1/6/2014 – AN UPDATE ON THE UPDATE – I have been approving 100% of the comments left on this post. I haven’t hidden a single thing. I have received exactly FOUR pieces of negative feedback on this open letter, three of which were about my use of profane language. Due to this, I feel it necessary to issue this warning: I say ‘fuck’ a lot. If you don’t like it, take a hike because you’re not going to like what you’re about to read. Sorry to be a bitch about it but this is MY blog. That’s like going to someone’s house and ragging at them because of the way they do something in their own home. Had I posted it on YOUR blog, you’d have the right to complain about it. Instead, you’re posting the comment just to have something to say.
GOING FORWARD: WE HAVE ALREADY HEARD THE EXPLICIT LANGUAGE COMPLAINT. I AM NOT GOING TO CHANGE THE OPEN LETTER. IT IS BEING LEFT AS IT IS ON MY BLOG. IF YOU DON’T LIKE IT, DON’T READ IT. IT IS AS SIMPLE AS THAT. I HAVE BEEN APPROVING 100% OF COMMENTS UP UNTIL NOW. WE HAVE ALREADY HEARD THIS COMPLAINT THREE TIMES. ANY MORE COMMENTS THAT MENTION THE PROFANITY USED WILL BE MARKED AS TRASH, REGARDLESS OF THE REST OF THE COMMENT’S CONTENT.
To everyone else, read on and enjoy! 😉
1/5/2014 – UPDATE: I want to say thank you to everyone for all of the feedback and support on this. I did NOT expect this letter to become as widely read as it has. Honestly, I expected it to be ignored. 🙂 However, I am so glad that it wasn’t. Today I will be going through and answering all of the comments and I have already started answering the emails. I apologize for the delay and I am going to get back to everyone as quickly as possible without giving you a “canned” response.
One amendment to this post that I would like to make is in regards to the section about betas, editors, and proofreaders. I should have also included there are two types of editors – content editors and copy editors. YOU NEED BOTH. They are equally important to the success of your book. A content editor is to help you make sure your story itself is the best it can be, the copy editor is responsible for going line by line looking for grammatical errors, mistakes/typos, etc.
Thank you all again for your support and please feel free to share with your fellow indies.
Peace, love, and poptarts,
Jena
KEEP READING TO SEE THE OPEN LETTER!
Dear Indie Author Community,
Something bad is happening in the Indie Author Community. Several bad things, in fact, and if something isn’t said to you, you’re going to ruin your writing career before it ever gets started. What is about to follow in this letter is not an ‘I know everything’ bomb. This letter is to serve as what should be common sense for all of us. All of this I have learned through experience as a jaded reader, a disappointed fangirl, a pissed off book blogger, a screwed over event planner, a disgusted indie author PR rep, and a fellow indie author who wants to see the community as a whole succeed. This is an Open Letter meant to try to bring the Indie Author Community back to respectable place where we can all be taken seriously.
There are a good many indies out there I no longer have respect for. Now, to understand the gravity of that statement, you must understand this: I absolutely love indie authors. I love the basic idea – you can tell your story without the media or some suit telling you what to write and when to write it. The ‘we don’t need them’ mentality is one of the factors that kept me from even considering publishing years ago. When the self-publishing boom hit, I thought it was a fantastic idea! Take out the middle man and bring stories down to what it really should be – a relationship between the storyteller and their audience.
All of that being said, I have become all those things I have listed up above. A jaded reader because the market is being flooded with books that are not ready to be published. A disappointed fangirl because of all the authors that feel just because they’re published, they are somehow above everyone else…and treat them as such. A pissed off book blogger because once upon a time, writing reviews was FUN and now if I don’t like a book, I can’t just SAY SO (even POLITELY, mind you) without running the chance of having the author flat-out attack me and drag my name and the name of my book blog through every mud puddle they can find. A disgusted indie author PR rep because I keep watching indies spit in the face of the people who are the very reason they exist. A screwed over event planner because there are so many authors out there booking themselves for events and then not following through on their commitments. An indie author who is just sick of seeing her community drown itself.
As a person who is all of those things, I am offering up a few tidbits of advice here to maybe get us all back on track as a whole. I am not saying I am perfect. I am not saying I know everything. What I am saying is pull your head out of your ass and tap into that common sense thing your parents kept trying to teach you about.
Now, if anything I say here pisses you off, then you’re guilty of it. Point blank. If you’re not doing it, there’s no reason to get defensive, right? Take that as a red flag that you have veered off course and take this opportunity to right your path. You are only doing yourself a disservice, and in the end, it’s your own writing career you’re ruining.
IF IT’S NOT READY, FOR THE LOVE OF PETE, DO NOT FUCKING PUBLISH IT!
I cannot stress this enough. This is a REALLY simple one. Stop cranking out work that is rushed. Readers know when an author has rushed through a story. If it takes you a year to write a book, then take a friggin year! You’re not held to any deadlines but your own. If you’re delusional enough to think anyone is going to give a shit if you publish in September instead of March, that’s your own problem. You are an “indie” author. Independent. As in not contractually bound to a deadline in any way, shape, or form. You answer to YOU and ONLY YOU. So guess whose fault it is when you crank out a book that gets “picked on” because of grammatical errors or plot holes the size of Texas that all should have been caught in editing. That’s right! It’s all your publisher’s fault!! Oh wait…. THAT’S YOU! You can’t blame the editor. This is your work, your baby, and should be read through before you hit publish. Don’t assume it’s perfect because you gave someone money to make it perfect. I even made this mistake so please understand me when I say this is from experience. You’re only shooting yourself in the foot. As a reader, there’s a lot of books out there now that I feel like I am wasting my time reading. It makes me hesitate to take the chance on your book, spending MY hard-earned money to line YOUR pockets.
