Ready to Jump on the Indie Publishing Train? STOP!

Here's a blast from the past (blog posts I wrote a while back but never posted until now. ) This one is from February of 2011. Enjoy.

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In the comments of this blog post Zoe Winters says: it's stupid to just rush and rush to meet an opportunity if your stuff isn't ready for prime time. Because putting out crap or throwing together a sloppy business plan built on sand is not sane business.

That's so true. All the sneering about self-publishing is still alive and well and it'll only get worse if those who are choosing to go the Kindle route aren't publishing quality material. It takes a lot of time and effort to write a great book, triple that and that's what it takes to publish the book yourself.

As an Indie, you alone are responsible for editing, cover art, blurbs, did I mention editing? Let me put it another way. I'm currently in the process of rereleasing a book that was at a publisher for 2 years. It went through rounds of critiquing, revision and then 3 rounds of editing with my editor. I've decided that since I no longer have a word count constraint on the book that there is more to tell, more the characters want to tell. My readers have expressed an interest in knowing more about the world I've created. They want a deeper look into the characters. The cover for this book has been complete for two months. But I'm still revising the book to get it just right. Two months. On a book that was good enough to be published in the first place. It's been to critique partners and will go back to an independent editor before it goes live.

Maybe Zoe and I are crazy for working so hard on our indie releases. But I know I cringe when I hear a writer talking about jumping on board the money train and releasing the first thing that comes out of their fingertips.

photo cred: Simon Pielow