As an indie author myself, I know how much time, effort, blood, sweat and tears go into not only writing, but self-publishing a full novel. As a professional writer, who's built a career doing so at some of the most well-known companies in the world, I also know how valuable it is to collect and incorporate feedback from objective perspectives. That input will almost always help you produce a better end result.
Unfortunately, not every indie author knows this -- or believes it -- which is where the self-published/indie author stigma comes into play.
The Indie Author Stigma
If you don't travel in bookish circles, trust me when I tell you that there is a (largely deserved) stigma around titles that were self-published, with no assistance from a traditional publisher.
The reason for that being that self-published authors do not always employ the services of proofreaders or seasoned book editors to review their work. Whether it's financial limitations or hubris doesn't really matter, because the end-result is the same: low-quality manuscripts make poor experiences for readers.
I get the financial limitation piece -- hiring people who can offer proofreading, book editing and cover art illustration services is NOT cheap (ask me how I know). That said, however, if you're going to write, and you want to be taken seriously, then start saving your pennies. Employing professionals to help with the finishing touches, prior to publishing, needs to be as much of a priority as completing your manuscript. If you're producing shoddy work, you will alienate more readers than you will earn in fans/followers. Your standards may be low, but I assure you, the majority of your audience's are not.
In the case of hubris, I think there may be a a mix of over-confidence and inexperience at play with those authors. I've talked to a few of them in some of my bookish groups, and it seems most of them erroneously assume that they're so indisputably gifted in writing talent, that all they have to do is publish their rough draft and it will all come together from there. Some eagle-eyed agent on the hunt for undiscovered diamonds-in-the-rough will run across their book, spot that raw talent beneath all the typos, plot holes and one-dimensional characters, and will offer them a contract. Upon signing, all those tiny, insignificant issues will be magically fixed by the publisher's staff of proofreaders and book editors... POOF!
But that's not how this works. That's not how ANY of this works.
Traditional publishing is even more cutthroat today than it was in the past. With the advent of social media, agents aren't looking for lackluster first draft manuscripts that can be molded into masterpieces. They're looking for top tier, polished, ready-to-distribute finished books from eagle-eyed authors that have already done the fit and finish work to get their book ready for prime time. They also want to see an established social media presence with a decent following of readers who are excited about when the next book comes out. In today's world, you have to prove you have the skills FIRST and THEN you might be one of the lucky ones who win the lottery with being offered a traditional publishing contract.
Reserving criticism does no one any favors
I'm in several book-related groups on Facebook. Some are focused on women who love to read, others are focused on supporting indie authors, others are just book lovers, in general. While most groups tend to focus on the same mainstream, best selling authors and titles, the more niche genre ones lean more towards supporting indie authors, which is great...in some ways.
What's not great is that a lot of those fans are so committed to supporting indie authors that they hold back their criticism and keep their standards low. They know it's an indie title, so there's an expectation of questionable quality, in comparison to the mass-produced authors, who have all the resources and support of a full publishing house. I can't tell you how many discussion threads I've gotten into with people who insist on not leaving any kind of rating or review for an indie book that they would have left a one-star and a lot of criticism on, because they "don't want to hurt an indie author."
While I get that they're trying to be supportive in their silence, their reticence to hold sub-par indie authors to higher standards is perpetuating the stigma that self-published novels are going to be low-quality, which then hurts all other indie authors who are doing their due diligence to make sure all issues are addressed, prior to publishing.
If mediocre writers are getting nothing but rave reviews and 5-star ratings by well-meaning, but insincere fans, the stigma will remain for all of us.
Please rate us and leave honest, detailed reviews
We indie authors don't have agents, or marketing teams, or expansive distribution, or, in some cases, even promotion budgets.
We just have you, Dear Readers, and this pervasive stigma to fight against.
If you read a book by an indie author, please do leave feedback for them on Amazon, Ingram, Goodreads, wherever. I will, however, add a caveat that the only time it makes sense to withhold a review is if you somehow wound up reading a book that deals with subject matter you know is not your cup of tea. If you're info romance and hate horror, but someone gifts you a horror book, so you feel obligated to read it, it's really not fair to the author to them give them a one-star review for a book you were pretty sure you were going to hate. You're not the target audience, and that's ok.
To give you another example, if a book's description makes a comparison to a well-known Judy Blume book, and then specifies that the main character is 18 years old in the 1990s, you should expect that the subject matter in the book is going to be relevant to an adolescent-to-young-adult audience, and to the Gen Xers who were at age, at that time too:
If I get a 1-star from a Boomer who hates the Grateful Dead, Phish and all things tie dyed because we're all a bunch of America-hating commies, fine. I'll laugh that shit off all day. If I have no idea what issue you took with the book, because you left a crap star rating and no review to explain, then I will assume the description above is who you are. You've given me nothing else to go on, so you, therefore, are simply not my target audience. If, on the other hand, I get a 1-star by someone who cited (with documented descriptions) 8 plot holes, 6 loose ends, 15 typos and a partridge in a pear tree, I will be mortified into rectifying every single one and will absolutely hire a better-credentialed book editor for the 2nd installment.
See what I mean? Negative feedback can be HELPFUL, *if done well.* If you don't tell us what the issue is, we can't fix it. Positive feedback, on the other hand, is always helpful; i you loved it, then adding those ratings and reviews help us reach more people, and hopefully, sell more books!
In Summary
Over Mother's Day weekend, I ran a promotion where I offered a Kindle ebook copy of "The Strangest of Places" for free from midnight on Friday to midnight that Sunday. Having no marketing budget whatsoever -- I am currently unemployed -- I did my best to get the word out via social media. I posted it to my personal Facebook page, my author page, on Instagram, and in every book-related Facebook group I'm a member of.
At the end of the weekend, 222 people had taken advantage of that promotion and downloaded their free copy of the book. My primary motivation for the giveaway was to help increase awareness and exposure, in the hopes that word-of-mouth recommendations might help bring in more sales. There was, I will admit, a secondary hope that some of those who picked up a free copy would be kind enough to come back to my Amazon listing and leave me a star rating and a review.
One of the ways that authors get exposure on Amazon is based on ratings and reviews. Not only does your feedback help us become better authors, it helps us sell more books. Amazon's sales algorithms will surface popular titles in the relevant categories, as suggestions to readers who frequent those genre pages. The more rating/review activity a book has, the higher the likelihood that a new reader will see that book appear in their list of suggested titles.
While I'm thrilled with 4.7 out of 5 stars and 22 reviews, I'm really hoping this promotion pays off in increasing those numbers... the number of reviews, at least (I'd be psyched to maintain 4.7 in perpetuity).
In closing, if you have a copy of my book, I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, I also hope you'll stop by my Amazon listing to give me a rating and review.
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