And that brings me to my next point…
PLEASE DO YOURSELF A FAVOR: RESEARCH AND ASK AROUND BEFORE PAYING AN EDITOR
There are a good number of self-proclaimed editors on the internet. Don’t get suckered into paying for shit work. One of the biggest complaints I have heard lately is “my editor screwed me.” Well, how did you find your editor? Google? There are enough super-successful indies out there that there is no reason why you can’t get a recommended editor. Don’t accept references from an editor either. Those references could just be friends of theirs. Get a referral from an indie author who has actually worked with them and you take away that chance that they’re full of crap.
Also, there’s a big difference between an alpha reader, a beta reader, an editor of any kind, and a proof reader. And those steps should be done IN THAT ORDER.
Alpha Readers and Beta Readers – These are the folks that read the pre-editing rough draft, and tell you what they do/do not like, what they feel does/doesn’t flow well. They are there to analyze the story itself, not edit anything.
Editors – An editor does just that. Edits your story. A line or copy editor looks for mistakes – grammar, spelling, punctuation, made up words that don’t exist in any language never mind English, etc.
Proofreader – The proofreaders reads the final product through to catch any mistakes or typos that may have been missed somewhere along the way.
The problem with a lot of “editors” out there is they tend to get confused on what their role is. They may be a beta or a proofreader instead. FYI – betas are volunteers and proofreaders can go either way. Editors cost money, anywhere between $200 and $3000 depending on their skill/qualifications and the length of the book.
Once you find a team that you work well with, CLING TO THEM FOR DEAR LIFE AND NEVER LET THEM GO. The editor/writer dynamic is very personal. You need to find someone who knows you and the way you want your book to sound. If the two of you have different ideas about what the tone of your writing should be, your work relationship simply won’t work. You will never be happy, the editor will never be happy. Finding one that understands your style and doesn’t fuck with it, but still does their job is not always going to happen on the first try. Don’t get discouraged. Treat it like dating. You may have to kiss a few frogs to find the perfect fit. … … … That sounded dirtier than I intended but I am leaving it!
BEWARE THE TROLLS
These are folks that collect authors on their Facebook friends list like fucking baseball cards. They say whatever will get them in good with everyone, even talking shit to one author about another. They claim to beta read for EVERYONE. Ask the authors they claim to beta for to verify whether or not it’s true. With one person in particular, I asked three authors that she named as being a beta for. All three said basically the same words: She’s not a beta of mine!! She’s a fucking stalker!! The trolls wouldn’t be a problem except for the fact that they ARE “friends” with EVERYONE. Big name authors, big name book bloggers, small time authors, EVERYONE. One bad word to their endless network of industry professionals they have “collected” and you’re black-balled. What’s worse is the bad word they spread usually isn’t true. They just say it because they think it will make them look good in the eyes of the people who don’t already know they’re full of shit. That, in turn, earns you a bad reputation you don’t deserve.
The point to this one – don’t get mixed up with them. It will bring you nothing but drama drama drama!
EVERYONE JUDGES A BOOK BY ITS COVER
Everyone. Anyone who says they don’t is LYING to you. When was the last time you looked at a book with a really bad cover and immediately bought it because you couldn’t wait to dig in??? That’s right – NEVER. Humans are visual creatures, people. We need to be dazzled. We need to be stimulated to be interested. We like the sparkly things! Putting a bad cover on a good book will absolutely ruin its chances of ever being successful. Books don’t have the luxury of winning you over with their personality first. It’s all about looks. In the world of books, buttaface’s never get laid (a little Howard Stern reference there). I am the WORST culprit of buying the sparkly things. I have a library FILLED with books I bought merely because the cover caught my eye. Not a fucking clue what most of them are about, but they sure are pretty.
If you think you have mad Photoshop skills, start an anonymous Facebook focus group. Ask the random readers for their honest opinion of the covers you make. Do not disclose that you are the author or the cover designer. Keep those little bits of knowledge on the hush-hush and watch the reactions. Unless you’ve had professional training or LOTS of practice, there’s a damn good chance the covers you’re creating are not nearly as good as you think they are. You may be blinded by loving your own art. You may love it but that doesn’t mean anyone else does. If you don’t care about book sales or anyone actually reading your book, then run with it my dear, artistic butterfly! BUT if you’re looking to make writing your career, you’re never going to make the big bucks peddling a book with a shitty cover. I know it’s a big, fat bucket of ice water for some but there’s a lot to be said for leaving the work to the professionals.
