One thing I've learned is that anyone...and I mean ANYONE can publish a book on Amazon, so my initial pride at publishing my first book has been slightly diminished by this fact.
Since I started publishing my stuff on Amazon, I thought I'd check out some of the other material written by indie writers, and so much of it is complete and utter dreck. Some of what I am reading looks like it was written by teenagers. Here is a sample excerpt from a story I was browsing over called "Cupids Arrow Hits the Target"
"Jenn a grad school teacher, in a very poor neighborhood. And yes she just loves her job.
Her folks were just working people, mom was a house mom and dad worked in a factory.
Threw all those years they were never well to do people. So all of the children were more than grateful for whatever they got..."
This is exactly how it was written, word for word. Unbelievably bad, and after getting two positive reviews (likely from relatives), it is now getting trashed by the legitimate reviewers. Then there are other books where you can tell the author put absolutely no effort into. I looked at one, 12 page book supposedly about Abraham Lincoln which was basically just a copy of (unreadable) news clippings.
I think it's great that Amazon is providing an opportunity for writers to publish their material without having to jump through hoops or pay money to agents, but when people who clearly have no idea how to write are publishing this sort of material, in a way it hurts everyone. Readers will become reluctant to buy anything written by an indie author if this is the bulk of what they are being offered. I do understand, however, that these types of books will likely fade into obscurity, and the ones that are good will somehow find an audience. It's not easy, though. Someone has to first buy the book, and tell others that it's either good or bad. For indie authors, reviews will either kill your book, or push it to the next level.
So far I've been pretty lucky. I've gotten almost entirely positive reviews, and my books are actually selling (slowly, but still selling.) "An American Teacher in Taiwan" is currently selling the most, but my last book, the fiction book "Interstate 10" is gaining fast and is already second in sales. "From Taiwan to Texas" is selling okay, and "The Reluctant Austinite" seems DOA. Not that it's gotten bad reviews (actually it hasn't got any), it just probably has an extremely limited appeal.
I've learned that fiction seems to be where the audience is at on Amazon. 500 people downloaded my fiction story when I offered it for free for a couple of days, where the others were less than 200. So that's likely what I'll be focusing on in the future.
So to anyone who is reading this blog who happened to buy any of my books, thanks. If you happened to leave a positive review, thanks for that as well.
I've run into that bad book thing on kindle. It's a shame. I got one on ghostly haunts in Long Beach. It was SO bad, and basically stuff I had already heard. No big deal.
ReplyDeleteBut your writing is good. ACTUALLY GOOD.
This is the problem with these "books". They are basically blogs for sale. Any idiot can write a blog. And most of us have.
ReplyDeleteI used to work with a Canadian who told me he was a published writer. I asked him what he had available and he mentioned his blog. There used to be a time when publishing required professional editors and the ability to use punctuation. Now, any retard can click the send or submit button or whatever the hell it is and they are a published author. Scott and Zelda are spinning in their graves.
However, I could probably afford 99 cents if I scrimp and save, but is there any point in buying your i-books if I have no Kindle? Can they be downloaded on a computer? Or are they in some special Kindle format that can only be read on a Kindle? Without a Kindle, will a Tinder do?
You need to have a Kindle to read the book. 17 million people in the US alone own Kindle's. Maybe you should get one. I don't have one, but I want one. Chien Yu keeps complaining they are too expensive.
ReplyDeleteI have no problem with someone publishing their blog as a book . It's their own writing, and if someone wants to buy it, more power to them. The problem is the people who can barely put two words together and try to pass it off as a professional book.