourselves for the sake of our readers. I fear that what you said for writers will be valid for those who care about their readers and the craft, but the ones who take to heart what you said will be those who aren't caring about the craft of writing anyway and will use the lack of "gate-keeping" within the general community as an excuse for less than mediocrity.

According to our theories of the consumer-driven model, the market will winnow out the chaff, but the reality is that due to independent rogue writers, the whole independent community has taken some hits this year (for example, LendInk being shut down and authors who went crazy and attacked fans thus causing several book promoting blogs to revert back to only promoting traditionally published authors). When the self-publishing community as a whole is seen in a negative light due to lack of "gate-keepers" it is in the interest of the community to be concerned about why the model is driving readers back to traditional sources.

If we don't think our lack of gate keeping is a problem, we only have to look at the links below to see we may be on a slightly wrong track:
1) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/30/indie-authors-struggle_n_1242935.html
2) http://nailyournovel.wordpress.com/2012/05/07/where-will-self-publishing-get-quality-control/
3) http://accrispin.blogspot.com/2012/08/lendink-author-activism-and-need-for.html

I think there is a big difference between demanding that we all fit a certain mold and the community expecting that writers take a little bit of pride in their work, in the craft, and in what they are putting out for general consumption. Being a rebellious punk without a cause only strokes the ego of the rebellious punk, and the same holds true for the "writer" who is given no expectation of bettering him or herself for the sake of the readers. If we are fighting to be independent because we have a value to contribute, then perhaps we should be sure we actually have a value to contribute.

Reply
Rolando link
12/8/2012 09:15:51 am

Thanks for your comment, but the way I see it one man's best seller is another man's poorly written book. I have grown tired of reading bad reviews on the Amazon pages of books everyone likes. These reviews are written by people that despair about how bad the book is and how illiterate people are to like it. I have also read opinions that unless you aren't willing to sink one thousand plus dollars on professional formatting, editing, and cover design services on your fist book you should not bother publishing it. As a self-published author I do not want to relinquish any measure of control over what I can or can't do to people who think this way.

Personally I think that the value of a book is in the story, and that is the contribution authors make. If someone doesn't want to read a great story because it has a handful of typos, then I don't want these people reading my stories. The major reason books don't sell well is lack of name recognition by the author, not because these books are bad (even though they may be). But the point is each of us is out to find our readers. There are readers who will settle for books that are 80% perfect, other for 90%, other for 95% and so forth. But why not make our books as perfect as possible? The answer is time and money. These are two things many of us don't have in great quantities.

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M. Davis
12/10/2012 07:09:20 am

I agree with you re the reviews on Amazon, and your point about the best seller vs. poorly written work. I think one of the struggles the independent market has/will have is art vs. form (we can see that a continuing part of the issue within the general industry is what qualifies both--perhaps that is a large part of the problem, right there.)

My point was not to discredit those who work hard to perfect their work as much as possible (without having thousands to spend on editing services, with limited time, etc.). Many of us do care about the quality of work that we are putting out, and do the best that we can to better that quality.

What I was pointing to are the many writers who do a rough draft, skim for blatant misspellings, then put it on the market because they don't have time, money, or inclination to work on the craft (I've met too many with this attitude). As a reader, I find it insulting that a writer would care so little about quality, yet will still expect to be paid for such work. As a writer, I am concerned that as a community, we would give a free pass for such lack of effort and contend that such lack of effort is okay because it's part of being free. To me, such allowance is like someone wanting to get into the world of baking cakes who doesn't know how flour and eggs go together, yet still demanding to be paid the same as someone who has entered the industry with a knowledge of how flour and eggs go together, and what can be done with both. The end result may still be cake, but those who have taken the time to "grow" their skills are considered bakers (by the community and outside of it), while the others are merely dabblers.

I fear that as long as the community says the dabblers are just as important as those who take time to develop the craft (because both are making cake, after all--no difference between cake and cake), the community will remain on the fringe.

Rolando link
12/10/2012 08:25:04 am

Oh, I have met those too. These are people that are too lazy to do the hard work needed to make their work at least passable. What you see is that invariably their books get ignored (because they are also too lazy to promote them) or get plastered with bad reviews. But are they free to do that? I say yes, it's their choice. But isn't there the chance that some reader will judge us indies badly because they had a bad experience reading the work of this lazy person. Yes, but if this reader doesn't have the smarts to figure out that you can't judge all based on the work of one, then I probably don't want said reader to read my books anyway.

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