My books are a prime example. I had made all my own covers. Although I loved them and they were good concept art, they were not good enough to publish and I had to accept that. I found an EXCELLENT graphic artist with 13 years of experience and a HUGE portfolio. I told her exactly what I wanted, showed her my initial covers, and she gave me exactly what I wanted and needed. It was still my design, but with a beautiful, fresh, polished look that had OBVIOUSLY been created by a professional. I love her work. She listens to my needs and design ideas, brings them life before my eyes, and doesn’t make me pay an arm and a leg to do it. Her prices are VERY reasonable. I would use the word ‘cheap’, but that makes her sound like her work sucks. She’s VERY, VERY, VERY, VERY, VERY inexpensive given the quality of the work she cranks out.
The lesson here – no amount of time and money spent on swag and cutesy little promotional images will make up for a genuinely bad cover. Spend the money on a good cover and buy the swag and such later. It will be the best decision you will ever make.
NOW COMES THE REALLY SHITTY PART….
QUIT BEING AN ASSHOLE!
Oh my GAWD! This bit of advice comes with a few different bullet points. From a PR/Marketing perspective, all of the bullet points make you a PR NIGHTMARE. Especially number two and number three!
First Bullet Point – You are a company, your books are your product, your readers are your customers. The breakdown is as simple as that. In any other retail environment, an employee would be FIRED ON THE SPOT for acting like an asshole to a customer. So why, in the name of ALL THAT IS UNHOLY, are you doing it to your readers???? Basic Marketing 101 teaches you ‘do not piss off thy customer’. They will stop buying from you. In what has become an endless sea of authors, you are not special. Acting like a jackass and insulting your readers by being a nasty puke online is going to accomplish nothing but make your readers leave you in the dust and move on to the next author. The nicer author. The author that treats their readers with the respect they deserve as HUMAN BEINGS. Not to mention the fact that those PEOPLE are also what fatten your bank account every time you get a royalty payment. So, why the hell are you biting the hand that feeds you??? It’s not all that hard to just be nice. If you’re not a nice person, THEN GET OFF OF SOCIAL MEDIA before you become a permanent fixture in your local blog’s next Authors Behaving Badly spotlight.
Second Bullet Point – This goes right along with the first. If you’re a dick, don’t go to live book signings. The relationship between a reader and a writer is a special one. Don’t fuck it up for the rest of us who actually LIKE meeting readers. If you don’t even like the idea of doing it, then why the hell are you bothering??? Coming to live author events and acting like the people coming to your table, buying your book, and asking you to sign it are somehow INCONVENIENCING YOU is a straight-up DICK move. Get over yourself and plaster on a fucking smile. Again, they’re lining your pockets. They gain nothing more than what is supposed to be a great memory by traveling to go meet your disgruntled ass. Either don’t go at all or fake it for the camera while you’re there.
Third Bullet Point – This one is a sort of combo of the first and second. YOU’RE NOT SPECIAL. The faster you realize that, the better. What I am seeing at some of these author events lately is there are a good number of DIVAS in the market place. You’re not better than everyone else. You weren’t hand-picked by a Big Six (I still can’t say Big Five, it’s just wrong) publisher because your work was so inspiring that the world would be incomplete without your words floating in the ether. You’re self-published. Just like the rest of us. YOU wrote a book that YOU published. Be grateful for any success you have and DON’T ACT LIKE A DICK. There’s nothing worse than seeing a bunch of indie authors snubbing their noses at others. It doesn’t bother me because I don’t really give a fuck what others think about me. I am there for the readers, not to impress other authors, but I am an exception. Some authors that are out there are very new. They are still learning. They are insecure. It takes a lot of guts and courage for them to get up the sack to publish their book and having an established author look at them like they are somehow less than human doesn’t help anyone. However, having an established author walk over, introduce themselves, and ask about their book GOES A LONG WAY. It provides encouragement on a level you will probably never understand because you’re too busy thinking you’re somehow better than everyone else. Cut the shit.
Fourth Bullet Point – Look at indie publishing this way – you’re not competition. Every author out there has a completely different story to tell (unless you plagiarise and in that case, fuck you). There’s absolutely no good reason to view your fellow authors as the enemy. We are all part of one big community that already has a world of shit against us. Why add to the difficulty of it all? There are preconceived notions out there that indie authors are not as good as traditionally published authors. We published it ourselves so it must be shit. We don’t have a marketing team working 40 hours a week to get our name out there. We have to pay to have our books edited instead of being assigned an editor. We have to pay for our own book covers. We have to pay to have them formatted. We give SO MUCH of ourselves (and our bank accounts) to make our dream of being a writer a reality. Why not use that which we have in common as something to bond over? If we treat each other with love and respect, not just as fellow humans, but as fellow indies, comrades even, and understand that we ALL work our asses off to make it, it would totally make a difference! You may not believe in this, but I do – you get back what energy you put out into the universe. If you shit on people, you’re going to get shit on. If you reach out a helping hand when you can, you’ll be on the receiving end of a helping hand one day when you need it. Stop being nasty to each other. Gawd, it’s like the movie Mean Girls all up in this bitch.
