Are There Excellent Self Published Books?

Of course there are different types of self-published books just like there are different trade books. We all write different things and yes there are plenty of excellent self-published books. You're reading the wrong books. Are you only looking at bestseller lists on Amazon? That's your mistake because many of those books (especially those in Kindle Unlimited) are extremely tropey because in KU readers seem to be those who go more for tropes and trendy stuff. If you don't like the trendy stuff (I am the same way, a lot of the "popular" stuff people write doesn't appeal to me) put the genre you are interested in into the search box on Amazon or if you know names of the authors, search that way. If you are only looking at the best seller lists (especially those on Amazon) you will get a lot of books that follow specific tropes.

As for your question can you sell if you don't write trendy stuff? YES. I don't write to trend. I write books I want and I sell okay and have built an audience. I do write in genres that are popular but I don't write the same type of stories as some in the genres. I don't begrudge those who write to trend but that's not me. I write books for people like me who like the books I like. I would get bored writing the same plots over and over and it's really bad in KU. My books aren't in KU nor do I have a subscription as a reader because a lot of the stuff in KU doesn't appeal to me. It's too hard to find something different in the program but the wide books (those not in KU) are usually authors who are more versatile.

P.S. Before anyone takes it the wrong way, I'm not saying all books in KU are tropey or where authors are writing to a formula. But, the majority of KU authors seem to write to specific tropes no matter what genres they write. KU seems to attract authors whose goal is to make money above else so they write things they figure sell well. Nothing wrong with that but it's not me. I want to sell books but I can't do it if I don't enjoy what I write. I don't care how popular it is, if I am not interested in something, I won't write it.

Readers for the most part just buy books, if they are presented well they don't think to much about how they were published. At least that is what I have found.

If you are asking whether they think: I am buying a self-published book so I will just expect it to be a bit crap in some ways. --No, I don't think so.

But keep in mind that what you see as flaws other readers might not even notice of actually like.

All of mine are excellent!

You're asking why readers buy self-published books when you should be asking whether self publishing is the right path for your book. In my case, I have some books that have a small audience and just don't make sense for publishers to deal with. These are self published, serve the intended audience and sell reasonably well, for me.

Too many authors self-publish because they are afraid of traditional publishing or because they need instant gratification. Unfortunately, most of those works could do with someone telling the author what's wrong with the book before it gets into print. Many self published works could do with basic editing, as well as some developmental editing. But not all, some are quite good. You just have to wade through the chaff to find them.

Jeff

cool pop said:

P.S. Before anyone takes it the wrong way, I'm not saying all books in KU are tropey or where authors are writing to a formula. But, the majority of KU authors seem to write to specific tropes no matter what genres they write. KU seems to attract authors whose goal is to make money above else so they write things they figure sell well.

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Keep in mind that many traditionally published books are available in the Kindle Unlimited program, it's not just self-published books. What you describe fits across most self-published ebook programs, not just those listed in Kindle Unlimited. If you have a good book, you're missing out on sales by not listing it in Kindle Unlimited. But that's another topic.

Jeff

The thing about Kindle Unlimited is that one of the conditions for participating in the program is that you have to remain exclusive to Amazon for ebook sales during the period of enrollment (90 days at a time), and you have to ask yourself if the KU royalties would exceed that from sales through other outlets. Currently, my outside sales are slightly less than the KU royalties I've received when my books were in the program, before I promoted them to KU specific readerships groups, which by the way can be quite effective.

I think the picture is changing though. I went ahead and listed my newest book with KU for the sole reason is to take advantage of the limited time free promotions that are available through the program, which can be beneficial if you have several books, and particularly if they are in a series. Was it effective? Don't know. All the other books are not in KU so they would have to be purchased outright, which is probably not something a KU reader is willing to do normally. But, I have not gotten squat for page reads and the period is nearly over, although I have had sales. Needless to say, I have versions of the book formatted for both Smashwords and D2D ready to submit once the period is over.

