Avoiding DIY Novel Disasters

I know that a lot of what I’ve been writing lately may seem to come off as Indie Author Bashing. It’s really not. I honestly love some of the indie authors out there right now and they have replaced some of my favourite traditionally published authors. It’s the other 90% that I’ve been wading through that fuels these posts. And when I say wading, I want you to envision me wandering through the underground tunnels of Amazon, hip-high in sewer drudge, trying to find those priceless pieces of jewellery that were accidentally dropped through the sewer grate, all while avoiding the sludge that was flushed down the millions of toilets above.

Again, I think some indie authors CAN do it themselves. If they happen to have a marketing/English language/graphics design background, they could be super successful. I have all three. I taught English in Germany to high-level corporate students for three years and I think I now know more about English grammar than the average high school English teacher. But . . .even I’ve decided that I can’t do it all myself.

Yes, I’m part of a group that started up a publishing company. Some may say that I’m biased against Indie authors as a result. The thing is, we can’t publish all of the novels that come across our desks. A LOT of work goes into putting together a quality book and there is only five of us working on them. I also don’t want to read just the stuff that comes across my desk. I read a novel every one and a half days on average. We can publish maybe six a year. What would make me extremely happy is if Indie Authors decided on some quality assurance guidelines.

I’m going to recommend that my Indie Author friends look into a really great book by an Indie Author Guru. His name is Guy Kawasaki and he wrote a book called APE – Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur.

Check it out and let me know what you think. I’m going to start seriously reviewing more books on this site.

Oh, and for anyone looking, Michael Antcliffe’s book HOPE is my Wingman is being hosted by Jillian Watts today and she’s got information about how to win a free Kindle Paperwhite.