NOT EVERYONE IS GOING TO LIKE YOUR BOOK – DOWN A SHOT, ACCEPT IT, MOVE THE FUCK ON
This is straight from experience. Do not lash out at a book blogger if they didn’t like your book. It’s not going to shine a good light on you in the end. Bad news travels fast and when you become the bad news, people will stop dealing with you all together. Readers will lose respect for you. You will be cast out. I know bad reviews kind of suck. Who am I kidding? They TOTALLY SUCK. Been there, stood out on the symbolic window ledge for a few minutes, then came back inside, drank some tequila, and moved on with my life. They’re horrible, I know. If you can’t keep yourself from reading the bad along with the good, don’t read reviews at all. Plenty of authors have adopted that rule and it seems to work very well for them.
A bad review does not warrant emailing the reviewer and insulting their intelligence because they didn’t like your book. Telling the reviewer they must be stupid because they didn’t “get” your book is over the line. Going off on a book blogger because they posted a review of your book on release day but didn’t like it is also not acceptable (side note: using the jab “I didn’t give you an ARC” when you put it on NetGalley or Edelweiss for bloggers to get as an eARC is also a little fucking dumb). You would never do that to the NYT, USA Today, or any other paper that would review your book, why would you do it to a book blogger?? Especially since book bloggers are responsible for a MAJOR percentage of your FREE publicity. Just sayin’. If book bloggers all said FUCK IT and turned their backs on us indies, we would collectively be SCREWED. Keep that in mind the next time you’re about to hit send on your latest electronic temper tantrum. The way to handle it professionally? That’s easy. LET IT GO. That’s it. Just let it go. Having your friends and fans attack the blogger??? ALSO NOT THE ANSWER. JUST LET IT GO.
Now, I am not saying all of this pertaining to tear down pieces. A tear down piece is a blog post masquerading as a review that viciously attacks the author personally (not to be confused with the reviewer saying they don’t like the author’s writing style – that’s still about the book). In the event of a tear down piece, I suggest you email the blogger privately, state your grievance (it should be a review of the book, not of the author as a person) politely and don’t swear, and request that it be pulled down. That is the way to handle it professionally. If the blogger refuses, shrug and move on with your life. I know it is hard to do, but doing anything public as retaliation is just going to make you look like the blogger was right. Treat your writing career like any other career – with professionalism. Any mudslinging you do makes you no better than them.
AND LAST BUT CERTAINLY NOT LEAST…….
DON’T OVEREXTEND YOURSELF!
Know your spending limit! Seriously! When it comes to conventions and author events, assume a cost of $1,000 (minimum) for each convention or author event (event fee, hotel, airfare, grub). Chances are you will be able to do it a LOT cheaper, but this will tell you whether or not you can actually AFFORD to go to all twenty-five of the events you signed up for! Can you really afford to drop twenty-five large on book signings in one year??? I didn’t think so. When you commit to an event and then drop out, you have NO IDEA how badly you’re screwing your event organizer!!! AND YOURSELF!! First, the event organizer – they’ve spent months doing promotion for the event with your name plastered all over it. Scheduling is done around you. Artwork cost to include your name. New artwork cost to REMOVE IT. Here’s how you screw yourself – Your readers have bought tickets, airfare, and hotels just to come meet you at an event. Feel like a piece of shit yet? Good.
This is all said with one slight caveat. I am not heartless. I do understand that shit can come up. There are unforeseen circumstances that just can’t be avoided. However, when you have a REPEATED HISTORY of it, word gets around and folks will stop booking you for events.
That being said, having someone bail on me because money is much tighter than they anticipated – totally understandable – only to find out they are busy on Facebook trying to get themselves an invite to a different event that takes place just a few weeks after the one they committed to a YEAR AGO – totally fucking unforgivable. As an event organizer, I will never book that author again. That’s how it works. That author proved to me that I cannot count on them to follow through with their commitments, therefore I cannot count on them for future events. Luckily, I have a wait list a mile long and was able to fill the vacant spot in a matter of minutes.
This is the type of thing that your readers will also not forgive. Especially if you’re the only author they care about meeting. Like I said before, the relationship between a reader and a writer is a special one. It’s also VERY FRAGILE. If you disappoint your readers, they WILL turn their backs on you and you can kiss your mediocre fame goodbye.
I hope the indie author community as a whole takes my words to heart. If we continue to move in the direction we are headed right now, we are going to implode. These bad habits are ruining things for the folks who try their asses off. Even today, the number of book blogs that refuse to deal with indies increases every day due to one or more of these reasons. As I said earlier, if they turn their backs on us, we are all screwed. If indie authors hold their heads up and conduct themselves with dignity and PROVE they are professionals, maybe that number will come back down and we can go back to working together.
Thank you for taking the time to read this. I wish you all a wonderful 2014 filled with love, friendship, and the greatest success imaginable!
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I am so glad you put this out there. I love it. Already retweeted it.
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I’ve been a bibliophile for 50 years. I became disabled 3 yrs. ago and have been spending a lot of time on FB in the past 2 years. I have won a lot of books, indie and traditional. I have done a lot of reviews, both indie and traditional.
