Before we dive into this hot mess, we need to separate out two types of writers:

• Hobbyists: Those who write for fun; for themselves, friends, and family
• Authors: Those who write to publish; who want to sell their works to the public

Personal preference aside as to what defines an "author", let's stick to these two definitions for argument's sake.

What you will read below does NOT apply to Hobbyists. Why? Because beyond printing a few private copies for family and friends, Hobbyists are writing for themselves. They are not out to sell their works to the masses. They write for themselves because it brings them joy and a sense of peace. People write as Hobbyists for a plethora of reasons. But I digress. If you are a Hobbyist (as defined above), you can stop reading here. Go forth, bring into existence your dreams with ink and paper!

This article discusses Indie-publishing—and the authors therein. This is an industry, not a hobby. It's about sales, marketing, profit-margins, vendors and clients, and all the nitty-gritty aspects of running a business. You put your book on KDP, Ingramspark, or Barnes & Noble, to make a few dollars then you have entered into the publishing industry as an indie-author. Congrats.

Mind you, this doesn't matter if you are out to make a full time living or just a side hustle for some extra pocket cash, you are running a business—you are a part of the publishing industry.

Any time a business (ie, company, freelancer, or indie-author) enters into a market, there are loads of things you need to do to be successful. It doesn't matter if you want to take over the market or just gain a tiny slice, there are aspects of running a business in an industry that will help you achieve your goal. In regards to this article, the particular topic of discussion will be on QUALITY of product.

By passing the issue of AI books flooding the indie-market in recent months, the advent of Print-on-Demand services like KDP has caused the market to explode! There are millions of indie-published books available on Amazon and other online marketplaces.

You might think that's a good thing. Yes and No. We need to understand how the human brain deals with this many choices. In short, consumers get frustrated and don't know what to do when there are too many choices, especially if they all appear the same. It's called Choice Overload or the Paradox of Choice. Here are three out of MANY published psychology papers discussing the issue: here, here, and here.

Since consumers get bogged down with choice, they start to do some odd things. They select brands that are popular (ie, Apple, Samsung) even if those products are inferior (not saying they are, but it does happen). They make these choices because they believe they can be trusted, after all, they are multi-billion dollar companies.

"How does this apply to our discussion?" you ask. With the millions upon millions of books to choose from on Amazon and the like, consumers are faced with choice overload. Often, they will default to the brands they know, typically Trad-authors, or if we are lucky Indie-authors gone big (think Brandon Sanderson or Darcy Coates). They will skip right over indie-authors as a whole unless they are one of the few who specifically seeks out indies (God bless those readers).

Therein lies the issue. Indie-authors have not gained the trust of the overall consumer market for a variety of reasons, the most pertinent being QUALITY. This pertains to both perceived quality and actual quality, which doesn't really matter in the end why they see it that way. Readers have been burned over the years, picking up an indie book, and finding it lacking in many ways, all boiling down to quality. The story is bad, the formatting is terrible, not edited, etc. Indie-books have an unfortunate reputation of being less than. This makes consumers leery when making purchases.

Do Trad-books have this issue? Yes they DO! However, whenever a new product enters a market, they have to go ABOVE and BEYOND that of the established competitors to find success. Otherwise they fade into obscurity. We indie-authors need to keep that in mind. Not only do our stories have to be better, but everything needs to be better. Our formatting, our editing, our processes—the whole kitten-caboodle.

And before you say "this sounds like gate-keeping", it's not. You have the wrong definition. Gatekeeping is a process created by a dominant company to keep competitors out of the market. What I'm talking about are things that are fully in our control, no one is stopping you, no barriers to hold you back on making your book stand out from the already choice-overloaded market. Does it take money? Yes it does, to a varying degree. But that's true in EVERY business venture. Wanna start a lawn care company? Gotta have money to buy equipment. Wanna open a clothing boutique shop? You gotta have the money to buy all the sewing machines, textiles, and your shop-space (be it online or brick-and-mortar). All business ventures require start up capital and have costs/expenses along the way. That my friend, is the nature of the beast. It's not gatekeeping, it's reality. With that said, let's dive into the BIGGEST problem holding back indie-books and their quality:

Arrogance

Ouch, did I really say that? Yes I did. Other commenters on my X feed said that Ignorance could be thrown in there as its evil twin and I'm inclined to agree.

Blake, how dare you say that. But, I say its true cause I see it every day on X from random authors or even those I follow. In short:

• I don't need to follow rules, rules are a hindrance to my process.
• I don't need an editor, editors destroy creativity.
• I don't need alpha/beta readers, they are no different than editors.
• My 1st draft is perfect, I don't need to revise. I just publish.

And before you say "no one says that" ... yes they do. You can find many of them in that X thread saying as much. And that was just those willing to comment or saw my post to comment in the first place. There are many, many more out there and I see them nearly every day.

So let's talk about why these ideas hurt indie quality.

Rules:

There are rules and there is advice, know the difference. Advice has a lot more latitude on discarding or ignoring, but that still doesn't mean it's always useless. Some rules (like grammar) are near absolute and should never be discarded while other rules (like writing conventions) are more flexible and can be bent or broken in special circumstances. To break a rule of any kind, you should first know why that rule exists, master it, then you’ll learn when it is appropriate to break. Otherwise, breaking rules arbitrarily to be avant-garde hurts as it doesn’t achieve what you think it does. If you break a rule for the wrong reason, readers will balk. It becomes jarring and difficult to read. They don't like it.

