So is most self-published material poorly edited?

I'm one of the 'lucky' ones, I guess because I have my degree in Print Journalism and we were taught how to self edit. My husband also has a knack for the English language, though his focus is computers. However, I would get another pair of eyes to look at it. I know I'll be biased and my husband hates hurting my feelings, so there's that. I definitely second getting an English or Journalism major to look it over; I would have loved to have an opportunity like that back in school.

I admit I do have the bias when it comes to self published books. I have read only a few good ones, and I really don't have the time to work with a book like I did a few years ago. I have two boys under 2. If a book doesn't grab my attention by the first...20-30 pages, I give up. Even if a book is traditionally published, I'm still sceptical. I read user reviews and I utilize that 'Look Inside' feature at Amazon. I know it's unfair to judge a book because it's self published but I have no choice because I have no time. I'm barely able to shower by myself, much less get time to read a book, so it needs to be good. That said, I plan to use my pickiness to my advantage as I'm writing my book, because I will be assuming that every reader is like me

I think self publishing is a good idea because it is so hard to get published nowadays and very few publishing houses take risks anymore (hence, the prevalence of all this soft core vampire porn). It's just sad that most of the books read like bad fanfiction

 

Good to see everyone's adhering to the 'broke writer' stereotype and not just me. Still, if I ever give up on getting professionally published and decide to self publish, you can bet I'll cough up the coin to have an editor look at it first.

Do the maths, you invest hundreds of hours into writing the damned thing, upon which you're effectively staking your reputation as a writer. Surely that's worth 10-30 hours of actual work. Don't feel like working? Pimp out the girlfriend, sling some crack, get a bloody paper route.

I think a writer has to look carefully at their reasoning behind self publishing. To make money? Better odds buying a lottery ticket. All those writer-groupies? Well maybe skip the editor then and hope they don't read the thing. Actually create a name for themselves? Then surely they want to do everything possible to make their novel a success and as wrinkle free as possible?

Concerning the original post: Yes, sadly.

 

Indeed, Chilari. The kind of money to hire professional editors and artists - even marketers, potentially - for a novel just isn't something you can pick up on the side through a part-time job or ethically questionable acts in alleyways. I'm not getting a spare dollar until at least both my husband and I have a full-time job, and when we do? Frankly, for all that I love to write, my first priority is hiring an immigrations lawyer, because right now I am living in a different country. Every dollar we have over the cost of rent and groceries - usually about $30 to $50 a month - pays for the train ticket for us to see each other for a few days. Maybe in a year and change, once I can live in Canada and I've found a new job here (since I'll have to give up any job I find in Washington to live with my husband), I can save up that sort of money... but right now, I have to wait to self-publish. And frankly, while I'm sitting on this novella, I'm working on a novel that, yeah, I'll probably seek to traditionally publish. Because I want to get my work out there one day, but I just don't have the money to pay for anything more than postage right now.

Though there is always the Kickstarter option. Relies on some damn good marketing tactics, having a friend with a good camera and maybe some basic film editing skills, some strong excerpts, and ideally some concept art, but I was pretty inspired by how many people donated to The Girl Who Would Be King, so let it be said that it's not impossible.

 

I'll probably put around $1000 into my self published book. Expenses that I know I have:

$400 for cover art
$200 (minimum) for manuscript review by editor
$100 (or thereabouts) establishment of domain and web hosting for website

I'm budgeting at least another $300 for miscellaneous costs. I'll need business cards, and I might end up paying for some advertising. I might need to hire a graphic artist to complete the cover.

Could I get by with less? Probably. I want to represent myself as a professional though. It's important to me that I'm sure I'm not putting out a crap product.

There are very few ways to make money that do not require some kind of investment.

 

I must admit with "Muddle Puddle and the Whistling Shell" I have had considerable professional help, that is I have very old friends who have been in the magazine publishing industry for over thirty years. It was an obvious move for me to consult them when I first considered getting the work published. To my relief when they saw and read the work they decided "you've got something really good here" and took for them a left field punt and became my publishers. It has taken ten months from that decision to getting it into Apple's bookstore. During that time it has been read by most of the staff that work there and if any editorial faults were evident they would have told me straight away. The main shareholder of the company even took it on holiday with him to read aloud to his grandchildren, he I know would certainly have told me in no uncertain terms if there was anything wrong with the prose, he's an absolute perfectionist.
I know I have been extremely lucky so far in making my dream a reality but any one else given the same situation would surely have followed the same path. As I have said before the true test of whether the work is any good will be if it sells or not. If it starts getting significant numbers of downloads then we will consider going to hard copy and seek distribution deals.
Take a look or even a punt and buy it, read it for yourselves, nothing would give me greater pleasure than to get feedback from fellow mythic scribes. Even if you all think it's rubbish that is at least a reaction better than being ignored.
The book has not only been edited it has been designed and although I'm biased having written and illustrated it, I know it will pleasantly surprise the reader since it is not just what it first appears to be, that is a fairy tale.

 

Been doing some digging. Possibility - apply to the Arts Council England/Wales/N. Ireland/Scotland for funding. I don't know how difficult it is to get funding from them, but they do offer support to new writers. Might be worth a shot though.

Applying For Arts Council Funding | How Publishing Really Works

Literature | Arts Council

 

There's no reason to do a print run nowadays, and you can certainly sell preorders for your POD book. I'm planning on doing that: offering to send autographed copies if you order it through my website.

 

In regard to editing and cover art, I'd advise you to network. I'm a good editor myself, so I trade editing tasks with other good editors I've befriended. And I write and edit for the artist who did my cover, so that was free. All us little guys are in the same boat, so it makes sense to make friends with people that are willing to help each other out.

 

I could not agree more, without the encouragement and help of talented friends I for one would not have gotten as far as I have with my own work and I shall keep plugging it here for as long as you all will put up with it.
iTunes - Books - Muddle Puddle & the Whistling Shell by Stuart Evison

 

Not sure if it is any help but Lulu.com give you a free ISBN. In fact if you purchase your own ISBN and wish to use it you must pay for their global reach package ( which last time I looked was $79). If you wish to just use their ISBN and sell it through them on lulu and amazon (or just lulu) it is a free ISBN.

I am not sure about create space but it may be the same. Of course Kindle is free. I know Vistaprint were offering cheap business cards and a free website but I think that may end today.

You could search for photographers/art students who want the experience and portfolio entry. I had an offer from the partner of a friend of mine to do the cover art she is working on for free if she can put it in her portfolio for her business and I give her a bit of publicity. You could probably get a website for free or promote on facebook/google or whatever.

 

Going back to the second post, I don't feel I need to ask anyone's permission to make decisions about my budget, regardless of what I own. But thanks for the snark.

 

i didn't pay for editing or cover art. i found another writer on a different forum, and we did a beta swap. she suffered through three drafts of my book. she was great. she caught the sorts of things that spellchecker can't reign/rein, canvas/canvass, those sorts of things, and gave me a whole lot of "this paragraph is really confusing" and "come on, bob... you can do better than that" sort of comments. and of course, i did the same for her.

as for the cover, i came close to paying for a professional cover artist, but then i got an idea for what i thought was a cool cover, and my brother in law took care of the photographing and photoshopping. a professional probably would have gone with a different font, but i'm happy with how the cover came out.