Do you you read indie e-books? What will convince you to check out indie books?

[ApK]

I have found and read several good indie works through the deals and freebies sections here. More good stuff than I ever thought I would find without sorting through a lot more garbage. A free offer, plus a decent promotional blurb, and a decent comment or review is more than enough to get me to take a look. I read a little, and if not grabbed, I move on. I have so much free stuff, both indie, small publisher and otherwise now, I don't know when I'll catch up.

[Prestidigitweeze]

One reason for readers' reticence to try indie eBooks can be the potential for lack of oversight, which can result in Mamie Shrubslaughter Syndrome, or MSS. I'm sure you're familiar with the phenomenon:

Deathless Prose by Mamie Shrubslaughter
Based on a Damned Clever Idea by Mamie Shrubslaughter
Insightful Editing and Tireless Proofing by Mamie Shrubslaughter
Whimsical Book Design by Mamie Shrubslaughter
Cover photo of Mamie Shrubslaughter's cat, Endomorph, by Mamie Shrubslaughter's son, Endomorph
Published by Mamie Shrubslaughter Press on Mamie Shrubslaughter's Birthday as a Present to Herself and the World

[caleb72]

Deathless Prose by Mamie Shrubslaughter
Based on a Damned Clever Idea by Mamie Shrubslaughter
Insightful Editing and Tireless Proofing by Mamie Shrubslaughter
Whimsical Book Design by Mamie Shrubslaughter
Cover photo of Mamie Shrubslaughter's cat, Endomorph, by Mamie Shrubslaughter's son, Endomorph
Published by Mamie Shrubslaughter Press on Mamie Shrubslaughter's Birthday as a Present to Herself and the World

I'm not sure if I find all of those things off-putting about independent authors. The only thing that gives me pause is the editing/proof-reading aspect. I do like a book that has had input from other sources before it's release. However, all the other aspects you mentioned don't seem that frightening to me.

[outlander78]

I bought an indie book. The editing was non-existent, and the formatting terrible. I will not buy another until I figure out a way to find the excellent ones.

I generally find books by word of mouth and Amazon's fictfact.com's suggestions; indie or not has no impact - the one I bought, I deliberately sought out, but the tools to verify the quality of the book were not there. (The one I bought had a single review, likely faked by the author himself.)

If I could find a site (Amazon or similar) with numerous reviews, then I would jump in with both feet. For now, though, smashwords and kobo leave a great deal to be desired for indies.

[S Livingston]

I'm sure that indie publishing will produce many great writers just as in the music industry many great bands have come from an indie background.

[Frida Fantastic]

Originally Posted by outlander78

I bought an indie book. The editing was non-existent, and the formatting terrible. I will not buy another until I figure out a way to find the excellent ones.

I generally find books by word of mouth and Amazon's fictfact.com's suggestions; indie or not has no impact - the one I bought, I deliberately sought out, but the tools to verify the quality of the book were not there. (The one I bought had a single review, likely faked by the author himself.)

If I could find a site (Amazon or similar) with numerous reviews, then I would jump in with both feet. For now, though, smashwords and kobo leave a great deal to be desired for indies.

I sample all indie books I read. If there's something wrong in the first paragraph, it's not a promising sign. Not sure if you read the previous page of this thread, but there's indie book bloggers to help verify the quality of the book: http://www.simon-royle.com/indie-reviewers/ You can just type the name of the book and the author on google, and if you find a book blog that actively reviews a variety of books (i.e., not the same author's books) and also points out areas for improvement (not just: I can't wait for the sequel!), then they're more likely to be trustworthy.

I also find that reviews on www.goodreads.com are generally more informative than the ones on Amazon. There's not gonna be reviews for all indie books, but people on Goodreads generally are more honest about their reviews, because the website attracts prolific readers who like to share their opinions.

[outlander78]

Thanks

[JanHicks]

I'll start by saying that I'm terribly biased, since my husband is a self-pubbed author. One thing I've learned seeing what he goes through in writing a book and getting it ready for publication is that you can never have too many eyes looking at your book - backwards, forwards and upside down. lol.

That being said, I ALWAYS sample any book before I buy it, unless it's the continuation of a series I've been reading. In fact, the samples are my most favorite part of owning a Kindle. I also pay attention to the reviews. I read the 5-stars and the 1 and 2-stars. If it only has a few reviews, I'll give it a pass, because they are most likely from friends.

