Self publishing is negatively viewed by the masses, and rightly so. This is because many authors still believe that investing in professional editing is unnecessary. If the story is good, they reason, that should suffice. Look at Fifty Shades of Gray. The writing is not great, yet the novel is a best seller.
Last week, I downloaded a New Adult (NA) novel (not the one in the picture) after a friend told me the price had dropped to $0.99. The potential for a great read was there, but the author chose to skip on professional editing. It was ridden with typos (e.g. We had a picnic, though she didn’t each much), missing words, confusing sentences. While I enjoyed the story, the lack of line and copy editing* left a bad taste, and I won’t buy anymore of the author’s books.
But it seems I’m alone in this believe that self-published books need to be properly edited. The book (which is $3.99, again) received 111 five-stars, 29 four-stars, 5 three-stars, and only 1 two-star rating on Amazon. When I wrote this post, it was ranked #178 in paid Kindle books (# 6 in Teen Romances). On Goodreads, the average rating was 4.29 stars (4121 readers rated the book). I was shocked. It seems that most people who read the book didn’t care that the level of editing was well below the standard of NYC.
What saddens me is that this might be the new standard for all our books, now that NYC is starting to compete with the self-published e-books on pricing. With the reduction of price, there will be the reduction in the time spent on editing. This level of editing could be the wave of the future.
Do you care if a book is poorly edited, just as long as the story is compelling? If you self publish, do you hire a professional editor to ensure your writing and story is the best it can be? Do you expect to see poorly edited book from NYC, now that they’re trying to complete with the pricing of self-published books?
*Six or seven beta readers were listed in the back of the book. The Secret of Ella and Micha byJessica Sorensen is also $0.99 and the writing is solid. Jessica obviously takes great pride in her books and craft. As soon as her new book (The Coincidence of Callie & Kayden) was released this week, I downloaded it.