Shift

I am so happy for independent and self-publishers. Most of what I read now comes from those sources, mostly through my Kindle Unlimited subscription. The shift in publishing has been a game changer. And now you can say, duh, thanks for the insightful comments, Captain Obvious.

My point in this post isn’t really about the shift in publishing, but about the shift in quality. Look, I’m not perfect and every time I read through one of my manuscripts I find errors. That’s because I haven’t had a proofreader go through them yet. Hiring a proofreader costs money, and in a lot of cases it’s clear the author or publisher didn’t fund the effort.

For example, I’m reading a series right now that is a great story with entertaining characters and witty dialogue. Oh, and tons of run-on sentences, lots of thoughts connected by a comma and quite distracting. Like what I just did in that previous sentence. I picked up on the pattern early on in the first book and decided to keep forging ahead. I haven’t regretted reading the series so far, but it makes me curious how an author can get thousands of 4-5 star reviews all while ignoring the basics of grammar. Good for them.

However, in the past six months or so I’ve picked up two independently-published books, one in physical form, and I couldn’t get past the first ten pages. Spelling and grammar catastrophes is what those were. It is rare for me to not finish a book, and to have it happen twice recently is a first-time event. Mayber the books were actually good? I’ll never know because the author didn’t have a copy editor and proofreader help them out. I admire their will to write, but in some cases we have to acknowledge our blind spots.

And it makes me wonder when an independent publisher releases a book in that state. We don’t want reviewers and critics looking down on independent publishers as second or third-tier; let’s not give them an extra reason to do so.