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http://www.indiebookslist.com/ Link to site
The
goal of Indie Books List, from the very beginning, was to draw in
readers by posting quality independently published work. We quickly
realized we had to include books that were traditionally published as
well, simply because we had so many requests. And the truth is,
publishers do NOT promote their books and they never have. They leave
it up to the writer, unless that writer is in a very small group of
authors who are already bestsellers.
I may regret writing this. In fact, I’m fairly certain I will. I
suggest taking screenshots if you’d like proof because I’ll probably
delete this post.
I’m writing this in response to the requests we receive on a daily basis to “please post my book!”
Here’s the thing:
good work
attracts readers. Shoddy work does not. I wanted with all my heart to
post good, quality work here, but that was not always the case (and no,
I’m not naming names). And by “good, quality work,” I mean, books that
people want to read. I hoped that by posting good excerpts, it would
draw in more readers. Instead, what happened was, we received an
overwhelming number of submissions
from
books that were never going to sell, no matter where they were posted,
but the writers just expected sales to roll in. It didn’t matter if the
work had a spelling error in every other sentence, or if it was
boring, or if the cover looked so amateur it was laughable. No. “Submit
to Indie Books List. You’ll make sales.”
Wrong.
Over time, we saw more clicks on the
submission form than we saw clicks out to purchase books. That’s a BAD indicator.
Now, we were never in this for
some
big monetary payoff. Good thing, because it never happened. We just
saw a need and wanted to help. But after many months of seeing nothing
but declining web traffic, and almost nobody reading the excerpts, we
had to call it a day.
Where we went wrong
Calling ourselves “Indie.” Listen, nobody cares if you’re Indie. You
may have a reader here or there who tells you, “I love to find new
Indie books!” but, in general, “Indie” is synonymous with “crap” or
“garbage” to most people.
If you’re trying to sell books, the best advice I can give you is NOT
to put that label on yourself. Daily, it seems as if I find new some
new blog popping up, usually a conglomerate of authors calling
themselves “indie-something-or-other.” Don’t do it. Just don’t do it.
The lines have already blurred between “indie” and “traditional.”
There’s no need to draw attention to your “
indiehood.”
Instead, create a website with a cool name, call it a “press” and use
that as your publishing company name. You can even get some other
friends together and have a website where your books can be found. But
don’t you DARE call it “indie.” Trust me.
I would have come up with a clever name for this blog if I had it to
do over again. The name “indie” was always like shooting ourselves in
the foot, but it took me a good while to realize it.
The best thing you can do is just make sure your books look like they
belong among traditionally published books on the virtual shelves.
Sure, your sweet grandson may have designed that book cover for you with
all the love in the world, but it still looks hideous.
Also, don’t publish a first draft. Or at least, don’t make it look like an obvious first draft. I highly recommend
Ginger Software. It will help you catch a lot of errors that a proofreader–or even a copy editor–might catch. And guess what? It’s FREE.
Grammarly is also a great software that will catch a lot of obvious errors. It is NOT free, but it is more powerful than Ginger Software.
Or, of course, you could always just hire a good freelance editor. A
“good” editor is one who won’t try to destroy your unique voice, but
will be honest with you about what’s good and bad about your manuscript.
These people cost money. If you do not hire one, you do so at your own
risk.
Make sure you understand the different types of editing services.
Some people will gouge you for what they call an “edit” but really it’s
just a proofread. Don’t fall for it. At least get a copy edit. See if
the person you hire offers it. There are various copy editing softwares
out there that may also do you a world of good.
It’s worth a Google.
Other characteristics of obvious “indie” work are things like:
- Every sentence in a paragraph begins with the same word, such as “She” or “He.” Don’t do it – it smacks of amateur. Vary the way your sentences begin.
- Too many exclamation points.
- Lack of tension.
- Too much passive voice. SOME passive voice is okay, and even necessary in some cases. But be mindful of it.
Why isn’t your book selling?
- It’s literary fiction. This is the graveyard where books go to die.
It doesn’t matter how well written it is. Literary fiction does NOT
sell like genre fiction, especially if you are an unknown author.
- You have only written one book and you are out there doing
everything you can to promote that one book instead of just writing
another. Promotion will not help you sell more books. You need to write
more and gather your audience. Depending on the genre in which you
write, it may take longer to get noticed or build an audience, but
that’s just the way it is. Posting your book here or anywhere else will
not help.
- Your book blurb (and your title, in some cases) has obvious grammar errors and misspellings.
- Your book blurb looks unprofessional because you saved it for last
and just wrote whatever came to mind when you were sitting there at
the KDP upload screen. People will judge you by your blurb. Give it
at least the same care and attention you gave to the book.
Resources
- Stephen King’s On Writing.
But I must warn you: you will never look at an adverb or a dialogue tag
the same way again if you read this. Follow Mr. King’s advice and your
writing will sound more professional. I disagree with certain things he
advises, like, making your books shorter. I think that was always a
publishing industry method of conserving shelf space. So many subplots,
characters, and scenes have been eliminated by editors over the years
just to save shelf space (and also to save on overhead costs such as
paper, printing, shipping, storage… all
that stuff is now obsolete with digital books). (Side note: adverbs
aren’t always evil. Turn them into a cleverly-placed adjective and no
one will ever know the difference.)
- Keys to Great Writing, by Stephen Wilbers -
An invaluable resource!! This book is especially great for people who
have never taken a writing class (which is the case with many new
writers). It will help you avoid many of the obvious pitfalls that will
make your book sound like it was written by an eighth grader.
- Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style
– this is an obvious recommendation. It’s a great resource to always
have on hand. It does, however, make me fall asleep. There’s an
X-rated version that’s kind of funny but I’m not going to link to it
here.
In Conclusion
Am I trying to say that every book we’ve posted here is garbage? NO!! Absolutely not!
Am I trying to say that I’m proud of every book we’ve posted here? NO!! Absolutely not!
Will we someday start posting excerpts again? Maybe.
Will a book lose sales because it’s not posted here? Nope. Just continue to write, writer.
Find your audience. Don’t waste your time on promotion. Write,
write, write your a$$ off. That’s the best promotion there is. Forget
about Twitter, spamming Facebook walls, getting all your friends and
family to leave you glowing reviews. Don’t do it. Just write.
***NOTE: From time to time we may continue to post an excerpt or
two here. We still have a backlog of submissions to post. But, for the
foreseeable future, we are closed to new submissions. No exceptions.