If you just want some few readers who like your quirky, between-genre books, self-publishing at least gets those books out to some readers. It's probably the only way to get them out to any readers at all unless you hit the trade-publishing lottery.

But the truth about what readers want is the same for trade publishing and self-. Books that are in popular genres, smack dab in the middle of them, tropey as can be, are the ones that sell well. ("Well," by which I mean 10,000 copies and better.) To learn more, study the best seller lists at Amazon (it would be similar at other vendors, but Amazon US is the easiest to use). Here's all ebooks: https://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Kindle-Store-eBooks/zgbs/digital-text/154606011 They are, you notice if you dig down into product descriptions and reviews, smack dab in the middle of political thrillers, of contemporary romance, of vampire romance, of epic fantasy, of police procedurals. Today, nine of the top 10 are self-published. Some days only 6 or 7 of the top 10 are self-published. One in the top 50 novels might be a literary book of some sort, this year's darling from the Big Five, but 49 are genre books.

Therefore, publishers also aren't snapping up literary and between-genre books either, for the ones who haven't gone broke understand the marketplace. A good thriller or cop book with series potential, a romance that involves a big family so a series can be spun out of it: that's where the money is. While people can self-publish for fun, or without hope of many sales, the ones who do well are publishers and know it; they think like publishers and they have business plans like publishers and they do audience analysis like publishers.

No, likely 90% of readers don't care how well or (within reason) how poorly they are written (or else many trade-published books I could name wouldn't have been best-sellers either). More than 90% can't tell the difference between trade and self-published books (at least the ones that have good covers), and if they could tell, they wouldn't care--though they like the much-lower prices a self-publisher is able to offer.

The reality about lack of caring about style and deftness of language and technique disappointed me at first, but then I realized I still want to edit for language for as long as I can justify doing so. Still, I'm aware that it's a time sink that is only compensated by the 1 out of 25 reviews that note it, which strangely enough my bank does not take in lieu of a mortgage payment. (If a book less per year means $5000 less income per year, then it's quite the self-indulgence, wouldn't you agree?) In short, fine language is a thing that English professors and agents care about but not the vast majority of readers. If the fine language comes in descriptions that drag down the pace of a book, they downright hate it.

Another thing that surprised/disappointed me is that most readers will not follow authors across genres. I certainly do. Once I find a style I like, I'll read everything that author writes and seek out the pen names. But no, not most readers. Eventually the light bulb went off for me: I was thinking like a trained writer, not a typical reader. Most readers aren't writers (or English profs) and they don't think like them. I've learned to think like a publisher, for that is what I am (every day, after I'm done being the writer), and that requires understanding the non-writing reader and what she wants and will click on and pay her credit card bill to own.

Most readers want a good, fast-paced tale with likable characters. They either get recommendations from friends or search a particular sub-genre for new titles and authors. Most readers don't know and don't care who published it. That's the reality of the business of selling books in 2018.

Good luck, whatever you decide to do!

It is harder to sell books if you're not hitting trends you can use to market them. Which isn't going to change what you write, but it's something to think about when it comes to marketing.

FWIW, I'm staying away from KU since it doesn't seem to be my audience, and I dislike the platform because of the exclusivity. People make money selling books wide, too, although it will be a slower start. If you're wide, you need to focus on building an email list and driving traffic that way. Building a healthy email list takes time--lots of it in my case.

To answer your original question;

Yes, there are excellent self-published books. And there are so, so many more horrible and mediocre ones.

Same with trade publishing, really. It's Sturgeon's law. Basically ninety percent of everything is crap. But oh, that remaining ten percent...*

* I am paraphrasing a bit, here.

Of course there are. Mine included, of course!

My sense is that the overall quality is improving, driven by several forces. Among them is that this route is become easier and more popular, and the blogs and sites devoted to it are giving some useful basic advice which some authors actually follow. Too, as the route becomes more respectable, more authors who are established and accomplished trade published are entering it more and more, perhaps only with their more experimental or niche stories and literary styles.