These rules and advice you read about (again know the difference) comes from years of publishing experience and are there to HELP you avoid mistakes other authors have made. Everyone wants to live and learn on their own, but when it comes to making first impressions, you often only get one chance. You don't want a reader picking up your book for the first time and finding that broken rule you arbitrarily ignored for "creativity's sake" and then DNF-ing. They will never come back.

Rules and Advice are not there to hinder you, they are there to prevent you from making mistakes. Many of them are also there to prevent you from becoming just like everything else (ie, the advice to avoid overused tropes helps you stand out as different).

Editors

Humans are notorious for being terrible at self-analysis. We are bias toward ourselves and fail to be objective. We need outside objectivity. It's one of the many reasons Doctors make the worst patients. Doctors and Psychologists are not allowed to self-care because they routinely fail at objectivity. Authors are no different.

The claim that editors crush creativity stems from the lack of understanding what an editor actually does. They don't hurt creativity, they bring it out—assuming they are a decent editor of course. Your early drafts are for that wild, unfettered imagination to explode on the pages; your later drafts, with an editor, are to hone that creativity and make it shine.

Editors are more than just grammar checks. They help you avoid repetition, smooth out the flow of your prose, replace weak verbs/adjectives/nouns for stronger ones, bring clarity to a sentence or passage, and identify words or phrases that detract from the narrative. And that’s just a short list.

Can everyone afford an editor? No, unfortunately not. But you can find critique partners that will at least give you a second set of objective eyes to help smooth out your writing. However, as mentioned, this is a business and there are investments we need to make. Do your research; you are bound to find a quality, affordable editor or one that might even work out a payment plan.

Readers expect a certain level of polished writing. Sure, no book is perfect as even Trad books have errors, but that doesn’t excuse us. Our works should be professional looking as we are publishing for consumers (readers). Again, a business.

An edited book may not be the reason a reader picks up a book, but it WILL be the reason they a) DNF or finish, b) buy from you again, c) recommend your book, and or d) leave a poor/great rating & review.

And to repeat, hiring an editor is not gatekeeping. Not any more than buying a computer to write on, or buying software to create your own cover. Editors are an investment in your work.

Alpha/Beta Readers

Many of the arguments for alpha / beta readers are repeated for editors. Thankfully, as long as you don't fall into the trap, you will find there are loads of beta readers for free. So it's not cost prohibitive. But what you will find is that a beta reader is meant to simulate a consumer. They read the book, not as an editor, but as a reader.

If your beta readers come back and say it's trash or that it's great but has problems, then you better believe those who buy your books will have the same issue. And, as mentioned above, will affect their reason to a) DNF or finish, b) buy from you again, c) recommend your book, and or d) leave a poor/great rating & review.

Find 3-6 betas and utilize them. You don't have to accept all the changes they suggest as it's still your book. However, if all 6 of them say the same thing, you at least better give it serious consideration because it's an obvious problem they all noticed.

Drafting

Are you Shakespeare? Are you Charles Dickens? No. Were they famous for 1 draft and done? Yes. Is that the norm or the exception? 100% the exception. Go look up several of your favorite authors or influential authors in your genre, more often than not, they are some mix of multi-drafting writers. Are there a few of you out there that can 1 draft and done? Perhaps, but that doesn’t mean we all are. We always think we’re the exception and not the rule, and 99% of the time we are wrong.

Drafting is an important part of the process. Even the great Renaissance artists and Dutch Masters painted over their works. They've done scans to see how they changed a hand position or facial expression or even where an object in the work is placed. If Da Vinci and Michelangelo "drafted", shouldn't it be considered a valuable tool for the rest of us? I say it's better to err on the side of "yes".

Mind you, no one author is the same and therefore no one drafting system is the same. Some might be efficient at 3 drafts, others at 10. What someone calls a new draft, another author might just call it a touch-up to a current draft. Some draft the whole book, then do an editing draft after, while others draft chapters then edit said chapter before moving on to the next. Many authors use different number of drafts or drafting methods for each book they write. Either way, it’s not about a rigid number of drafts or how you draft, it's just about finding your method to the madness. Find your system.

Why multi-draft? Drafting allows you to find plot holes, give time for alpha/beta readers to analyze, or for your editor do their thing. It gives you a chance to step back, take a break, and come back with fresh eyes to see how you might creatively enhance your manuscript.

Do we still use the same iPhone that came out in 2007? Nope. We are approaching iPhone 17. You can think of it as draft 17. Our books and their drafts can be seen in the same way.

Final thoughts

Some asked “why do I care?”. Who gives a crap about other authors and their terrible books. I care because the better we ALL write and publish collectively, the more of a 🖕🏼 we can give to trad-publishing.

The better we ALL write and publish the less timid / apprehensive the average reader will be to pick up and buy an indie-book, hopefully mine and yours!

I care because other authors took the time to help me in my writing journey, which helped me grow, and I simply wanna give back.

But why call out a portion of the indie world as arrogant? If you never point out the cancer growing inside, then you’ll never seek treatment. Sometimes you gotta shine the light on the ugly truths.

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