expr:class='"loading" + data:blog.mobileClass'>

Pages

Sunday, March 4, 2012

The Ghosts of Publishing Future

The Ghosts of Publishing
Future - Guess Who?
Another intriguing true story about a self-publisher. One that addresses the question: Is formal editing necessary for the success of a book? Or, does money trump quality?

This from Anna Baddeley of The Guardian

Ebooks: why it pays to self-publish

Their books may not be of the highest quality, but self-published authors such as Rachel Abbott are the trade's hottest property

At last year's London Book Fair, a well-respected publisher confessed to running away from self-published authors at parties. Everyone laughed. After all, the writer who dares go it alone is one of the last acceptable victims of literary snobbery.

British author Rachel Abbott, whose DIY debut, Only the Innocent, is currently riding high in the Amazon Kindle charts, presumably couldn't give a fig about all that. She claims to have turned down a publishing deal "because it didn't feel right". Since her success, she's been besieged by agents, who must be salivating at the thought of a ready-made fanbase. It will be interesting to see if Abbott gives into temptation and follows the example of fellow Kindle star Kerry Wilkinson, a sports journalist from Lancashire who has signed a six-book deal with Macmillan, and US author Amanda Hocking, who made a fortune from her self-published paranormal novels before signing with the same publisher. In an interview in January, Hocking sounded relieved to have at last received some help with the editing process. "It drove me nuts, because I tried really hard to get things right and I just couldn't. It's exhausting."

Just how hard becomes clear a few sentences into Only the Innocent. Abbott's whodunnit about the murder of a man with a fetish for red-haired women is entertaining enough, but it's crying out for a second pair of eyes.

Read and learn more

Get Writers Welcome Blog on Kindle :)

No comments: