When I hear any version of “best selling author” now, I can’t help but recall this:
When self publishing first started to come on I wondered if it would rapidly put book publishers out of business. Then, over the years, I read some of it. And most of it wasn’t worth reading. It’s not that all of the writers were bad(but most were), it’s that the buffers and crevice fillers hadn’t done their work.
From the agent that rejects sub par writing, to the editor that can help with style, grammar and coordination or the inner stories, to the copy editor that makes sure the facts are straight and so on. Typically self publishers don’t employ professionals to assist in their work and until they do, I don’t think that they’ll ever compete on a higher level with publishing houses.
Of course, I’m speaking of wholes here, not parts. There are bad publishing houses and superb self published authors.
Two women that I’ve learned a lot from are Deanna Hoak and Ann Collette.
Deanna Hoak is a copy editor and when I stumbled upon her website, which details what she does, why she does it and how a writer can make he job easier, well, it helped a lot.
Her Twitter is here:
Her website is here:
Then, there is Ann Collette. A firecracker if there ever were one. She’s an agent, who on her Twitter account, frequently does a “Daily 12”. Where she and her assistant go through 12 recent submissions and provide a succinct, insightful and frequently profound analysis of them.
Her Twitter is here: