How do you choose which self-published works to read?

[chlorine]

Having a liseuse definitely makes me want to explore works by self-published authors (whether free books or not).
However, I find myself a bit overwhelmed. Browsing through sites such as feedbooks or smashwords, I find books that look interesting, but I have a hard time finding something that I _really_ want to read. Also, the sheer number of available books makes browsing through them very hard.

As the limiting factor for reading is not the price I pay for books, but my reading time, I am reluctant to try to read self-pusblished works more or less at random: though this might lead to discovering great books, I have a feeling that overall I will read fewer books I really like than if I read classically published books.

So, does anybody have tips on how to search the vast number of available books?

[wayspooled]

heh, to be honest, I go by the recommendations of people here who's taste seems to be similar to mine - and then I watch for authors I really like to self-publish.

[Superlucky]

This is a problem for me too. I love that anyone can publish their work now, but it also means there's a ton of low-quality ebooks available.

The ones I've gotten and enjoyed have been MobileRead authors, but I don't have a system for choosing them; I just stumble upon the occasional thread here.

I've downloaded some at Smashwords based on popularity (excluding the erotic fiction), but I've not read them yet. I understand that a lot of the popularity at Smashwords and Feedbooks is a result of good marketing as much as good writing, so its probably not a great system.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by Superlucky

This is a problem for me too. I love that anyone can publish their work now, but it also means there's a ton of low-quality ebooks available.

And a lot more of decent quality, and just not-to-my-tastes.

This is the reason that publishers aren't going to vanish as the digital revolution moves along: because most of us would like some help wading through the thousands of available books. We'd like recommendations, if not restrictions, about what to read.

I find myself sticking to fanfic, not because it's most of what I want to read (although I rarely tire of it; there's so much available), but because I can get good suggestions & recommendations.

[jeremy_ahn]

hee hee hee

[ShortNCuddlyAm]

The only self-published authors I've really been reading are those who are members here.

[Elsi]

I've read a number of self-published works since I got my Kindle. (I'm not willing to pay $15 or more for a print-on-demand paper book!) Most were pretty good. A couple were spectacular. In every case, the ones I ranked as "pretty good" would have been very good if they'd received some editing. One review that I wrote stated, "I have to give this book a strong B+ for plot and characters and a D for execution." There were spelling and grammar errors -- significant enough to distract from the book -- and a few continuity problems. Another self-published book that I read last year was brilliant from Chapter 1 to the end. But the book started with a very awkward prologue.

And, to be honest, I bought & read three children's books (written by a well-known and well-published author) which were much worse than any of the self-published stuff I've read so far.

Now, how do I pick? Like wayspool, I mostly follow recommendations. When an author joins MobileRead and participates -- as opposed to post & run -- then I'm favorably inclined to read at least one of their books. The other way that I'll give an unknown author a try is through a freebie. I've accepted almost every freebie that's been offered here -- with the exception of some horror novels and the erotica, since those are just not the kind of books that I read. I've read very few of the freebies I've downloaded, but they're sitting out there on my hard drive waiting for me to have time to get into them.

[rhadin]

I have bought and read quite a few fiction books from self-published authors -- primarily at Fictionwise, but also at other ebookstores like Smashwords as well as from MR-participating authors.

Generally I make my decision based on the description of the book and reading a few sample pages (or whatever, in Fictionwise's case, is posted). What I won't do is spend more than $5 on an author I've never read before and I won't buy any that are DRM-laden.

I consider books that I buy to read on my Sony to be throwaway books, that is, read once and delete. Because I spend a ton of money every year on books, I am willing to gamble a few dollars on an unknown. Sometimes that unknown turns into one of my favorite authors and I end up buying all I can by that author or adding the author to my buy hardcover list. For example, Lawrence Watt-Evans, David Weber, and Richard Tuttle are three authors whose work I have enjoyed so I buy whatever I can that is written by them and in the cases of the Watt-Evans and Weber, I now buy new releases in hardcover (I would do the same with Tuttle but he releases only ebooks as far as I know).

Like Elsi, I also try the freebies but I only download freebies of books that look interesting and are in genres that I read. I don't, for example, read horror or romance so I never download books in those genres.

More problematic for me are nonfiction books. I rarely purchase a nonfiction ebook from a self-published author. I'm just too uncertain about the quality of the research. I prefer to buy nonfiction in hardcover at my local B&N where I can either peruse the book in depth or if I special order it, I can return it if it isn't what I expected or the scholarship isn't present. I think self-published nonfiction is currently a real Achilles heel for ebooks because there are no reliable sources for reviews of those books.

