Courtesy of Morguefile.com

First, this is article is primarily for the world of indie books. Secondly, let me set a scene for everyone. You’re an author looking for books to buy for your iPad or Kindle and you see an e-book popping up for sale at several online distributor sites. For whatever reason, the cover grabs your attention. You click on it and read the blurb and excerpt.

Uh, oh. There are errors in the blurb. Worse, the excerpt is full of typos, missing words, punctuation, and grammatical problems, and as you read—or try to—you wonder how in the world such material got accepted let alone published. If the blurb and excerpt have problems, you figure the book’s prose will be the same way, so you’re not going to waste your money and decide to buy something else. However, as the days pass you notice this questionable book is climbing the best-seller e-book charts. You frown at your computer screen and think, “Maybe the story is so good I can ignore the errors.” So you pull out some plastic and buy a copy of the book to find out why it’s selling so well.

Once the book is loaded on your e-reader, you try to read the story, but the problems in plot, character development, and all the other mechanics of good writing from punctuation to grammar are so overwhelming you struggle to get through it.

Disgusted, you glare at the computer screen. “How can this be?” you yell. “I write circles around Jane Doe Wannabe! I know my punctuation. I know my grammar. Heck, I sweat blood making sure I create well-rounded characters the reader will care about and I make sure everything furthers the plot.” You continue glaring at the screen. “I promote my butt off, too! I host contests and blog everywhere I possibly can. I’ve gone to writer’s conferences and paid handsomely for awesome promo items, connecting with writers and editors!” Steadily, your despair and frustration climbs the Richter scale and either the tears start trickling or you throw something across the room, grimacing at the tinkle of glass over by the bookshelf. “What the hell am I doing wrong? Where’s the justice in this crap selling like hot cakes when myself and other talented authors are struggling to sell a measly dozen copies each quarter?”

Moreover, I hear this from my private editing clients. They’ll rattle off a list of things like the one above and add, “And you edited my manuscript for me, making me learn what dangling modifiers and spit infinitives are. You made me fix all those plot holes and cut all that exposition…. Why learn this stuff if garbage is being published?”

Although e-publishers once had a terrible reputation for publishing anything and everything, e-pubs have changed by leaps and bounds. Most indie publishers today employ great editors and put a manuscript through numerous edits. Also, many e-books are self-published nowadays, so check the information page of the book before pointing fingers at the publishers. As for the question of ‘why learn this stuff if garbage is being published?’ there are three answers.

• You don’t want to be a garage writer, do you? Of course not, so take pride in your work and learn where commas do and don’t go and so on. Learn, learn, learn!
• There may be those readers out there who don’t realize how bad the prose truly is and how the book is poorly edited, but there are just as many who do know all these things. The ones who do know their grammar, punctuation, etc., will talk about the lack of this and that when they find it in the books they plunk their money down to buy–especially in today’s economy.
• As you’ll see at the end of this article, the written word is a gift, something to pass on to other people, other countries/cultures, and our children, so polish your stories so those who read it can take pride in them, too.

Writers are emotional people (Buy my book or I’m leaping from the tallest ladder I can find!). We pour our heart and souls into our work (I even draw li’l hearts over all the ‘I’s in my manuscripts!). We spend so much time on our manuscripts that we should each take turns at being the poster child for the New Year’s baby. Heck, I’ve written so much for such long expanses of time five, sometimes seven, days a week I’ve had to shut the laptop down for a few days so my fuzzy vision could clear up. I know what it’s like to want to succeed so badly it’s all you can think, taste and breathe. And sometimes I become so irritated with the business that I contemplate opening my own publishing company. Yeah, like I’m able to carve an extra forty-eight hours out of a day, lol.

So what can a writer do to ward off or banish these feelings?

I hate to say it but it’s a matter of changing how you think i.e. your frame of mind. Sucks, I know. However, it’s true. You can’t worry about what Jane Doe Wannabe is selling or puzzle over how popular John D. Whothehellishe is on all the social sites and loops. It’s wasted energy, my friends. Why waste energy when writers strive to carve out enough writing time as it is? Besides, you can’t change what you can’t control.

First, there are a few things to consider such as genre and gimmicks. If paranormal vampire romance is all the rage and you’re writing about old Antebellum Era ladies reminiscing about how to fart quietly in multiple petticoats, I highly doubt those books are going to sell many copies [well, I might buy a copy out of sheer curiosity and my warped sense of humor]. Let’s face it, people have short attention spans, especially in the last few years due to cell phones, texting, gaming, and big movies that deliver the story at a boom-boom-boom pace [boom pace, not boom petticoats, sheesh]. Authors have to change with the times. Also, today’s readers (most, not all) want instant gratification, especially in erotic romance. I’ve seen lovely titles like A Soft Whisper sit and gather dust while something crude like Slap My Ass and Call me Cherry will fly off the cyber shelves in a blur. Worse, the one called A Soft Whisper is well written; whereas the other one isn’t.

What? [blinks in confusion at the shocked stares] Hey, I’m blunt, okay?

But seriously, what you see/read on the loops, forums, and social sites might be—and often is—a bunch of malarkey. Sure, you’ll see John D. Whothehellishe shouting all over cyberspace about how his book is #1 on XYZ’s site, but how many sales did it take to make that book #1? For all you know that site might only sell a hundred books a month. If that’s the case John’s book doesn’t have to sell many copies to be #1. Ah, that put it in a better perspective for you, didn’t it?

This leads to a question every writer must ask himself. Why do I want to succeed so badly? There are usually three main reasons most writers offer.

• Money

This answer incorporates many things from paying the bills to putting funds away for when they’re elderly to handling big purchases in the future to simply having an extra income to pad the household budget. Sadly, there are few authors who can quit their day jobs.

• Fame

Well, my friend, if it’s fame you want then you’re in the wrong business. There are few authors who can actually say they’re famous; it’s even less common in indie publishing. Don’t believe me? Talk to some mid-list authors in traditional publishing let alone the ones involved in e-publishing.

• I write because I love it

The written word is a gift, one we need to preserve, teach and develop. If you write because you must, because writing is as much a part of you as breathing then the stress of being successful will fall away. Money isn’t important and neither is fame. The love of writing is freedom to do one of the best jobs there is from the comfort of your writing spot. A writer can travel to other worlds, be other people, and share all this with the planet.

Courtesy of MorgueFile.com

It took me a long time to realize this. My family has always struggled so I’m a worrier about paying bills, etc., and I worry even more about my husband who is growing older and still working his tail off. When I stopped fretting about why my work wasn’t selling like I thought it should, things began changing. If you put negativity out in the world then negativity is what you will reap. Put good vibes out there and good things will come back to you.

Corny? Maybe, but it’s true. Stop worrying about John D. Whothehellishe and just write for the love of it, because you enjoy it. Write to make others happy with your stories, giving them temporary escape pods. Write because it’s in your blood. Just do the best you’re able to and at the same time leave yourself open to learning all you can about writing and publishing. The more you learn, the better your work will become.

NOTE: I’ve been asked by many different writers if there is truly going to be a new AWH. The answer is yes. It will be one volume revised and expanded [lol, six more years of info has got to be packed in that sucker]. If you have a suggestion for a cover please email mgbaun@wildchildpublishing.com.

To find out more about F.L. Bicknell aka Faith Bicknell-Brown, visit HERE and www.FaithBicknell.com.