Self-published books

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by Atunah

I don't read samples. Never have. I don't like it as I don't like reading partial stories. I just want to open a book get sucked in and read it all the way through. It works for me. I am not limiting myself if I find great books. I can never read all books in my lifetime anyway. So if I can maximize the chance my next read is a good one, the better for me.

When you reach the end of the sample there's a button to buy it, and it'll download in a few seconds and let you carry on reading.

[Atunah]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

When you reach the end of the sample there's a button to buy it, and it'll download in a few seconds and let you carry on reading.

Well aware of that. .
I meant I don't read samples to vet books. Meaning, I don't want to read 15 samples just of find one book to read. I don't like reading partial books. Some have suggested samples to see if a book is good. Its just not what I like doing.
Its not part of my vetting process.

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by Atunah

Well aware of that. .
I meant I don't read samples to vet books. Meaning, I don't want to read 15 samples just of find one book to read. I don't like reading partial books. Some have suggested samples to see if a book is good. Its just not what I like doing.
Its not part of my vetting process.

Fair enough, but I can tell within a couple of paragraphs if something's going to be a struggle to read or not.

[NickyWithNook]

Self-published books are riskier, but there is some risk regardless. And I agree with those who said reviews are pretty close to worthless. I find the one-star reviews to be the most helpful. If I can see why people did NOT like the book, it very often tells me either that I will actually probably like it, or that I'll probably agree with them.

[HomeInMyShoes]

I read some of the poor reviews and some of the good reviews and then some of the middling reviews. The truth is usually somewhere in the middle. But I don't read a lot of self-published stuff and I stay a good few years behind the release curve which helps sort out what is passable.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

J A Konrath and Ian Rob Wright spring to mind. Then there's Blake Crouch, though some of his earlier books were originally published by corporations. Both types have the same volume of mistakes in them, except for the ones I proofed. David Moody went back to self publishing after selling a few books to corporations, if anything there's less mistakes in his own books than there was in the corporation ones -- in one of them I only noticed an apostrophe error. In comparison, one of his corporation owned books had mistakes every few pages.

What did you give examples of?

The examples I wanted was of really good books that publisher had missed. That is a really good book that was submitted to many publisher for a time and nobody picked it up.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

Corporations exist to make money, so they will only publish books they think will make a profit, that much we agree on. But they are only interested in big profits and mass market sales. There are plenty of genres that used to be popular that the corporations are no longer interested in. To say everyone who writes in those genres has no talent isn't just silly it's insulting to people who like to read them.

Which genres? I cannot think of any genres that the BPH are not publishing.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

Fair enough, but I can tell within a couple of paragraphs if something's going to be a struggle to read or not.

Yes, because everything that is not a struggle to read must be good?

I have up halfway through the last book in a trilogy once. It took me that long to realize that it was not going to be any better. Usually I need 70-100 pages for my opinion of the book to be accurate. But I am talking about readable books here.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by tompe

Which genres? I cannot think of any genres that the BPH are not publishing.

I was just reading Ronin Games, by Marion G. Harmon.

Superhero fiction -- I can't really think of anything tradpubbed AT ALL, other than GRRM's Wild Cards anthologies.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

I was just reading Ronin Games, by Marion G. Harmon.

Superhero fiction -- I can't really think of anything tradpubbed AT ALL, other than GRRM's Wild Cards anthologies.

Well, but that was never published. I thought we talked about genres that was previously published and alive but dies when corporations moved into publishing.

And superhero fiction can be seen as a sub-genre of sf I suppose. It might also be that since it is so common in comics the book market is very small.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by tompe

Yes, because everything that is not a struggle to read must be good?

I have up halfway through the last book in a trilogy once. It took me that long to realize that it was not going to be any better. Usually I need 70-100 pages for my opinion of the book to be accurate. But I am talking about readable books here.

"it was not going to be any better" -- you are clearly overthinking this, a lot.

If you enjoyed it enough to get halfway through the last book in the series, it doesn't need to get "better".



Now, I will make an exception for Eragon.
The series got dramatically worse in the last two books though, so it isn't quite the same.
Not every author is that talented at last-minute failure.

[HomeInMyShoes]

^Haha.

Executive summary: people look for books in different ways and have different tolerances for quality of grammar, spelling, and plot. Be careful when reading reviews as they aren't always genuine. Some people actually read samples and others feel this is a waste of your time. In the end, if you wait long enough the higher quality, which is subjective at best, tends to continue to be around while the crap or the not desired by many people tends to disappear. Amazon and other companies could do a better job on filtering and ranking search results in a manner that suits the myriad of random tastes consumers have.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by tompe

Well, but that was never published. I thought we talked about genres that was previously published and alive but dies when corporations moved into publishing.

Well, I thought we were talking about why I will buy indie books instead of narrow-mindedly limiting myself to tradpub.

Do you think I care in the slightest *why* corporations aren't publishing a good book that I want to read?

And superhero fiction can be seen as a sub-genre of sf I suppose. It might also be that since it is so common in comics the book market is very small.

Way to go for a meaningless distinction. SF(&F) is an umbrella term that encompasses all sorts of genres that have the scary "imagination" thing.
Seriously -- people can't even agree about the name of the genre, how are they going to agree about what is part of it?


I don't see what comics have to do with it either -- are you saying because people drew lots of pictures of superheroes, people aren't allowed to have a separate interest in words?
Graphic novels are getting to be a big thing these days, too.


The market was small, because no one was publishing in it since it was a small market.
Indies started publishing superhero fiction because they were interested in it, and whoa, it turned out there is a market! At least, in the indie world, because people are selling it...

You can find a market for most things, if you try.

[Little.Egret]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

The biggest problem I have found is the non English speakers putting out books in English.
I still remember a self help book that had something about house worms with depression.

But usually the book description and introduction gives it away.

(Cookery book) I particularly enjoyed "stupid end of a knife" (blunt side?) and Suffocation, Stifling and Choke duration. The random scattering of untranslated Bulgarian words ("preserve vitaminoznoto svaravat your content" is less amusing and recalls the worst results of Babelfish and the recipes that express (probably) 500 g of potatoes as .500 kg (I would use 0.5 kg) are real road blocks.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

"it was not going to be any better" -- you are clearly overthinking this, a lot.

If you enjoyed it enough to get halfway through the last book in the series, it doesn't need to get "better".



Now, I will make an exception for Eragon.
The series got dramatically worse in the last two books though, so it isn't quite the same.
Not every author is that talented at last-minute failure.

Well, the ideas and story was only good for one book. After to much text and you just get more of the same thing there is no reason to continue reading. A good ending can sometimes make the whole better but that did not seem to happen here.