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I have never started and ditched SO MANY books as in the last year. What is it with authors today? Can you get anything published if you have enough money? Some I have read into the middle, and keep thinking its gotta get better. But it doesn't. I am in one now, that, if it doesn't start to make any sense, I am gonna give up.
Thank good for Google books and Amazon preview, I don't need to buy so many only to be disappointed.
I've not read a GREAT book in a long time. I've read lots of books but not great ones. It seems like so many books are a total bore and the quality of books have gone down, as with TV and music.
I only ditch a book if I absolutely cannot stand it. Usually it takes ~200 pages. Once I start a book I feel a strange obligation to finish it. Its almost like I cheated if I stop reading the book... I can't explain it. Finishing a book gives me a feeling of closure that I don't get if I don't finish a book. The 3 or so books I've aborted in the past year still bug me.
I have never started and ditched SO MANY books as in the last year. What is it with authors today? Can you get anything published if you have enough money? Some I have read into the middle, and keep thinking its gotta get better. But it doesn't. I am in one now, that, if it doesn't start to make any sense, I am gonna give up.
Writers don't commonly pay someone to have their books published, if that's what you mean. What is now called self-publishing is also known as vanity publishing, for a lot of very good reasons. In the normal course of events, a publisher takes a chance on a writer because he likes the story, not the other way around.
I've noticed a lot of self-published books popping up on Amazon - what's interesting is that you'll get a few overly glowing reviews which are obviously written by the writer's friends or relatives, because those glowing reviews are followed by stranger-readers with WTHs.
I stay away from the self-published books. Publishing may eventually change due to ebooks and such, but in the meantime there is no vetting process for self-published books, and most of the time there is nothing to them but the writer's vanity and unwillingness to be an apprentice to their craft.
So yes, if you have the money, you can get anything printed. But how much money you have will not help you in the slightest to get a book properly published.
I've noticed a lot of self-published books popping up on Amazon
That's thanks to Kindle and CreateSpace. It's very easy to publish with both.
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- what's interesting is that you'll get a few overly glowing reviews which are obviously written by the writer's friends or relatives, because those glowing reviews are followed by stranger-readers with WTHs.
Those are called shills and I've heard that if you report them to Amazon, they may remove it if they agree with your assessment.
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I stay away from the self-published books. Publishing may eventually change due to ebooks and such, but in the meantime there is no vetting process for self-published books, and most of the time there is nothing to them but the writer's vanity and unwillingness to be an apprentice to their craft.
I somewhat agree. I have read a few good self published books - but I always wait to see what other people think of them. If a self published book has a lots of positive reviews and ratings (so I know most are not shills), I will take a chance on it and I have found a few good ones this way. But only with Kindle, which makes them very inexpensive so that also makes it not a big risk. Self published paperbacks are too expensive.
Plus I always read the Kindle sample first. I have avoided a lot of poorly written self pubbed books that way.
So there is something of a vetting process but of course it relies on other readers having to take a bigger risk on an untested self published book so that it can get the amount of reviews I need to see an objective consensus on it. Which is why I'm still more likely to pick up a book released from a publisher, even an indie one.
Those are called shills and I've heard that if you report them to Amazon, they may remove it if they agree with your assessment.
I somewhat agree. I have read a few good self published books - but I always wait to see what other people think of them. If a self published book has a lots of positive reviews and ratings (so I know most are not shills), I will take a chance on it and I have found a few good ones this way. But only with Kindle, which makes them very inexpensive so that also makes it not a big risk. Self published paperbacks are too expensive.
Plus I always read the Kindle sample first. I have avoided a lot of poorly written self pubbed books that way.
So there is something of a vetting process but of course it relies on other readers having to take a bigger risk on an untested self published book so that it can get the amount of reviews I need to see an objective consensus on it. Which is why I'm still more likely to pick up a book released from a publisher, even an indie one.
I hadn't heard that about reporting such reviews to Amazon. I don't think that can be true because I've heard of scandals involving established writers positively reviewing their own books on Amazon, including a rather big scandal within UK literary circles, but there's never a word that these unethical (in my opinion) reviews are removed and the writers somehow banned. Shamed, perhaps .
I noticed a bunch of books when I was browsing some genre in Amazon, that all of a sudden there was a rash of books all in a row, that claimed to be bestsellers, and which I had never heard of. When I clicked on the details, I saw they were all vanity published.
It annoyed me to have to click on each book to check the legitimacy of the publisher - I'd kind of prefer if they stuck the self-published books in a category of their own. I think there is a niche for self-published family histories, histories of small communities and such, books that commercial publishers would not take a chance on, not necessarily because they are no good, but because the market isn't there.
Depends on the book. I read the blurb on the jacket. If it sounds good I buy it. Sometimes the author is enough to convince me. I buy books at thrift stores and then give them back when I'm done. Recently I didn't get past page 3 of a book before giving up. I even flipped to the middle which I never do, to see if it picked up. It didn't so it went back to the donation pile.
I dont read a certain number of pages. I usually read at least 1 chapter. if I dont know whats going on I give up.
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But how much money you have will not help you in the slightest to get a book properly published.
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