Patrick Reinken's Blog: Writing to Write - Posts Tagged "indie"
Reading Indies
I just cracked open this week's Entertainment Weekly (the one with Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford looking tough on the cover) and found a "Books" article on what people on Goodreads and book blogs and kindleboards and other ebook discussions call "indie" or "independent" or "direct published" or (at its most plainspoken) "self-published" books. The article is titled "The Hottest Self-Published Books," and - no surprise to anyone familiar with ebook publishing - it most prominently mentions Amanda Hocking and John Locke and reviews some of their work.
(It's online, too, filed as a review of Hocking's Trylle Trilogy, right here.)
The article caught my eye because, well, it was about books in general and ebooks more particularly and indie ebooks very specifically. But it also caught my eye because the topic it raised had just come up in a Goodreads "Amazon Kindle" discussion (that one's right here).
The theme of the EW article, and one of several separate points made in the discussion group, was the question of whether indie books are well written, good books. In fact, there's a blunt subhead in the magazine: "Amanda Hocking and John Locke publish their own novels - and they sell like crazy. But are they any good?"
The reviewer's conclusion seems to be a softly delivered, "Sort of/sometimes/maybe/but...." And in tagging three books from these authors (two from Hocking, one from Locke) with ratings that range from a B- down to a D, he offers support for his view with descriptions and some quotes from the materials.
I can't comment on the accuracy of his review because I haven't read the books, and I wouldn't challenge him on his opinions anyway because they are, of course, his opinions. He's certainly entitled to offer them, and he makes his points.
But I want to back up a little and look at broader questions....
Those questions are tucked behind an implication-infused line in the article - in writing about Locke's Vegas Moon, the reviewer quotes a sentence from the novel, then follows that with this statement: "It's cheap stuff, which makes sense given that the book sells for just 99 cents."
That may be fair for that book. Again, I haven't read the reviewed books, so I don't know. But the bigger idea behind those words isn't fair, because it's certainly not true that a book's price of 99 cents means it necessarily "makes sense" that the writing ... or the plot ... or the characters ... or the story ... is "cheap stuff."
The broader questions on this issue are easy to state:
"Are there excellent indie books out there?" And, "Even if they only cost 99 cents?"
And the answers are just as easy: "Of course." And, "Absolutely."
I know the likely audience for this post will agree with that, because they've seen those books. I even think the reading public would agree with it, because they understand the general idea that the price of something doesn't necessarily define the worth of that thing.
I mean, I've seen old furniture that costs tens of thousands of dollars, and I wouldn't pay a dime for it. And I've paid 75 cents for an ice cream cone at a grade school fundraiser and thought it was the best ice cream I'd ever had.
What defines worth is what the individual him- or herself believes. It's not the price, it's the person's own reaction - their feeling, their gut on it, their love or hate or indifference, their passion.
Ms. Hocking and Mr. Locke have sold hundreds of thousands of books. I say, "Bless 'em." People love those books, or they wouldn't keep buying them.
And I promise you that even if those books aren't to some particular person's tastes, there are fantastic indie books out there, even for just 99 cents.
On that note, I'll close with a point I made in a comment on the discussion board I mentioned - look at these books and find something you like by sampling them:
(It's online, too, filed as a review of Hocking's Trylle Trilogy, right here.)
The article caught my eye because, well, it was about books in general and ebooks more particularly and indie ebooks very specifically. But it also caught my eye because the topic it raised had just come up in a Goodreads "Amazon Kindle" discussion (that one's right here).
The theme of the EW article, and one of several separate points made in the discussion group, was the question of whether indie books are well written, good books. In fact, there's a blunt subhead in the magazine: "Amanda Hocking and John Locke publish their own novels - and they sell like crazy. But are they any good?"
The reviewer's conclusion seems to be a softly delivered, "Sort of/sometimes/maybe/but...." And in tagging three books from these authors (two from Hocking, one from Locke) with ratings that range from a B- down to a D, he offers support for his view with descriptions and some quotes from the materials.
