Creating Trust and Success in the Indie Novel
I'm an editor. I proof and format eBooks for New York Times best-selling authors. And what I've learned is this:
It's tedious. It's time consuming. It's mind-numbing. It's worth it.A well-proofed and professionally edited book is going to garner larger sales, more reviews and more attention. That translates into more money. However, as indie authors continue to produce subpar work, it reflects badly on the rest of the indie market. We need to stick together and educate each other.
We need to produce quality work so it reflects well on the indie market as a whole.
There are many common problems in indie novels, problems that make me (and other readers) delete the book from my Kindle after a few sentences. There are other problems that manifest later that leave readers frustrated they wasted time reading the novel in the first place. I want to support other indie authors and leave reviews, but the book must feel real, professional and it MUST have a resolution!
That being said, here's my list of the top ten things you can do, as an indie author, to make your book more successful:
Find out what makes a story work. This may sound basic, but nearly every indie book I've read in the past six months contains an element that fatally wounds the finished product. *i.e.: characters ceasing to exist as a means to end a book - no resolution to any major plot lines - opening with a dream - weak protagonists - crying in chapter 2 ...Use POV that works. If you have multiple POVs, they must appear consistently throughout the book. Having a book written entirely in one POV until chapter 12, when you throw in a cryptic chapter from a POV of someone the reader has never met, throws the reader out of the story. Read Orson Scott Card's Characters & Viewpoint.Quit Copying. If you're a serious writer, you are smart enough to come up with your own ideas.Realize that spell check is NOT a fix-all. Hire an editor. Pay them. It's worth it. In the meantime, learn the difference between BRAKE and BREAK - BUSSING and BUSING - THEIR, THEY'RE and THERE, BREATH and BREATHE, etc.Create a hook in the first sentence. If you don't hook your reader immediately, they'll put your book down. Read Hooked by Les Edgerton. Follow his advice with the beginning of each new chapter.Be realistic - to a degree. People enjoy fantastic elements in their stories, but they must be consistent and realistic to the rules of your fictional world. Create the limits and rules of your magic systems, government reach, etc. and stick by them. Leave the extras behind. Avoid excessive adverbs, passive voice, the word then. *i.e.: She saw him jump over the fence then run down the street while she was waiting for the light to turn green. -- He jumped the fence and darted down the street before the light turned. Learn how to format your eBook. Simple process? You'd think so, but no. When you convert a file to eBoook format, any glitches, that may or may not have been visible in your original, will be exaggerated. Tabs may be off, text may appear large in one area and small in another. Line spacing may be off. Centering may or may not translate. It's tiring and tedious, but proof your electronic files before you startle your readers with giant bold words where there should be none.Some of us are NOT graphic designers. Know your limits when it comes to your cover art. If you are not a designer, hire one. A cheap-looking book is a turn off to most readers. Keep it professional and you create a better future for all indie authors.Keep it clean. I'm not sure why I saved this for last, but keep your writing clean. When picking up an indie novel, it's hard to gauge the content. Unless explicitly indicated in the description or genre, don't use graphic sex, violence or an overabundance of cursing to try and sell your book. It turns readers off. It leaves them with a bad taste for the indie market. I've had numerous readers comment on this issue recently - it's not just personal opinion.There are more issues, I know, but this is all I could cover in one day. Thank you for reading and I look forward to creating a trustworthy indie market, where readers know they can get quality, professional fiction.
If you found this article informative, please share it with your indie author friends. As we create a more professional indie market, it benefits us all.
If I missed a crucial element, please comment below. I love your feedback.
It's tedious. It's time consuming. It's mind-numbing. It's worth it.A well-proofed and professionally edited book is going to garner larger sales, more reviews and more attention. That translates into more money. However, as indie authors continue to produce subpar work, it reflects badly on the rest of the indie market. We need to stick together and educate each other.
We need to produce quality work so it reflects well on the indie market as a whole.
There are many common problems in indie novels, problems that make me (and other readers) delete the book from my Kindle after a few sentences. There are other problems that manifest later that leave readers frustrated they wasted time reading the novel in the first place. I want to support other indie authors and leave reviews, but the book must feel real, professional and it MUST have a resolution!
That being said, here's my list of the top ten things you can do, as an indie author, to make your book more successful:
Find out what makes a story work. This may sound basic, but nearly every indie book I've read in the past six months contains an element that fatally wounds the finished product. *i.e.: characters ceasing to exist as a means to end a book - no resolution to any major plot lines - opening with a dream - weak protagonists - crying in chapter 2 ...Use POV that works. If you have multiple POVs, they must appear consistently throughout the book. Having a book written entirely in one POV until chapter 12, when you throw in a cryptic chapter from a POV of someone the reader has never met, throws the reader out of the story. Read Orson Scott Card's Characters & Viewpoint.Quit Copying. If you're a serious writer, you are smart enough to come up with your own ideas.Realize that spell check is NOT a fix-all. Hire an editor. Pay them. It's worth it. In the meantime, learn the difference between BRAKE and BREAK - BUSSING and BUSING - THEIR, THEY'RE and THERE, BREATH and BREATHE, etc.Create a hook in the first sentence. If you don't hook your reader immediately, they'll put your book down. Read Hooked by Les Edgerton. Follow his advice with the beginning of each new chapter.Be realistic - to a degree. People enjoy fantastic elements in their stories, but they must be consistent and realistic to the rules of your fictional world. Create the limits and rules of your magic systems, government reach, etc. and stick by them. Leave the extras behind. Avoid excessive adverbs, passive voice, the word then. *i.e.: She saw him jump over the fence then run down the street while she was waiting for the light to turn green. -- He jumped the fence and darted down the street before the light turned. Learn how to format your eBook. Simple process? You'd think so, but no. When you convert a file to eBoook format, any glitches, that may or may not have been visible in your original, will be exaggerated. Tabs may be off, text may appear large in one area and small in another. Line spacing may be off. Centering may or may not translate. It's tiring and tedious, but proof your electronic files before you startle your readers with giant bold words where there should be none.Some of us are NOT graphic designers. Know your limits when it comes to your cover art. If you are not a designer, hire one. A cheap-looking book is a turn off to most readers. Keep it professional and you create a better future for all indie authors.Keep it clean. I'm not sure why I saved this for last, but keep your writing clean. When picking up an indie novel, it's hard to gauge the content. Unless explicitly indicated in the description or genre, don't use graphic sex, violence or an overabundance of cursing to try and sell your book. It turns readers off. It leaves them with a bad taste for the indie market. I've had numerous readers comment on this issue recently - it's not just personal opinion.There are more issues, I know, but this is all I could cover in one day. Thank you for reading and I look forward to creating a trustworthy indie market, where readers know they can get quality, professional fiction.
If you found this article informative, please share it with your indie author friends. As we create a more professional indie market, it benefits us all.
If I missed a crucial element, please comment below. I love your feedback.
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