Still, the increased ease of publishing means the quantity as well as the quality of the books is increasing, meaning more poorly written works pouring into the marketplace.

WeaselFire said:

All of mine are excellent!
Too many authors self-publish because they are afraid of traditional publishing or because they need instant gratification. Unfortunately, most of those works could do with someone telling the author what's wrong with the book before it gets into print. Many self published works could do with basic editing, as well as some developmental editing. But not all, some are quite good. You just have to wade through the chaff to find them.

Jeff

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Many many trad published books could do with this too. I've read my fair share of trad pub books that were utter rubbish, and I'm not just talking about a failing story, but the editing too (and I can think of at least one from an incredibly successful author where she repeated herself so many times I struggled to finish the book. That's surely something an editor should pick up.)

I don't know if it's true, but I heard that The Martian was self published.

indianroads said:

I don't know if it's true, but I heard that The Martian was self published.

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Yes. Spouse got a copy for $0.99.

In Defense of Self Published Authors

I was about to bail out of AW today, after reading a couple of comments in another thread, stating (paraphrased) "writers only self publish because their work is so bad, nobody will publish it." I found those comments to be insulting to me, and every writer who has made the choice to self publish. Yes, there's a lot of self published rubbish out there, but I've also read a lot of poorly written and poorly edited books that were published by mainstream publishers.

None of my books have ever been turned down by an agent or a publisher because I have never submitted any of my work to one. It's been MY CHOICE to bypass that tedious process and publish through my own publishing company, (a leftover from my career in magazine publishing). I have the tools, the skill, and the experience to layout my own books, and I have at my disposal skilled designers and editors, which I don't hesitate to pay top dollar to ensure my products are well presented. There are many self-published authors out there who are willing to do the same thing, and they've put out some decent books.

Sorry about the rant, but I had to get this off my chest. I'm glad I stumbled across this thread.

<end of rant>

I'm better now

Pampurrs said:

I was about to bail out of AW today, after reading a couple of comments in another thread, stating (paraphrased) "writers only self publish because their work is so bad, nobody will publish it." I found those comments to be insulting to me, and every writer who has made the choice to self publish. Yes, there's a lot of self published rubbish out there, but I've also read a lot of poorly written and poorly edited books that were published by mainstream publishers.

None of my books have ever been turned down by an agent or a publisher because I have never submitted any of my work to one. It's been MY CHOICE to bypass that tedious process and publish through my own publishing company, (a leftover from my career in magazine publishing). I have the tools, the skill, and the experience to layout my own books, and I have at my disposal skilled designers and editors, which I don't hesitate to pay top dollar to ensure my products are well presented. There are many self-published authors out there who are willing to do the same thing, and they've put out some decent books.

Sorry about the rant, but I had to get this off my chest. I'm glad I stumbled across this thread.

<end of rant>

I'm better now

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Don't bail - report the comment by pressing the little triangle beside it. The only rule for AW is Respect Your Fellow Writer and comments like that will be dealt with under that rule. (Prolly already have been.)

ETA: Also, AW is extremely supportive of self-pubbing - hence all the info about how to do it well, and what to avoid.

We've officially self-published several AW books; I've probably typeset about 15 books for community members who wanted to self-publish printed books, and produced fifty or so ebooks for self-publishing members who needed help.

Yes, of course there are wonderful self-published books. There are wonderful trade published books, and more than a few books that are wonderful that are both trade- and self-published.

I'd rather think of writers as a community, rather than divide the tribe via publication method, not least because many writers have no intention or interest in ever publishing.

We're all writers. That's the reason for a community; we support people who write.

AW Admin said:

I'd rather think of writers as a community, rather than divide the tribe

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Well sure, but what about literary vs genre?





I'm JOKING!!!!!

mccardey said:

Well sure, but what about literary vs genre?





I'm JOKING!!!!!

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Note to self: Don't forget who's Naughty and who's Nice come the holidays . . .

mccardey said:

I'm not going to get a pony this year, either.

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Doesn't look like it.