I have to tell you that I have learned the hard way that there’s usually a reason that e-books are $.99 or free. I have been asked by quite a few indie authors to do reviews for a free e-book and have been either appalled or pleasantly surprised by the books. I don’t believe in attacking authors, but I do believe in giving honest reviews. I was asked by a supposed publisher if I would start reviewing some books for her and the first book I read had obviously been edited by someone who didn’t know how to spell. I wrote the review and mentioned in it that the editing could have been better and she told me that I should have PM’d her before I ever put that in the review??!! How would that have made a difference when the book had been published in 2012 and I was given the book to review in 2013? I haven’t done any more reads or reviews for her since then. Another problem I have is that I really don’t want to hear about the daily drama you have in your personal life or your religious or political beliefs on your FB posts. Last, but not least. What is this new thing which seems to be all the rage with a lot of indie authors? Book 1 = his POV. Book 2 = her POV. Book 3 = their POV. WHY????? Write one book that has everyone’s POV and move on. One thing that is MUST IMPORTANT = I have read and found some amazing indie authors in the past 2 years and most of them are some of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet but, some of them are immature, inappropriate twits! The nice ones I will read forever. The twits I will never read again!
I honestly think the POV switch is Stephenie Meyer’s fault (author of Twilight). She wrote Twilight and then started writing Midnight Sun (Twilight from Edward’s POV). It’s a much darker tale than Twilight and I think it was good to see because it actually showed how badly he wanted to rip her throat out when they first met. However, I do know where you are coming from because it is being seen more and more.
Good points. Thanks!
You’re welcome! Glad you liked it!
Excellent advice! Thank you!
Good stuff, and all true. I’m an indie author, and happy to be one. (Sure, it’d be great to be picked up by the Big Six of Five…)
The line about the cover is ABSOLUTELY TRUE. I did my own cover for my first book, thought it was pretty good, then hired a professional designer. It was ASTONISHINGLY better. Her stuff was stunning and beautiful and helped to sell my book more than my dorky cover. She isn’t an author; I’m not a designer. (And she read the book before she designed the cover–she picked up themes from the book and put them into the cover in delightful ways.)
Do the right thing. It might cost you money you won’t recoup for your book, but you will have a much better chance.
(I can say that I made money on my book, and with indie publishing most of the income went right back to me. Not enough for a vacation in Las Vegas, but enough for a month’s rent.)
Great post with advice for all authors, not just indies. I want to add that an editor is not a scapegoat. I often see an author fight against a correction, get their way, and blame the editor when that is the very thing brought up by a reader.
Reblogged this on fallingdownthecreativewell and commented:
A bit of good advice.
You rock, lady.
Well said!
I love this! I plan on publishing my first book in a few months. The exact reason I decided to start writing was your first point. More often than not I was incredibly disappointed with books I was reading. One that finally pushed me off the cliff. I was reading and the story was great the characters I loved but I noticed I was nearing the end of the book. I thought maybe it’s one of those 2 or 3 part books I hate but whatever. Nope it was worse. The author clearly got tired of writing and condensed the ending into 2 pages leaving the whole story hanging despite their “happy ending”
Would you give me permission to put this piece on by blog as a guest post? http://theindieomnibus.blogspot.com/
Go for it. 🙂
well said — wish every indie and future indie would take that to heart!
Excellent all around. As someone who’s published for 30 years with the Big 6 (I refuse to admit to 5 either) and who is now self-publishing as well, I despair at the quality of what’s out there and the attitudes of too many indie authors. We now have to be editor, book designer, publisher, marketing person, not to mention writer. And we have to take it all seriously. Tall order.
No. 1 – if you want me to take what you say seriously, leave out the cuss words. You can make your point quite intelligently without doing so.
No. 2 – your piece would have read better if you had an editor before you published.
No. 3 – I’m sure everyone is going to think I’m a horrible person, a troll, a whatever because I don’t just fall all over your piece. But I don’t. No, I’m not impressed like everyone else. Other posts have said this too, and they’ve done it without cuss words, and more professionally.
— I started to state all of the above in a comment to the post of one of my friends who shared your post. But I decided to come back here and do it. Folks who don’t like my comment – TUFF! It’s my opinion and I’m entitled to it.
— Lastly, you make some good points, but it could have been better written. How I’d love to edit this for you.
As I stated to the last person that commented about my swearing – IT’S ON MY BLOG. MY blog. If you dont like the swearing, you’re not required by anyone to read it. 🙂
Regarding it being edited – IT’S A BLOG POST! LOL It’s not a published work. It’s not an editorial piece for the New York Times. It’s not an editorial piece for anyone. It’s a blog post. An open letter, not a college term paper. 😉
I fucking love this kick ass, amazing, fucking post! Fuck yeah!
Thanks!!!! 😀 I kinda like it too! 😉 And so do a few thousand other people. 😉
Unlike some posters I LOVE to hear about my authors day to day lives, I have been a reader since I read Gone with the Wind at about 10 in one day. I read under the covers every night with a flash light or lamp and read now sometimes a book a day. I would have never thought I would be privy to the lives of my favorites and their religious believes or political have nothing to do with how much I like them. I follow a few “book” pages on FB but mostly the author themselves SO I can be a part of their everyday. If you don’t like how an author thinks then don’t follow them, follow their books.
All true, all excellent advice. It also occurs to me that you could give this exact same list of advice to everyone trying to start their own business, whether that business is a consulting firm or a pizza franchise. But that’s why so many small businesses fail, just like so many indie writers fail. Obviously, in becoming an indie writer, you are becoming an entrepreneurial small business person. While this might be common sense, “common” sense really isn’t. Unfortunately. Thanks for laying it all out so clearly and bluntly.
