In an earlier post I went through a bit of a painful discussion of some of the reasons it’s so hard for self-published authors to make as much headway as they’d like. The bottom line is that the literary world, for lack of a better term, looks upon self-published work as crap. And, let’s be entirely honest with ourselves about it, that opinion isn’t undeserved.
The question, then, is can we change that perception? I believe the answer is yes, and here are a few ideas on how we might work toward that goal.
I think there are two main, inter-related issues:
The first is quality. We want “our” books to look like “their” (the big houses’) books. We want them to look like them, be priced as close as we can to them, and have the same literary quality (or at least mechanical accuracy) as them. If you walked into a bookstore and put your book on a shelf of books of the same genre and size/type (e.g., paperbacks), the customers wouldn’t know the difference from the cover, from the interior appearance if they picked it up to browse through it, or from the grammar or punctuation. Maybe they’ll like the bit of the story they read, maybe not – that’s more subjective – but there won’t be anything about the book that says “amateur.”
Second, we want to gain access to “bigger” reviewers and promoters than the typical blogger, or the local newspaper that tosses a bone to a local author with a sidebar on page twenty. But to do that, we need to give them confidence that the book they receive is of commercial quality. They need to know that their time will be well-invested, and that their reputation isn’t going to suffer if they review this thing.
I’m sure what I’m going to suggest here isn’t original, and it’s certainly not going to be without some controversy, nor is it a “silver bullet” that’s going to solve all our problems as self-publishers. But I think that this is one possible way to get where many of us collectively want to go.
One. We need to clean up our act as individuals. If you’re serious about your writing, if you’re serious about competing with the “big boys,” then you need to put the time, effort, and – in some cases – money into making your book pro quality.
Two. There is safety and power in numbers. The big houses hold almost all the cards, but there are enough indie authors and self-published authors out there now to start making a difference. We need to band together in an effective, cohesive manner behind a set of uniform goals.
Three. We need a set of standards. We need templates, if you will, to help authors ensure their books follow the same accepted format standards as “real” books. Margins, type faces and size, the leading pages – all of that sort of thing. Again, we want our books to look just like those of the big houses!
Four. We need a review body that awards a quality seal to books that meet commercial standards. This is likely where things will run aground, because – being indie authors – we tend to want to do our own thing because, well, we’re independent! But I strongly believe that this is really the golden key, because with this mechanism in place, I believe we stand a reasonable chance of convincing at least some major reviewers (among others) to give our books a try. It also shows that we as a group are taking ourselves seriously and are self-correcting our own shortcomings. And, hey, that we are a group – an increasingly large group – rather than just a bunch of unconnectd individuals.
So, there’s some food for thought. I’ll post some more ideas on the details in the next post in this series…
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#1 by Philip Davis on February 26th, 2009 - 8:23 pm
Absolutely on point. A quality product begins with knowing your target audience and writing a book that your audience is interested in. Next, you can’t have typos all over your work. And you need a bookshelf quality book. Correctly self-publishing a book will cost at least $5,000 and probably more like $10,000. If you are serious about a publishing career, then this kind of commitment is necessary. It’s the same as starting a business. Then once you have a quality book, authors need to focus on building a platform and social media is an excellent way to do this, but it needs to be done right. Again, I can’t agree more with what you are saying.
#2 by Michael R. Hicks on February 26th, 2009 - 10:11 pm
I’m not sure that it’s so much a question of money, at least to create the book itself: I believe a quality book can be created without a huge dollar investment (although if one doesn’t have the money to invest, one certainly must invest the time!). The marketing and promotion angle, however, is definitely a potential money pit. I think a great deal can be done online versus “traditional’ promotional methods, but even that is often a tradeoff of money or time. For those who may not have much of either, there currently aren’t many good alternatives that I’m aware of – yet, at least!
#3 by Peter on May 24th, 2009 - 2:04 pm
It seems to me that this is the same problem posed within the movie industry as producers and actors sought to get out from under the yoke of the studio bosses. There has been some success there.
I suggest the start might be to form an Indie-Writers Guild. This would be made up of all those folks who write independently. As associate members, providers who offer services, publishing, ISBN numbers, etc. Let’s not leave out an approach to Amazon directly for financial support, it’s in their interest to stabilize standards, etc.
Anyway, that’s just my humble take. A key item would be to keep the dues low to allow maximum membership. The bigger the group, the more influence.
#4 by Steve Van Slyke on December 23rd, 2009 - 12:25 pm
I too would welcome a set of standards and a quality seal that would set my work apart as one who cares about form and accuracy as well as content.