[neilmarr]

I've been a pro writer and an editor for over four decades. Books I personally edit are currently released at the rate of about ten a year by an independent publishing house in which I head up a small, professional and experienced editorial team and by well-known larger houses.

Always the editing process goes on for months. Where construction and significant revision is involved, it can be over a year before a piece of work is ready to fly.

Often an author and I will deeply consider editorial suggestions along the way before reaching agreement. Never once has an author ever not agreed that his work is vastly improved by a through editing process involving at least one pro editor and several proof readers and beta readers to catch any remaining editorial typos. Never have I published original work of my own that hasn't been edited by another and proof read by fresh eyes outside the author-editor partnership.

So I can tell at a glance over a few pages whether I'm reading a thoroughly worked piece or raw manuscript.

What I can't and won't do, though, is to even hint that because a book is self-published and offered freely or cheaply and without professional editorial input means that it is necessarily unworthy. I have read self-published work that has impressed me greatly and traditionally produced books that have not.

I often wonder, though, if self publishing is truly a matter of an author wishing to retain utter control and independence or if bad luck in securing a publisher's freely offered editorial assistance and being unable to afford the high fees of a sound pro freelance forces them to go solo as a last resort. You see, I regularly spot manuscripts I've declined popping up -- warts-n-all -- as self-published work a month or so later.

Although a very heavy work schedule severely restricts my 'recreational' reading, this very weekend, I read a historical fiction piece called 'White Seed', self-published by a MobileRead member called Paul Clayton, a writer I've known and admired for ten years and more. Was I impressed? Bet your boots I was. It was epic and it was magnificent. Could it have been improved with assistance from a good editor? Bet your socks it could.

But this piece is out there in ebook form in the bargain basement. We should thank our lucky stars for the likes of Paul and other independent authors who so generously offer their heart-wrung words this way. On the other hand, finding them now is a little like looking for a needle in a haystack that gets bigger and bigger by the day.

The reader of self-published work must now sift his own slush pile. I sympathise with the reader ... but also with those fine indie authors struggling for a few precious hours of your time now that the crack in the traditional door is closing and the flood gates have opened wide.

Best wishes, love and luck to all writers and readers in the fine company I keep here at MobileRead. Your contribution to the art -- with your fingers at the keyboard or noses buried in an ebook reader -- is beyond value. Neil