I just don’t get grammatical and punctuation errors in published works. Some are so bad that I cannot even finish what might have been an enjoyable read. Great post!
Loved this, you gave great advice. It all spells out Karma to me. You get what you give.
I really like that you took the time to give us advice! I can tell you that I’ve had the good fortune to belong to a group of writers that treat each other with respect. I can’t tell you how its helped me, not just in my dreams of getting my books out to somebody, anybody reading them, but in making me a better person. Encouragement, lessons in writing, and having someone care if I succeed like I care about them. We need to stick together, to help each other improve, and then hopefully enrich the world with our words. I can tell one thing by this post of yours, you’re not just a pretty cover. You’re a good read all the way through. Thanks!
Thank you for taking the time for writing this. A lot of it is food for thought. I have found that some Indie authors I have met at conventions treat me like the plaque. (I do live with CFS and Fibro and Agoraphobia +++). I do try my best to be presentable at conventions. Pert near impossible. At the best of times I resemble a zombie of a zombie and can barely remember my name let alone what my book is about. I usually support other Indie writers at a con and buy one of their books. I do have close to 20 years experience in the book industry, my last before the CFS bomb was Simon & Schuster Canada Ltd., so I do have some knowledge as to how the big girls and boys operate. I believe I was a casualty of the Leisure collapse which basically halted the Horror book industry. I do not count most of the Small Presses as they operate by The Buddy System. I, like many others, went the self publishing route. On the surface it will probably look to the public that I don’t want to be there. That is partially true because of my Agoraphobia. I do want to be there but from one of your suggestions I should stay the heck away. I am working hard through my disabilities to be part of the Indie community. I believe in my writing. I do like to meet people even though it scares the crap out of me.
Once again thank you for writing this.
You ma be right, but were all the expletives necessary? Surely someone who has a command of the written word should be able to get their meaning across without gutter language?
Thank you for your feedback. If you don’t like profanity, don’t read it. Out of all the feedback I have gotten on this post, I have had 3 people complain about my language. If the worst thing you can find to bitch about is my language, #1 – I still count that as a win, #2 – You’re just looking for something to complain about.
Take it as what it is – a blog post on MY blog. If you don’t like the language, don’t read it.
NOTE TO ALL – WE HAVE ALREADY HEARD THE EXPLICIT LANGUAGE COMPLAINT. I AM NOT GOING TO CHANGE IT AS IT IS ON MY BLOG. IF YOU DON’T LIKE IT, DON’T READ IT. IT IS AS SIMPLE AS THAT. I HAVE BEEN APPROVING 100% OF COMMENTS UP UNTIL NOW. WE HAVE ALREADY HEARD THIS COMPLAINT THREE TIMES. ANY MORE COMMENTS THAT MENTION THE PROFANITY USED WILL BE MARKED AS TRASH, REGARDLESS OF THE REST OF THE COMMENT’S CONTENT.
Sorry to be a bitch about it but this is MY blog. That’s like going to someone’s house and ragging at them because of the way they do something in their own home. Had I posted it on YOUR blog, you’d have the right to complain about it.
This is excellent advice and wise observation. I’d recommend it to everyone.
Diana at About Myself By Myself
[…] will now give a shout-out to urban fantasy author J.M. Gregoire, whose “Open Letter to Indie Authors” carries much wise advice for ALL authors, whether indie or not regarding covers, editing, […]
This is seriously some of the best advice regarding indie authors I have ever read. If you are an aspiring author seeking to publish a book yourself, do yourself a favor and read this, it’s awesome advice! Thanks for the letter, hopefully you’ll open a few authors eyes before they ruin their name.
Unless indie publishing is very different from mainstream publishing, I must disagree with your definitions of editor and proofreader. A good, professional editor should be able to point out the plot holes, lapses in characterization, overblown description, limp dialogue, and other aspects that betas may miss. This is why they are paid, and why proofers may or may not be. (I think they should be.) What I just described is “content editing.” Checking the grammar, punctuation, etc. is “copy editing.” They require different sets of skills, which may or may not be found in the same person.
Thanks Janet. Please see the update at the top of the post from two days ago.
From a reader — lately I’m seeing indie authors do some more things that bug me into avoiding their books and replace perfectly thoughtful (in my mind) reviews with an unexplained one-star (or half star) rating:
Threaten to get a bookbuyer banned from that customer product opinion site for posting their opinion publicly (or threaten legal action regarding — seriously, some come across very ignorant on that one and should at least look up slander vs. libel on Wikipedia and checkout some FTC rulings if you cannot get a lawyer’s input before talking slander lawsuits and damages). If the post is against site TOS, flag/report it to site support without any potential readers even knowing you did so; keep such things off the public radar. If you are suing, say nothing your lawyer has not approved. If you email, fax or pm anything to a reviewer you do not want made public — preface it with an agreement that nothing in those communications will be disclosed to anyone other than the recipient (and even then, don’t get your hopes up that someone will respond back accepting the stricture to never reveal your communications; more likely they’ll publicize you asked).
