First Experience: Beta Readers

When I first entered the world of indie publishing, I heard about these strange things called beta readers. "Who are these strange people called beta readers?" I asked myself.

No no no...beta.

What I learned was that, before publishing your book, you gave copies of it to either friends or volunteers to read and give you feedback on what they liked or didn't like. It's similar to the practice of film companies using test audiences to see what they think of a film thus far. There are various opinions regarding what point in the publishing process you should use beta readers, but the one I've read that makes the most sense is when you have the book edited and in a format you believe would be publish-worthy. At that point, you send it to your beta readers to see what other people would think about your work.

I'll admit I probably did it in the most awkward manner. I basically just put it out on Twitter that I was looking for beta readers for "Gods on the Mountain", and advertised it like that for a while. Eventually, I got three people volunteering for the job. I sent them PDF copies of the book, and waited to see what would happen.

Overall, the experience was amazing. My beta readers were open and honest, telling me what parts they loved and what parts they hated. I came to really treasure their feedback because there was one part of the book that at least two of them said didn't work at all, and didn't come across as believable. I went and edited that part, and sent them the edits, and they all affirmed that it was much better. They likewise pointed out any grammar or spelling errors, including one embarrassing mistake where I completely left out the verb!

I definitely saw the value in beta readers from this. I felt like my book was being even more refined, and was beginning to come together as a fully functioning novel. I was happy to have people who could point out problems in the storyline, rather than simply throw my book out into the market and get it from reviewers who may not like the book as much as they could. The experience likewise permitted me to grow and learn to take constructive criticism with a thick skull, and take from others what could help my writing, rather than getting defensive or becoming far too attached to the story.

To any indie authors out there, I would definitely suggest looking up beta readers, or finding those who would function as beta readers for you. It is definitely worth it.

Social Media and Author Maturity

Recently on Twitter, I saw an author tweet about people they had blocked, mostly because of a disagreement over a subject. Out of a strange curiosity, I reviewed their twitter feed, and discovered that it was mostly them boasting about blocking people left and right, and for a variety of subjects. What took me aback by all this was not only did this person seem mean spirited towards the people they had blocked (referring to them by an ad hominem or a cruel name), but their tweets suggested that they had blocked quite a large number of people. They likewise took a "woe is me" attitude, as if the opinions of these people, and the action of having to block them, made this person a martyr on par with Saint Sebastian or Joan of Arc.

At first, I wasn't quite sure how to take all this; after some thinking, I felt inspired to write a blog post on this kind of attitude.

Of course, as one must always do on the internet when you first begin making suggestions or talking about a subject, let me make a few things clear: I understand this is the internet, and people are going to do what they want to do, and I can't control anyone, etc., etc., etc. Don't take this post as a declaration ex cathedra that must be obeyed; look at it as an author speaking to other authors and offering advice - mainly in why this attitude is a wrong one to take.

First, this kind of attitude is unnecessary social media drama. Seriously, I loathe Facebook because this sort of thing permeates it: people blowing their gasket at the first sign of contrary thought, then blocking people left and right over every tiny little thing. Blocking people because you disagree with them (even with a mute or unfollow function readily available) is just being a drama llama - especially if you proceed to go around bragging about it like you are some poor martyr who was compelled to do so.

That's not to say there's never a reason to block someone. Generally, I work by these rules in regards to blocking:

1. If you post pornography or stuff in general that would embarrass me to see on my feed, were my wife to be sitting next to me.
2. If your account is spam or doesn't serve any purpose that might produce some form of interaction.
3. If you keep doing the "follow for automatic follow-back" thing several times (at that point, you're being obnoxious).
4. If you're a jerk or generally act disrespectful to myself or to friends/family, and to the point that friendly interaction is no longer possible.
5. If you're the Game of War Twitter account.

However, if someone's opinion or personal action, especially one that most people would find inconsequential (eg., celebrating Valentine's Day), upsets you so much that you have to block them...then you're demonstrating a great level of immaturity. Welcome to the real world: there are going to be people who disagree with you. You're going to have to coexist with people who disagree with you. And it's those people's absolute right to post their views on their account, provided they aren't going to an extreme in doing so. Unless they're directly attacking you, don't go blocking them or crying on social media about how you were somehow forced to block others, when all you could have done was count to ten and moved on with life.