I know how hard it is to be a self-pubbed author, but I also know there is a lot of dreck out there. My hope is that over time things will change enough in the industry that we will see self-pubbed become more accepted. There are so many worthy authors out there.

Jan

[Frida Fantastic]

Originally Posted by JanHicks

One thing I've learned seeing what he goes through in writing a book and getting it ready for publication is that you can never have too many eyes looking at your book - backwards, forwards and upside down.

I completely agree. It doesn't matter what background the author is from, editing and feedback from as many third parties as possible is crucial. It doesn't matter what the price is or if it's free. I've seen perfectly edited indie books from authors who have never been traditionally published, and really terribly edited books that are from authors who've had traditional publishing experience. Background means nothing to me, what matters is what I see on the page.

[Frida Fantastic]

Since the "good indie ebooks are hard to find" sentiment is pretty common (heck, that was how I was feeling back when I started this thread and was a mobileread newb), I wrote a little blog post here:

"How do you look for your next indie ebook read?"
http://fridafantastic.wordpress.com/...ie-ebook-read/

There's a lot of general tips and some haunts more specific to science fiction/fantasy readers. It should be common sense to the mobileread vets, but there's always new people that we can help along or indoctrinate ;D Comments welcome.

[Prestidigitweeze]

Originally Posted by caleb72

However, all the other aspects you mentioned don't seem that frightening to me.

That makes me very sad, since my entire motive for posting that list was to scare the hell out of you.

Ah, well, there's always the Independent Publisher's Fair in Chicago, where an improved version should send a few of the jumpier participants to a nearby hospital.

[Prestidigitweeze]

Originally Posted by bashfulbanshee

I sample all indie books I read. If there's something wrong in the first paragraph, it's not a promising sign.

The problem with many eBooks -- whether original or scanned -- is that the people who created the books know you'll scrutinize the first paragraph and page. They also know that vendors' previews tend to consist only of first chapters and stories. They'll spend more effort on those than the entire rest of the book.

That's why I believe that eBook stores should do what Boomkat does with audio files: Allow you to sample a short range from anywhere in the file without giving you full access to the entire thing. That way, you can see how well the book reads later on, as you could flipping the pages in a physical store.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Hmm... tough crowd. In a way. You really know how to hold a guy's feet to the fire. But that's actually a good thing.

It often sounds like Indies are actually being held to a higher standard than published authors, because they don't have publishers behind them; when major publishers put out a book rife with errors or bad editing, the author is rarely blamed.

On the other hand, the emphasis on quality is important, and an Indie author must pay as much attention to it as a major publisher. I am very aware of the market, and my competition, and I work hard to ensure that my work can stand up against the work of major publishers (if not, yet, the best-sellers). I, too, have on occasion slipped up and published something that needed another proofing pass to really be considered finished; in one case, I quickly collated the discovered errors, redid the book, and immediately emailed copies of it to everyone who'd already bought it (one of the biggest advantages to ebooks, after all).

It can be a tough standard, but it helps to ensure that the best quality work will rise to the top.

[Frida Fantastic]

Originally Posted by Prestidigitweeze

That's why I believe that eBook stores should do what Boomkat does with audio files: Allow you to sample a short range from anywhere in the file without giving you full access to the entire thing. That way, you can see how well the book reads later on, as you could flipping the pages in a physical store.

This is a good idea. It's especially a bit hard to sample choose your own adventure stories and short story anthologies because of this. There are times that I've quit on an anthology because the first story didn't wow me, when a quick flip would have given me a good idea of the quality of everything else. Not sure how to replicate that in digital form though, you can few X number of pages at random? I've had pretty good rates of finding good indies to read just on the basis of the beginning sample. The stuff I didn't like about some of the books I picked up aren't ones that could spotted through sampling, it's more overall plot, character development, and world-building consistencies and stuff.

@Steven: That's a great standard to have. Not sure if published authors really have it any easier. I'm not any easier on typos or boring stories just because they're in a dead-tree legacy published book. Every page still takes up my time, and if my time is better spent reading something else, I would switch to that something else.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan

Hmm... tough crowd. In a way. You really know how to hold a guy's feet to the fire. But that's actually a good thing.

It often sounds like Indies are actually being held to a higher standard than published authors, because they don't have publishers behind them; when major publishers put out a book rife with errors or bad editing, the author is rarely blamed.

Why should you blame the author since it is the publisher that have accepted the book for publishing and is responsible for putting it out?