Instructing bookbuyers how they have to write their opinions, lecturing on what makes a “professional” review, (pay for a professional review in a publication like Publisher’s Weekly or Kirkus if that’s what you are looking for), insist someone take down a review and replace it instead with your standard question/format review guidelines because those are the “standards” you hold all reviewers to or else you will not allow them to review your books, critique the bookbuyer’s opinion, debate points …
Insist they read your book “wrong”; insist they cannot review the edition of your book they read but instead have to read the revised edition — dude, no one outside of religious or course requirements has to read anything; insist you have the right to defend your book — against what? someone’s opinion?
Seriously, before an author responds to any review (other than a polite thank you for your feedback, good point, or answering an implied question like a review that wondered if there would be a sequel) — type up your response offline and save it. Let it sit a few days and think about it. Ask yourself if posting will encourage or discourage future reviews. Ask yourself if the comment is confrontational and arguing with the review or if it would just add to a lovely book discussion civil in tone.
It may not be exactly fair in your eyes that any customer or potential customer can say negative or outright rude things while you are seen as (at best) unprofessional if you do–but they don’t have something for sale, you do. And if you call them unprofessional, they’ll laugh at you because all they did was buy or think about buying your book and never claimed to be professionals. And there a few hundred thousand new you’s every week for them to choose from.
What an interesting post. You offer some great tips on how to produce a commercially-viable book. But you present those tips in black-and-white terms that seem to be based on an idea that the indie author “community” is a rather homogeneous group. And that could not be further from the truth. Today a number of writers are using self-publishing platforms to produce daring and innovative works that look quite different from those associated with the literary world I see reflected in your blog. I’m thinking of the conceptual writing that’s been happening over the past decade. Exploiting the cut and paste function of the computer, these writers have been harvesting the Internet for material, making books that are more about the act of collecting the information than the reading of them. Quite often the writer will make no changes to this harvested content; typos and grammatical errors are retained as key elements of the concept. For in this writing “community” the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work. When a writer uses a conceptual form of literature, it means that all of the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair. Plagiarism, fraud, theft, falsification, uncreativity, unoriginality, illegibility, appropriation – these are the intentionally self- and ego-effacing tactics of the conceptual writer. Production is often built on aplastic, objective and entirely non-writing procedures. Writers make use of information management, word processing, databasing and extreme process. This type of work is usually free from the dependence on the skill of the writer as a craftsman. So in this indie author community you do not see an emphasis on betas and editors. You don’t see many professionally designed book covers, either. Some covers are intentionally uncreative – just text on blank backgrounds. These writers don’t need a cover to sell their books; the books are not intended to be commercially viable. In fact, most of them will never be published by more traditional means. Conventions and author events are not going to be where most of these writers make meaningful connections with potential readers. Much of this work is published via Lulu, giving the writers the added bonus of harnessing the site as a powerful distribution tool. But again, this is not commercially viable writing so Lulu is not being used as a sales channel. Few readers of this type of writing are going to pay for it. Instead, they use the Lulu servers to snag the PDF, costing nobody anything. They look at the PDF and then – maybe they read it, maybe not. Most books, if you don’t read them then you don’t get them. But you don’t necessarily have to read these books to get them. Sometimes you just think about them. For this particular community, the thinking is better than the reading (or the buying and selling). I would submit that this community of writers is where we are seeing the most thought-provoking developments in indie publishing. Instead of pursuing an alternative to traditional publishing, these writers are exploring a new approach that replaces the human substitutions that are at the heart of metaphor and image with the direct, mechanical presentation of language itself. Spontaneous overflow is supplanted by meticulous procedure and an exhaustively logical process that often resembles an automated approach to writing, which strikes me as an appropriate use of the automated tools in the self-publishing toolbox of indie authors.
Reblogged this on The Improbable Author and commented:
Great thoughts to consider as I embark along this new path . . . .
This. Is. Awesome!
I’m new to indie publishing, so I haven’t encountered a lot of what I’ve heard about, but you’re right, some of this is Marketing 101 – don’t piss off your customers! I can’t imagine having the opportunity for an honest-to-God book signing so to just not show boggles my mind. And to go off on someone because of a bad review? As if. That’s the height of stupidity (the personal attack posts not withstanding, of course).
I’m still really new (read: really poor) so I have beta readers and a couple of friends who will proof and amateur edit for me. I can’t imagine what kind of level I might attain once I can afford to find and hire a good editor.
Anyway, this is a wonderful read, right on point, and definitely needed to be said. 🙂
I’d never heard of trollers as you have described them above. Thanks for the heads-up. This is a marvelous summation of basic marketing for us indie authors, and useful when extended to basic living as well!
Very well said, I am an Indie “Author” but up until a year and a half ago I was just a “BoB”, I’m still BoB but I have written and published 3 Volumes of my inspirational poetry with 2 more to come. I was fortunate enough to feel my way around google looking for the right editor and the one I “felt” was incredible, with her came a proof reader, yes she was a friend but only because they met in editing courses. I followed up with a fantastic graphic artist and sent the whole thing off to a designer in Vancouver. I knew nothing of writing or creating a book, and honestly I still know nothing but I have three Volumes of what i consider to be a pretty successful little book, thanks mainly to my “team” and my belief in myself, and of course to people like you that say the things Indie Authors need to hear, and to say them in the way you feel the most comfortable.
Thank you, a smile in the wind for you… WI:)ND.
