Earlier quoted context omitted.
Worm and it's sequel, Ward, are amazing.
Worm is 1.6 million words long?? You read the whole thing?
It was released as a serial. Think of it as a long series of shorter works.
Number of Self-Published Titles Jumped 40% in 2018
31–40 of 60 posts
Re: Number of Self-Published Titles Jumped 40% in 2018
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
Worm and it's sequel, Ward, are amazing.
Worm is 1.6 million words long?? You read the whole thing?
You read a chapter. Then you read another chapter. Repeat as long as you manage to keep interest.
Worm is an awesome tale that have mostly destroyed other stories about super heroes for me.
Re: Number of Self-Published Titles Jumped 40% in 2018
#33I have found kindle books that come from a reputable publisher are MUCH higher quality than self-published books. I just don't think many self-published books have the meaningful rejection, editing and proofreading that a publisher provides. That doesn't mean that there aren't good self published books. And things might change over time, if teams form. I think publishing a book requires a team. Meaningful reviews and…
> I think publishing a book requires a team.
No, you just need better tools to do so. Of course, having humans reviewing your book can help increase the quality, but that has nothing to do with having a publisher.
> I have found kindle books that come from a reputable publisher are MUCH higher quality
You are also biased because there are a LOT of really bad books published by traditional publishers anyway.
Re: Number of Self-Published Titles Jumped 40% in 2018
#34I have found kindle books that come from a reputable publisher are MUCH higher quality than self-published books. I just don't think many self-published books have the meaningful rejection, editing and proofreading that a publisher provides. That doesn't mean that there aren't good self published books. And things might change over time, if teams form. I think publishing a book requires a team. Meaningful reviews and…
Reputable publications put out less than 1% as many books as are self published, and they still spew a lot of terrible junk. Do you include say Tor etc as reputable? If not that percentage drops further.
What self publishing provides is a closer match for your personal interests. That’s only useful if you have unusual tastes, but I have personally given up on published fiction.
PS: What recent good reasonably hard science fiction can you name? Most people say The Martian, but that was originally self published.
Re: Number of Self-Published Titles Jumped 40% in 2018
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
Pulp fiction just means works published in pulp magazines or similarly disreputable publications. Some was bad, some was great. Many acclaimed authors wrote for the pulps: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulp_magazine#Authors_featured
In your very own link it says the term is used to refer to "run-of-the-mill, low-quality literature".
Pulp is, by definition, material printed in cheap wood pulp magazines.
Pulp is, by association, low-quality writing.
Pulp is also, by allusion, a particular genre/structure mirroring the dominant topics and styles of the original magazines - regardless of its quality.
Re: Number of Self-Published Titles Jumped 40% in 2018
#36Less gatekeeping, but lower average quality?
Re: Number of Self-Published Titles Jumped 40% in 2018
#37I have found kindle books that come from a reputable publisher are MUCH higher quality than self-published books. I just don't think many self-published books have the meaningful rejection, editing and proofreading that a publisher provides. That doesn't mean that there aren't good self published books. And things might change over time, if teams form. I think publishing a book requires a team. Meaningful reviews and…
One counter example is “Harry Potter and the methods of rationality”. Possibly one of the best books I’ve ever read.
Another example is the Wool series by Hugh Howey. That was one of the first big self-publishing success stories.
The books are incredibly entertaining and actually spawned a number of short stories and novels by other self-publishing authors set in the same universe.
Re: Number of Self-Published Titles Jumped 40% in 2018
#38No wonder with Amazon taking 70% of the sales price if the e-book goes even one cent above $9.99. If the e-book is sold below that it's "only" 30% - those are absolutely exploitative conditions!
I'm glad that more books are being self-published, I don't trust publishers. I don't know how many times I was aproached on Linkedin and invited to write a book on a topic, just because I've listed it on my profile.
If that's how a lot of technical authors are chosen, that could explain a lot about the quality of a lot of books.
I also don't like the page quotas that publishers have, like it has to be at least 400 pages. Well, what if there is only relevant information for 300? I would rather spare myself the time of reading 100 useless fluff pages.
Also, a lot of potentially good authors get rejected by publishers or not even invited, as publishers have no idea who to ask to write a book to.
The publishers take a premium cut and leave the authors with minimal royalties, meaning that most authors can't make a living from their books, meaning that less books get written.
Allowing authors to self publish lets more authors have a bigger share of the sales, allowing them to continue to write and everyone benefits.
I don't think that the odd quality author that writes a crap self-published book is a good enough of a reason for introducing a middleman, let the market decide. If the book is crap, no one will buy it and it will show. You can only fool the internet for so long.
Re: Number of Self-Published Titles Jumped 40% in 2018
#39I have found kindle books that come from a reputable publisher are MUCH higher quality than self-published books. I just don't think many self-published books have the meaningful rejection, editing and proofreading that a publisher provides. That doesn't mean that there aren't good self published books. And things might change over time, if teams form. I think publishing a book requires a team. Meaningful reviews and…
One counter example is “Harry Potter and the methods of rationality”. Possibly one of the best books I’ve ever read.
I liked reading HPMOR and it's certainly among the best fan fictions I've read, but in my opinion it has all the usual benefits and shortcomings of fanfics: It's based on fascinating ideas and a new perspective on the known world and characters, it has an unconventional story that the author obviously tells in the way he wants.
On the other hand it shows a lack of editing. There are whole chapters that don't move the story forward (like a third of the book is dedicated to student battles that just seem like a filler before the author decided how to end the story). I feel like those would all get significantly shortened if this would be a published book with an editor.
Anyway, I like reading fanfiction, but I think it stands on its own and it's hard to compare it with conventional published literature.
Re: Number of Self-Published Titles Jumped 40% in 2018
#40I added LeanPub (a self-publishing platform) support to my technical writing tool Helpinator a while ago, but did not see any significant interest in this feature. May be I am experiencing a kind ob bias in this case, authors of technical books are exceptional people at most :)