Hi there, lots of interesting thoughts I will take into account. As usual, I will try to answer where I can.
The "Pro" issue. I am not hiding behind an amateur pose, I think a Pro is somebody who lives from doing something. I published a book and am trying to sell it. If that makes me a pro for you, a pro I am. However, I simply think considering myself a professional writer because I published a book is just a joke. I am not that presumptuous. If you sell your car you are a professional car salesman? If you make a table and sell it you are a professional carpenter? I don't think so, but if you do, it's ok by me. No argument there.
Reviewers and so. Most of the reviews of the IR people will show on their own blogs, Amazon, and Goodreads by default. But it takes a t least a couple of months.
Covers. I think covers just need to draw attention. If you ask me, they are normally too flashy and oversaturated, but if you want to draw attention with a 1" x 0.5" cover in Amazon you need to do like the rest. At that size, almost no text shows correctly and images need to be simple and recognizable. When you click on the book you can read everything and see the details, for what they are worth. Beyond that, the importance people seem to be giving here to the cover seems to me disproportionate as a reader. A bad cover will not draw your attention, but rejecting a book because you don't like the cover seems preposterous to the reader in me.
As a guy who wrote a book and is trying to sell it, I need the flashiest cover I can manage, of course. As a reader, the cover drags my attention or not. If it does, I do not give it any further consideration. I will then judge the blurb and other readers' opinions. I have read quite a few crappy books with wonderful covers. Like everybody here, I guess. What I have never done is reject a book that seems appealing to me in blurb and reviews because the cover is crappy. Judging the book by the cover and all that...
About getting what you pay for and "paying like a pro". I pay what I can afford. That's the long and short of it. If that's not enough for some, I'm afraid there is nothing I can do about it. Fortunately, not everybody sees things the same way.
Commas. There are people who agree with you, there are others who oppose, and most of the people don't really care. What style etiquete tells you about these optional commas is to pick a pattern and to be
consistent. That's what I did. Some will like it and some won't. Cannot please everybody, but to do things right, consistency is what matters here. Beyond this, it is a matter of taste, a purely subjective matter.
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/matt
The rest of these three paragraphs talk about style. Nothing to agree or disagree about because you are right. However, I think different, and I am also right. It's a matter of taste, and one cannot please everybody, and most important, I happen to like it better my way. It is funny because I have been told I describe too little by people who have actually read the whole book. The fast pace of the story has also been praised by readers.
About that sentence you mention, you are right, that's one hell of a dense sentence. Guilty as charged. It is a very graphic description that gives you the image you should keep of the general landscape throughout most the novel. It's vivid and meaningful if you read on. But the sentence is definitely baroque. Specially if you isolate it. I am sure you can fin more examples, but I do not agree it affects the overall rhythm.
Versions... you mean you would never buy a second edition of a paper book? Or you would not accept a new edition with corrected typos? Or that you would reject the option of an alternative illustrated edition? It's your right to do so, but I am reading books since I was six, and as a reader, I do not agree with you at all.
I do not get this paragraph... "And don't assume that your paying readers are your critique group, or that they'd be amused to find out that version 5 exists because the version that they PAID FOR and already read is crappy. How would you feel about that, if it were you?"
Who are my critique group if not those who have read the book? And these are not necessarily paying readers, since I had the novel for free in Amazon for 5 days. But they are actual readers, and with all due respect, their opinion means much more than that of anyone who has spent some time reading diagonally. Wouldn't you agree? As for reading a book and finding later new editions have been released, it has often happened to me and does not bother me in the least. It is you who freely and without argumentation asumes the previous version was crappy. I, as a reader, don't. In fact, I would be actually offended if I get a second edition and find the same typos as in the first one.
About the critique groups, I'll keep that in mind for new writings, If they come, but I have the idea, maybe prejudiced, that most of these groups are for patting each other on the back. I poked my head in some and ran like the wind...
This is a self-published work, a one-man-project. You cannot expect an industrial product. That's not what I offer. That's not what I want to offer. And I couldn't offer it if I wanted to. There will be typos, the style will not be aseptic, but it is a honest effort without commercial subterfuge. I understand not everybody will like that. I did not write the story I thought people would want to buy, I wrote the story I wanted to read. I like this story, I like the characters, and people who have read it so far seem to like them too. That's good enough for me. Hopefully, if I keep on writing, I'll do it better.