Quote:
Originally Posted by DNSB
I have seen more indie published ebooks in the last while that have credited a professional editor/proofreading service as part of their acknowledgments. As one author put it (paraphrased by moi), it's part of the maturing of the indie publishing industry.
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The Indie world has indeed moved past the "gold rush" phase attracting quick-buck artists and experimenters and by now there is a commonly accepted set of best practices that writers, even newcomers, are following.
Things like commissioning professional covers being preferable to relying on stock images, to avoid cover duplication or worse, get sued for using a photo improperly distributed through stock image web sites. (It turns out to be nowhere as expensive as tradpubbers claim. A few hundred dollars rather than thousands.)
Crediting an editor and/or cover artist, as well as beta readers, is one of those suggestions and fairly common as it's considered good form to show appreciation for a good editor.
Some people still cling to the delusion that Indie books are a slush pile of wannabes and tradpub rejects when, by now, a strong plurality (if not outright majority) of Indie titles come from authors with a tradpub "pedigree", often with decades of track record, featuring reissues of older titles alongside new output. It varies with genre.
(Romance is awash with Harlequin refugees with extensive catalogs and fan bases. SF also has a pretty good crowd of established authors going Indie for new projects, but where SF&F is shining is in attracting good newcomers with alternative visions for sub-genres the establishment deprecates.)