There has been more and more interest recently in Indie and Self-published authors, especially with the growing market for e-books. Anyone can publish a book on Kindle. This has to be a good thing in general as there is some great stuff out there and mainstream publishers are reluctant to take a chance on new authors unless they are guaranteed substantial sales.
The problem of course, is that there is also a lot of dross, bad writing, and good writing badly edited.
I decided recently that as I have gone down the Indie route myself, I should make an effort to discover and support other Indie authors. But how to sort the good from the bad? I've chosen a couple of well reviewed books to start with and I'll post the reviews on this blog and goodreads, Amazon, etc. Although I will still read mainstream books - obviously - I'll only use this blog to review the Indies.
On behalf of Indie authors Riva - thank you! I heartily agree that the main problem with "self published" (be they totally self published, or assisted via indie companies etc) is sorting the good stuff from the not so good. One area where this is being addressed now is the Historical Novel Society - their online review includes SP historical fiction. Up until now most has been US published books but I have just taken on the UK role of editor for UK produced books - the HNS intention is to only review books that are good enough to be recommended i,e, well written, edited and produced. OK they may not be best seller standard - but they will all be a "good read". We are also introducing our Editor's Choice - novels which in the opinion of the US & UK editor (i.e myself & my US counterpart) highly recommend.
ReplyDeleteSadly many indie authors let their work down by not using a professional editor/copy editor and not producing their books in an equivalent mainstream format - sorry, double spaced and / or left justified text (text not set with a straight margin on both sides) is not a professional production - if you expect people to pay money to read your book, then give them a well packaged, nicely presented item to buy.
UK historical fiction Indie authors who want more information can contact me via my website www.helenhollick.net