Whilst the world shouts and gives Kudos to the latest independent film to be released the independent author is the person who has long been left in the darkness and ignored by the majority of reviewers. Why is this?
Well to be blunt it’s purely for the fact that the independent author really hasn’t had to go through that many checks. Yes their work may be outstanding in their own opinion but to be brutal here, it would be. Its like those people that you see queuing up for shows like X-Factor with that belief that they are the next big thing but when you here them are totally tone deaf and refuse to even hear someone pointing the truth out to them.
Most reviewers won’t touch Vanity Press, as to be honest the industry has no checks on the quality of the piece and if you’ve got the cash to spend, well, someone’s going to take it aren’t they. Its one reason on places like MySpace and Facebook along with numerous emails I always request that people who are “independent” don’t send manuscripts or self published books. Occasionally I do receive one and some of them are OK but currently not what’s in vogue. However what I think is more telling is when you write back and say “You do realise that I say what I think and the review may not be favourable don’t you?” And that’s the last that you hear from them. That’s quite telling and to be honest whilst they do have a book out, for all I know it could be Johnny’s “Shining” script all over again (All work and no play makes Johnny a dull boy.)
Now before you get uppity and say I have no idea about the struggles that the independent goes through or what about X, Y or Z who was originally an independent and went on to be republished by a known House. Yep I am aware of them but these are the exceptions, these were authors whose books were either ahead of their time or became an underground cult following. You have no idea how rare these are in a world where millions are made from appealing to people’s vanity with many of these books being blatant rip offs of other tales out there. It’s sickening, annoying and at times so damn frustrating that it’s difficult to keep your temper at those who prey on people’s narcissistic temperament. Everyone deserves a chance but it has to be done right.
Publishing houses (or the major ones) have quality checks, many state that they won’t accept unsolicited manuscripts and that you have to go through an agent which allows them a vetting process. Likewise the other angle of things is that submissions have to follow guidelines from type of paper to font to spacing and even including font size. If some of these requests aren’t met what could be the next Lord of the Rings ends up in the bin without being read. They’re that strict.
The other thing that you need to ask yourself is how thick is your skin? Why? Well writing is like gladiatorial combat, you’re going to get numerous chunks torn out of you and you have to be able to take it. If you can’t then writing really isn’t for you. Many of the known names in today’s publishing industry have undergone that trial by fire and whilst is a hard thing to hear there are coping strategies although if you’re honest you will have to admit that they have a point if it’s a comment that comes back time and again.
So what can you do to combat a lot of these problems and give yourself a good chance at getting out there? Follow the guidelines and also join a writing group, there’s plenty out there that will give you honest advice along with generally helping you with questions that need answering about the project. Other than that you have to write, write and write some more and keep submitting to those publishers that accept them along with agents. Eventually you’ll get there but never expect writing to be something that pays the bills. Think of it another way, if you were to go panning for gold you have to go through a ton of stuff to maybe find that one speck, so theres a whole host of specks and then suddenly you find a huge chunk. Woohhoo, money up the wazoo as they say. But look at what you have, a whole load of specks but just the one chunk, authors are like gold in that respect, there’s thousands of specks but only one or two chunks. Writing is something done for pleasure, very few make a living at it and even fewer make serious cash out of the deal. So rather than thinking I’ll publish my opus myself, rethink, get some honest feedback from a writers group and then when its polished to the best of your ability, submit to agents. But don’t above all else take the self publishing route as that way leads to heartache and the emptying of wallets that few can afford.
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