I can't comment on the accuracy of his review because I haven't read the books, and I wouldn't challenge him on his opinions anyway because they are, of course, his opinions. He's certainly entitled to offer them, and he makes his points.
But I want to back up a little and look at broader questions....
Those questions are tucked behind an implication-infused line in the article - in writing about Locke's Vegas Moon, the reviewer quotes a sentence from the novel, then follows that with this statement: "It's cheap stuff, which makes sense given that the book sells for just 99 cents."
That may be fair for that book. Again, I haven't read the reviewed books, so I don't know. But the bigger idea behind those words isn't fair, because it's certainly not true that a book's price of 99 cents means it necessarily "makes sense" that the writing ... or the plot ... or the characters ... or the story ... is "cheap stuff."
The broader questions on this issue are easy to state:
"Are there excellent indie books out there?" And, "Even if they only cost 99 cents?"
And the answers are just as easy: "Of course." And, "Absolutely."
I know the likely audience for this post will agree with that, because they've seen those books. I even think the reading public would agree with it, because they understand the general idea that the price of something doesn't necessarily define the worth of that thing.
I mean, I've seen old furniture that costs tens of thousands of dollars, and I wouldn't pay a dime for it. And I've paid 75 cents for an ice cream cone at a grade school fundraiser and thought it was the best ice cream I'd ever had.
What defines worth is what the individual him- or herself believes. It's not the price, it's the person's own reaction - their feeling, their gut on it, their love or hate or indifference, their passion.
Ms. Hocking and Mr. Locke have sold hundreds of thousands of books. I say, "Bless 'em." People love those books, or they wouldn't keep buying them.
And I promise you that even if those books aren't to some particular person's tastes, there are fantastic indie books out there, even for just 99 cents.
On that note, I'll close with a point I made in a comment on the discussion board I mentioned - look at these books and find something you like by sampling them:
I can click on a button on the side of the store page, wait one second, and then read a number of pages that are a good, solid representation of what I'm buying. If I love it, I can click 'buy' on the last page in the Sample. And if I don't like it, I can delete it and not owe a thing.
We all know that we get a feel for a book at the start, and here, we're given the start of these books. I can find out what I'm getting.
I love that. So I say sample whatever looks interesting, read through all or part of a sample, and pull together a list of great, inexpensive, independent books.
Indies on Best Seller Lists
So here's the common sign of the times for the literary world we live in.... I was reading USAToday at lunch today and came across their Best Seller List.
I skimmed through it and found, with no surprise, three 99-cent indies in the top 50. Yes, the TOP FIFTY....
Last Breath by Michael Prescott is at 25, The Abbey by Chris Culver is at 29, and The Mill River Recluse by Darcie Chan is at 30. Good books all, and right there among Big Pub books that cost five, ten, twenty-five or thirty TIMES as much.
People sometimes see that as a tension between traditional print publishers and newer ebook publishing (most notably ebooks that are self-published). And it certainly is that - the pricing alone hints at the underlying issues still at work here.
But it's exciting, too, and it is a sign of the times - these authors wrote full time or part time, for a livelihood or hobby, in offices or at dining room tables or wherever the mood struck them, and they did that just like authors always have. But then they created and published the ebooks themselves, and there they sit - in the Top 50.
You can find the list in PDF form right here.
I skimmed through it and found, with no surprise, three 99-cent indies in the top 50. Yes, the TOP FIFTY....
Last Breath by Michael Prescott is at 25, The Abbey by Chris Culver is at 29, and The Mill River Recluse by Darcie Chan is at 30. Good books all, and right there among Big Pub books that cost five, ten, twenty-five or thirty TIMES as much.
People sometimes see that as a tension between traditional print publishers and newer ebook publishing (most notably ebooks that are self-published). And it certainly is that - the pricing alone hints at the underlying issues still at work here.
But it's exciting, too, and it is a sign of the times - these authors wrote full time or part time, for a livelihood or hobby, in offices or at dining room tables or wherever the mood struck them, and they did that just like authors always have. But then they created and published the ebooks themselves, and there they sit - in the Top 50.
You can find the list in PDF form right here.