There are people I regularly interact with on Twitter who I disagree with politically, religiously, etc., and while I'm not saying that I'm alright with every single thing they tweet or share, I try my best not to have a knee jerk reaction towards it. I try to avoid feeling the need to purge my feed of contrary opinion. Even if I choose to disagree openly, I try to do so in a respectful manner, and with consideration for their viewpoint. That's not to say I'm perfect - I could definitely go back in time and rebuke myself with this post. I've had to mature with online interaction, let alone real life interaction. One thing I've tried to live by is you choose your battles, and you choose what hill you want to die on. What's more, you have to remember that others outside your little conflict are watching and observing you, which brings me to my next point...

Second, it's a foolish way to act, given you are the persona of your material. That is, you are the face of your product, which is your literary work. One thing that is commonly harped about on most indie guides is that, as an indie author, you are marketing yourself. You don't have a publicist to be your public face, or to deal with the media when you go on a drunken rampage through downtown Los Angeles. As obvious it might sound, you are literally who people perceive you to be. Being an indie author permits people to see you in the "raw." They see you in the way you present yourself.

So, if you act like a ten-year old and flood your feed with stuff that makes fun of people for a variety of reasons, you present yourself  as that sort of person. Of course, your friends and those who agree with you probably aren't going to berate you, but you're going to create this aura around you that others are definitely going to notice. There's a reason why a writer like Norman Boutin is so infamous: because of how he acts, especially towards other people. There's a reason an artist like Tom Preston gets so much flack: because he's constantly playing victim, complaining about things that shouldn't bother him, and blocking anyone who displeases him in the slightest. Yes, you have a right to your opinion, and yes, you too have a right to do with your social media account what you choose to do...but remember what you are, and what you are trying to do. You're not only selling your product; you're selling yourself.

Again, I understand it ultimately boils down to what you want to do with your account, even if that includes blocking everyone who openly celebrates Valentine's Day, or everyone who's a Postmillennial because you're a Historic Premillennial. However, as I said before, remember your ultimate goal, and what you are trying to do. Are you really trying to build a reader base, or are you trying to gather together a team of monomaniacal sympathizers and supporters to come to and pat your back every single time you feel slightly depressed? We all have our bad moments, but if you examine yourself and find that you are repeating this over and over again, it will snowball at some point.

Things That Ruin Indie Publishing

When I first stepped into the world of indie publishing, I didn't realize just what kind of world I was stepping into. Thankfully, my experiences have been for the most part positive...but, as with anything a person becomes involved in, the negative aspects soon rear their ugly heads. To open up discussion on this, I thought I would give a simple list of things which either hurt indie publishing or give it a bad name for readers who may be used to more traditional publishing.

I don't claim to be the end all be all expert on indie publishing, so please don't take this blog post as canon or dogmatic pronouncements made ex cathedra. These are simply observations I have made myself, or complaints I've heard from other indie authors. Also keep in mind that I'm not trying to target any one author or person with this entire list; again, these are just general observations made. Yes, some examples will be cited or referred to, but this isn't meant as an attack post.

All that being said...are there any disturbing trends you have noticed? Feel free to leave a comment, and I just might add it to this blog post!

1) Unnecessary high prices.

When you look at most indie novels available for your e-reader, prices can vary from $2 to $5. Many times, authors will put their novels on sale for $0.99, or even let it go free. Keyword here: these are novels I'm talking about. For the amount of length you get to read, this is a pretty good deal, and when compared to books done by major publishers, you see the price is about the same.

Some people, however, will publish a 38-page book for $5...and even higher. It's as if people think they can publish the short story they wrote in high school and get a few bucks from it. I recently came across one indie author who was selling his 52-page novella for $16.95. I am not making that up! People really do pull stunts like this.

Not only is this kind of careless pricing going to hurt potential sales, but it makes readers believe that indie authors are simply out to make a quick dollar. To all authors who are doing this: seriously, please stop it!

2) Abysmal editing.