As readers, we need to insist on quality storytelling even if that means rating something more critically than the author may have liked. As writers, we need to maintain an emphasis on literary intent regardless of genre. There’s a flood out there and without a focus on quality, all indie authors will drown.
Very good advice. Thank you so much for putting into words what I have seen in the community.
I Didn’t find the language to be over the top andi don’t curse. Having said that THANK YOU. As an indie author, promoter, radio show host, reviewer, and occasional beta, 100% of what you said I have to agree with. Been there, done that, still going through some of that. But I’ll never give this up. It’s my goal to put out the best I can and to always be gracious. The good the bad and even the ugly ( boy do they hurt) are still lessons. Everyone want 5 * reviews, not realistic.
Thank you for saying it. Hopefully the literary community will receive it.
I was so glad to read this this. I’ve recently been ranting about the glut of self-published books that aren’t ready for public consumption. I’ve heard indie authors complain about how expensive it is to get good cover design and to get an editor (regardless of cost), and they’d rather not bother. It just costs too much. They’re rely on their critique partner instead. Wow.
Well, I’m here to say that I will no longer read any free books, and I’ll no longer buy any 99 cent books because I’ve been getting just what I paid for. Then I’m told that regular readers don’t know any better and these books are good enough for them. No, just no. Give readers more credit than that. If a book is crap, a reader may not know why it’s crap, but they still smell the stink.
I’m traditionally published, and I’m an avid reader, and I want to read good books that are well-written and well-told whether that author is indie published or trad. I have no preference in that regard. Please don’t scrimp on the editing, or if you can’t afford to do it right, just don’t publish. You’ll be shooting yourself in the foot if you do.
I cringe every time I read about a writer so excited to get their book on amazon and they’ll be finished writing it in a week so the book will go up a week later. What? It takes several weeks, sometimes months, to prepare a book for publication. I don’t understand why someone wouldn’t want their work to be the best it could be.
Wow, as a new indie author, I had no idea all this was going on. But as a blogger for over three years, I can say I see a lot of it with indie features. It boils down to earning the right to be an author. It takes a certain discipline to attain the talent and skill of a novelist, and some indie authors are putting themselves out there without having earned the right. It insults those of us who’ve put our time in to learn the ropes–including blogging etiquette.
I’m glad you put this out there, and sorry you’ve had to deal with such unprofessional people. Hopefully the people who need to read this, will.
Thank you for writing this. I read it twice and will bookmark it.
As readers, we must insist on quality storytelling. Use our wallets, our ratings and reviews, our word of mouth recommendations. As writers we must maintain an emphasis on literary intent, regardless of genre. There’s a flood of there. Without a focus on quality, all indie authors will drown. (I had trouble logging in. Apologies if this is a duplicate.)
Excellent post!! I hope the authors that aren’t following these rules will get a clue. As soon as I see an author make a negative comment on a review, I know I will never review any books by that author. Life’s too short, and there are way more books to read than I will ever have time for. Fortunately, I find 99% of the authors that I deal with to be amazing people. Thanks again for getting this message out there.
U R Fucking Awesome!
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[…] Netgalley find The Devil You Know (Demon Legacy #1) by J.M. Gregoire – After reading her Open Letter to Indie Authors, how could I not pick up one of her books to […]
Words of wisdom I desperately need to hear as a new author. I am published now but I look back at things I wrote 20, 10, heck, even 5 years ago and blanche. Also, I could really use the contact info for your cover artist if fantasy is something he/she does well!
Excellent piece that I would like to share on my blog if you don’t mind. I can gladly report that I was not offended by any one of these points because I have never behaved in these ways. This year, due to financial reasons, I had to back out of two conventions that I have done as a writer guest for a few years. However, I gave the organizers notice months in advance and each of these cons has plenty of other writers there. I’m not special and I know it! 🙂
And while I am known to spout off online about social injustices, the world’s problems, and occasional personal venting, I would never DREAM of freaking out on readers, reviewers, other writers, or anyone else involved in the writing and publishing community (and yes, readers are the heart of that community–always remember that!) I’ve had great reviews on my books so far and I’m having a blast just being part of the indie community. I have no problems with anyone, even when I read blog posts that dismiss the work of indie authors or look down upon us. I let it go and move on. My heart tells me I’m doing the right thing on the right path. That’s all that matters to me.
If nothing else, indie authors should be humble. We are putting our work out before the public. Readers have the final say on whether our work is quality. They are the ones paying money to buy our work. We should be grateful, not arrogant.
Thank You, Thank You, Thank You. As an Indie Author I have found it to be a tough road. Not the writing part, well yeah the writing is hard. But just trying to fit in and get to know other authors. It is like a club of who’s, who’s. I have asked so many questions of so many authors, about beta readers and editors only to be ignored, I just gave up and just do my own thing and hope I am doing it right. You have answered more question for me in this one open letter than I received in the two years I have been doing this. So again Thank You.
This was excellent
Loved the crap out of this. Thanks for writing it. There are so many Indie writers out there giving us all a bad name. (I’m still working on my first book, but I’m going to include myself in that collective us) A few months ago, I saw a writer I know take to facebook to make fun of two different negative reviews he’d gotten for his book. I added him to my, I’ll never ever ever read your stuff, list. I’m going to send this link to every writer I know. Including him!