Quote:
Originally Posted by DNSB
What I find is that almost all self-published ebooks highlight the important role of the editor as well as the publisher. The vast majority of self-published books should never have left the slush pile.
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My workaround is to focus on self-publishing authors who also have, or have had, books published in the traditional way. This is working fairly well for me ("Havenstar" by Glenda Larke turned out to be excellent fantasy, to name an example). With some genres, like flash fiction, there is usually no alternative to indie/self-publishing authors anyway, as is often the case with even short stories.
There's the vicious circle of editors deciding what is sold, and editors buying what sells. I understand why editors do that, and I understand the desire to buy manuscripts from established authors. It's not just for the actual or supposed quality, or the writer being familiar with procedures (certainly a plus: in my job I also prefer to hire folks who have experience and I don't need to drag them through the professional basics), it's also because of customers not wanting to experiment.
Take the Cuckoo's Calling for instance. It sold some 1500 copies when it had no big name attached to it. As soon it "leaked" that it was written by Rowling, it suddenly became a bestseller. If it had been written by a genuinely new, previously unpublished author, it would never have broken through.
I do feel more comfortable buying a novel published by a "professional" publisher, but half of the novels I sample-read (iBooks lets you read the first 50-200 pages) I discard, because they don't appeal to me, so just having been edited professionally doesn't necessarily make a book enjoyable.
(Sometimes I think I should stick to old stuff from the 60s through 80s, which seems to generally appeal the most to me!)