Typos are everywhere in the printed medium. Even in traditionally published books, there are typos (try reading Twilight and you'll see what I mean). This doesn't mean typos are okay, mind you; typos should be avoided at all costs. However, a few typos here and there might be overlooked by more forgiving readers. You forgot one punctuation on this one page? Is the rest of the book readable? OK, cool, we'll let that one slide; just remember to correct it in a future edition.

However, if an author self-publishes, and doesn't put any effort into editing their work, then the results are tragic. Punctuation mistakes abound, spelling mistakes make reading a chore, and awkward sentence structures rule the day. I've come across books that read like English wasn't the author's first language (and sadly, it was), as well as books that are so incoherent in sentence structure that they seem like the ramblings of a madman.

Readers might expect typos and glaring errors on a blog post, or a fanfiction website, or an internet forum with a "creativity" section, but if they're going to give money for what they expect to be a refined book, they should at least be honored by an author who puts time and effort into making certain that errors are kept to a minimum and the end product is as polished as possible.

3) Terrible cover designs.

For this section, I feel like I could just point people over to the website Lousy Book Covers and be done with it. If you want an example of why making a good cover can be important, then that site is chock full of them. For a lot of people, this is what they think of when they think of indie publishing.

The sad thing is, for many of the novels shown on Lousy Book Covers, I've actually gone to Amazon and read the samples, and have found that...many of them are actually pretty well written. The writing itself isn't half bad. In fact, sometimes it was really good. Unfortunately, when a potential reader comes across the work, they may not get the chance, or gain the interest, to pick up the book and read it, or even take a look at the sample chapter. They'll take a look at the cover, say, "By the gods, that's bad," and move on with life.

I understand that many indie authors (like myself) are working on a shoestring budget, and may be worried about how much they'll have to pay in order to get decent cover art. However, I would highly suggest that, if you invest in one thing for your book, it be this. There are websites where you can find premade or custom made covers, and there are artists out there willing to do work for you at an affordable cost. Some authors have spent $300 on their covers, but others have found decent covers for closer to around $50. Either way, the end result is that your book has a cover that doesn't look like someone's 12-year old dabbled in MS Paint for a few minutes.

An article worth reading on this subject is WillowRaven's post on their blog regarding the difference between cover design and covert art, as well as the difference between custom covers and original covers.

4) Terrible pen names.

A lot of indie authors use pen names, which is absolutely perfectly fine...but most make an effort to make certain the names they use are reasonable. They should, at the very least, sound like real names. So please...don't call your Cat Kicker. And don't call yourself by an internet handle like catkicker9000. That's cute on an internet forum, but not on a book.

And please, please, please, please don't call yourself by a fan version of another author's name. Don't call yourself B.K. Rowling. Don't call yourself George R.R. Tolkien. Again, you might laugh, but some indie authors have actually done just that.

5) Irrational author behavior.

Most well known authors are too busy with their day-to-day lives, or with their promotions and next projects, to bother with every internet critic of theirs. By contrast, many indie authors seem to not only have the time, but the passion, to go on a crusade and destroy anyone who dares suggest their book is terrible. If you want one major example, go and read my post on Norman Boutin, who has become internet infamous for his tirades and antics.

Nobody likes receiving a one-star review on Amazon. Nobody likes hearing someone tear their book apart. Nobody likes hearing words akin to "this sucks." However, that is part of putting your piece of art out onto the market and letting people comment on it. It doesn't matter if you're a classic writer like Dante Alighieri or a famous author like Stephen King...at least one person out there is going to absolutely hate your work. Many indie authors are aware of this, and have found ways to thicken their skin or train themselves to overlook criticism. They are, like Elsa, able to "let it go."

Other indie authors don't do this. They will respond to every single criticism with hostility. They will take the time to rant against negative reviewers on Amazon, or pull stunts like writing revenge reviews against said authors, or using sock puppet accounts to write positive reviews in an effort to "balance out" their score. Some have plotted with their agents or editors to get back at their credits. You're probably laughing, but I wish I was making half this stuff up. If you want some wonderful case studies on the various antics authors will go to in order to silence or blacklist their critics, go and look at the "Authors Behaving Badly" series on Pocketful of Books. What grown people are capable of doing will astound you.

UPDATE - February 18, 2015: Adam Dreece, over on his blog, has written a post on the same topic. It's worth a read.