Quote:
Originally Posted by anamardoll
I'm going to have to disagree with you on the bulk of this, though. 
...
Believe me, I'm not arguing that the Smashwords stuff is flawless, but I do think the percentage of quality could very well be equal if we define quality in the simplistic 1-star, 2-star, 3-star, etc. rubric. |
I disagree. I spend a lot of time at Smashwords, and although mainstream publishing occasionally throws out some total duds (especially late in a series), the vast majority have been through *some* kind of filter. The majority at SW hasn't, and it shows.
However, if you've got a decent tolerance for grammar problems, unproofed manuscripts (with common doubled words or missing prepositions), and short stories whose "shocking" conclusion you can figure out in the first three paragraphs--you can find some gems buried in the piles of muck.
There's more muck than in mainstream books; most of them had *nothing* but the author's ego to guide them about what's presentable. But there's also gems that could never get through a mainstream process because they don't fit the normal categories, or they're "too long" for their genre, or "too short," or just have a perspective that mainstream publishers aren't going to think is salesworthy.
I absolutely adore
The Binder of Shame Presents: The RPG.net rants. I printed out six copies & handed them around to my gaming group, and we were all rolling on the floor over it. Grammar problems, missing punctuation, lousy formatting that I can't tell whether is from the original or the Meatgrinder ... and I don't care; this is going to be one of my "reread every year when I need a dose of hysterical laughter" books. It'd never get past a mainstream publisher, even a gaming one--the niche is too small. But for that niche, it's gold.
OTOH, in looking for the link for that, I saw the new books posted. Sigh.
$2.50 for
The Divine Heart of God the Father Consecration and Prayer Book by "Apostolate of the Divine Heart", which I'm going to try not to think too much about. It's less than 2000 words.
one thing led to another by goodness chinedu has this charming description:
Quote:
|
mr. Adeleke was going out with his friends daughter, while his wife was also dating a young boy who is also a student in the shcool she lectures.
|
Less than 4000 words; author wants $4 for it. (Go ahead, read a page of the sample. Please. Because someone should join me in shuddering and twitching over here.) (Author is maybe ESL, and that excuses some problems--but not the lack of even Word's spelling & grammar check.)
I can understand the people who want to stick with mainstream publishers for a while longer; the quality's at least mostly *consistent.* Even the bad stuff follows patterns.
I do agree that there's some *terrific* stuff, not just niche stuff, in self-publishing.
Ellen O'Connell is incredible; I will happily buy *anything* she writes. And while I think the percentage of total crap is higher than in mainstream publishing, I think it's worth wading through some of the sludge, and clicking on lots of previews, in order to find the quality books.