You're thinking about going the Indie route. I hear ya; traditional publishing is almost completely closed without an agent, especially since all the writers conferences have been cancelled. Before you get all giddy about finally becoming a published author, here are the five reasons YOU SHOULDN'T INDIE PUBLISH:
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels
1. Crappy cover art. If you're not a tech whiz, or know anyone who can create an amazing ORIGINAL cover, then don't bother. Covers generate interest before the story, before any queries, before your name. Spend the time and/or money to get a great cover. Remember, if it was done by someone for free, generally it looks it.
2. Not enough or no editing. I've seen bestsellers from giant publishing houses with the occasional typo, wrong tense, time flub, etc. It happens. When these mistakes run all through your manuscript, it looks like you simply slapped that puppy on Amazon as soon as you could. If you did that with your manuscript when you were submitting to agents and/or editors, no wonder you're considering Indie publishing.
3. "I'm going to make sooo much money!" Yeah. No. Does it happen? Once in a while, yes. I'm sure people can give me two or three names of mega successful Indie authors; I can show you ten thousand who didn't. Don't be fooled into thinking if you throw something up for $.99, that people won't care if it's not perfect and you'll make thousands because people want cheap. Hint: they don't care if they spend under a dollar or over $30; the book better be good or no one's buying it.
4. Your tagline (the 1-2 sentences giving the reader a short preview about your book) is better than the actual book. Anyone can write a sentence about a story- you have to live up to it. And if you don't, even if you give the book away for a promo, word will get around and no one will want it, even if it is free. Crap is crap and no one thinks it's a deal to get it for nothing.
5. It's soooo easy! Again, yeah, no. It's not. One simply doesn't write the story, pop on a cover, and put it up for sale (or at least, one shouldn't). Selling an Indie book is harder than a traditionally published book. While publishing houses are demanding more marketing by authors and cutting down what publicity they will help with (unless of course you're already famous), an Indie author-publisher has nothing. You will have to foot the bill for the free books you send to reviewers, to bloggers, as a promo, etc. You have to figure out how to get into book festivals and stores who generally want nothing to do with Indie authors. Indie authors are still pretty much the ugly, unwanted stepchild. There is nothing easy about going it alone so don't listen to anyone (especially a 'publisher' that will 'help' you for a fee....).
As a hybrid author (4 books with traditional publishers: Sirenz, Sirenz Back in Fashion, Blonde OPS, Beware the Little White Rabbit - anthology, 3 Indie pubbed)- Evolution Revolution trilogy: Simple Machines, Simple Plans, Simple Lessons) I can definitely tell you that traditional may be demanding as far as pleasing an editor who has a 'vision' for the book that you may not totally agree with, and a crazy deadline schedule, but more doors open for a traditionally pubbed author. I don't want to discourage you, but see above. If any of these apply to you, maybe you want to consider dental school.
I wrote this post because I got a free download of a book from an ad on Facebook. Indie book- she's doing her own marketing, good for her! Part of #5 is taken care of. The cover looked amazing. Yay! she conquered #1, I'm really interested! If I like the first one, I'll pay for the rest of the series! I don't know her motivation, so I can't speak for #3, but since she's done well so far, let's assume she's not just thinking moolah, but is dedicated to her creativity. Uh oh, snag. I hit problems with #2. The tagline drew me to the story, and initially, the manuscript lived up to the hype- for about half a chapter. With all the errors: spelling, grammar, timeline, and format (missing or misplaced words, sentences ending in the middle of the line and continuing on the next line), it just killed me. I liked the premise and I think this writer could have a good story if only she had spent the time reviewing, revising, and getting someone to give her honest advice. It would help considerably if she previewed the ebook before okaying it to go live. The mistakes were so frequent that I honestly can't finish the book. I'd like to know what happened to the characters, but not enough to waste my time grinding my teeth over all the mistakes. So she lost the sale of every sequel because of the first sloppy book.
Do I feel bad? Not particularly. I spent so much time getting my illustrations and words and format on my Evolution Revolution series as perfect as I could (and still a few mistakes got through...) that I have no patience for anyone that lets that many mistakes go, brushing it off as possibly unimportant because it's 'about the story.' Don't kid yourself, it's about the total package. Maybe someone will review it and tell her and she'll get it. And no, I'm not going to name the book for the same reason I don't do reviews; no one thanks the messenger.
Char