[JoeD]

I just read authors that give away the first book in a series. I find it gives me a good idea of their writing style and whether it appeals to me or not. Often those books are ones people have linked in the deals/freebies forum or baen library too

That's not a whole lot different from how I used to find new authors when I bought paperback books, only rather than the first book in a series been free, I'd borrow it from a friend

[chlorine]

Thanks for the answers. At least I see I'm not alone in having trouble choosing!

I did have a look in the writer corner here and did indeed stumble upon some books that sound interesting. With a bit of time I guess I can stumble on something that really catches my fancy.

Downloading freebies is not a solution for me: I know I'll download tons of them and never get to actually read them, so I'm aiming to get only those I plan on reading soon.

As for recommandations here, it would be neat to have a 'self-published' tag to help find the recommandations (but then it's probably impossible to have such a tag without adding tons of others, making them useless in the end).

I've had a look in smashwords.com and did stumble on one or two books that look pretty interesting, I'll keep looking from time to time. I'd like to make a reading resolution of reading at least one self-published book every two months, I'll see how it goes (and I'll be sure to recommand the ones I like here of course

[Ea]

I find it by recommendation - mostly if it's been mentioned here. My current tastes leans heavly towards literary fiction though, and I don't expect to find that kind of quality in self-published books. I've read some that had definite potential, but where I think a good editor could have made a great difference.

[chlorine]

Forgot to say:

Originally Posted by Superlucky

I've downloaded some at Smashwords based on popularity (excluding the erotic fiction), but I've not read them yet. I understand that a lot of the popularity at Smashwords and Feedbooks is a result of good marketing as much as good writing, so its probably not a great system.

I think you're right about marketing being an important factor in popularity, _but_: this is also the case in traditionally published books. So even if the system is note prefect, we can hope to get a taste of something different by exploring self-published works (at the very least, the marketing used is different

In the meantime I found the MoblieRead authors on feedbok list:
http://feedbooks.com/list/1121

I'm going to start some explorations from here I think.

[mores]

I agree with you - online bookstores are swamped with self-published works. Which doesn't mean that those books suck - but the probability of reading something that is bad is a lot higher. By "bad" I mean the craft of writing, not the story itself. Even Dan Brown can roll out a crappy story.

But since I too have limited reading time, I want to enjoy that time. So I look at recommendations. Often it helps if authors provide free books, and it is good if those books are short. So you can read them in an hour or so and see if you like this guy's style.
I also look a lot at testimonials - especially in the case of Mars Girl it was words like "fast-paced", "funny" and "frightening" that made me read it, since it did not in any way involve romance and I was not disappointed.

I HATE those romance novels that invade ALL categories simply because they might be crime romance or horror romance or whatever. I run away screaming.

Anyhow, I don't experiment, I listen to people. In restaurants I am hesitant to try things that I don't know, because on the rare occasion that I do fork out that much money, I want to go with something that I like. Which excludes noodles

Uhm ... what was the question?

[neilmarr]

I head up the editorial team at a small indie publishing house and must reject hundreds of novel submissions each year because ... well ... because they're tripe. It's depressing to see so many of these titles pop up now as self-published ebook and PoD of the raw ms with all the flaws firmly and arrogantly intact.

There are self-published gems out there -- some self-pubbed in frustration with continual rejection, others to deliberately bypass the mainstream -- but the majority are not worth the reading time. That's a crying shame for those fine self-publishing authors whose quality work is swamped and tarred with the same brush.

Acquisition editors are the readers' filter system. Mistakes are made, of course with some good stuff being overlooked and some bad stuff being pushed as wonderful, but at least there is some quality control, even though professional editorial selection ain't by any means an exact science. By it's very nature, self-publication avoids all independent quality control and professional editorial intervention. Many self-pubs seem even to have avoided basic proof reading.

It's tough because the market (especially the direct-to-ebook market) is becoming top heavy with self-published work and it's so hit and miss, so suck-it-and-see, that you can waste a heck of a lot of precious time and money before finding something worth the read.

Cheers. Neil

[Superlucky]

Originally Posted by neilmarr

... and PoD of the raw ms...

English?


Sampling self-published works does make one appreciate acquisition editors a lot more. Admittedly, it couldn't be less because I never used to give them a thought. Now we can see some things they see.