When Elitists Control The Book Industry, Everyone Loses.

I read a great article by Mercy Pilkington, as it not only illustrates how difficult it is for independent authors to break into the industry but also the BS that's perpetrated by higher ups in the industry to prevent indie authors from getting ahead. I can say for a fact that the Canadian book industry is just as biased towards independent authors. Adding to Pilkington's article, government-funded organizations such as the Canada Council for the Arts (CCA)—with regards to authors—only hands out grants to those they refer to as 'professional writers.' What's their definition of a professional writer? Someone who's not self-published. By that definition, Joe The Plumber and Sarah Palin are considered to be professional writers, even though Joe's first book tanked and Harper Collins claimed that Palin didn't even write what they considered to be a book. Although it may be their intention to promote the arts in Canada, they're doing the opposite because by excluding Indie authors, the CCA is hurting many careers.

Those who've read any of my books would know that they're all professionally edited, have professionally-designed book covers, and are professionally researched. They can also be found in bookstores and in libraries across the island of Montreal and in Barbados. I also do my own promotion, attend book expos, and even got a television interview last summer.

What's good about being traditionally published is that the publisher takes care of the editing and distribution of their books. On the flip side, even if an author is traditionally-published, publishers won't necessary allocate huge funds that are needed to promote them—leaving their authors to do most of the marketing themselves. Furthermore in most cases, the author has no say on how the book cover will look. As for the price (which is usually very high) publishers control that too. When that's all done, the author usually only keeps 10-15% royalty off of the sale of their own book. On the other hand, independent authors usually keep 70%.

There's a popular myth that all indie novels are substandard. Rubbish. Not all traditionally-published authors are bestsellers. To be fair, I've read some great novels that were traditionally published. Consequently I've also read some that were so bad that I wondered how high on crack the editor was when they chose to accept the manuscript.

Mercy Pilkington did a great job exposing the truths about the publishing industry in general. As for my opinion about the Canada Council for the Arts, I don't have any respect for them. With the funds they receive from the Canadian government, would it hurt them to have a grant section that's reserved for indie authors? By the same token, would it be to their detriment that they recognize the achievements of Canadian indie authors. By implementing guidelines that are designed to exclude an important segment of the arts community, they not only come across as being unprofessional and uninformed, but also a sad bunch of elitists.

So Amazon wants to delete my review. I guess it doesn't help being an author.

Dear Amazon.

I appreciate everything you've done for Indie Authors. Your courage in taking the bull by the horns has helped to take a huge chunk of power from the dictators who've been running the publishing industry for decades, and given us authors a chance to get our work into the hands of readers. Furthermore, you've helped readers also because they now have more choice.

However I must question your latest move, which is clearly in response to the Sockpocket phenomena which has plagued the industry. How will this make a difference? You want to delete reviews written by other authors, however you'll leave negative reviews from people who've clearly not even read our books. Earlier this year I even wrote to you to complain about a reviewer who flagrantly gave away several major plot spoilers of one of my novels. However, you refused to delete that review knowing full well that it would negatively affect my sales. Fortunately I have many loyal fans who've willingly bombarded that reviewer with enough complaints that she removed the review.

You've done wonderful things to help out Indie Authors when you introduced kindle and KDP Select, but this latest decision clearly requires more thought. Authors who've enjoyed reading my novels have blogs and Facebook pages where they'll leave their reviews. The paperback version of my books are still available on the sites of your competitors, where they'll also leave reviews. As for your site, all I need to do is quote them in the EDITORIAL REVIEW section.

Hopefully your marketing team will meet again soon and come up with a better strategy. 

Sincerely,

Russell Brooks.

http://www.salon.com/2012/11/02/authors_cannot_review_authors_on_amazon/

So you got a bad review. Grow the f*ck up and move on!

Dear Jacqueline Howett,

Not too long ago, the publishing world was rocked when bestselling thriller author, Barry Eisler, announced that he turned down a $500,000 book deal from his publisher in order to go Indie. In other words, he decided to self-publish his upcoming thriller, The Detachment, which will be available around Father's Day. As an Indie author with one novel to his name (soon to be two), I found this news to be exciting. With Eisler's move, I had a feeling that the negative stigma that surrounds Indie authors was showing signs of eroding.

And it couldn't have come at a better time because unfortunately, the majority of readers only talk about Indie authors that publish substandard novels. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that all traditionally-published authors put out quality novels. Believe me, I've read one or two NYT Bestselling authors whose novels I couldn't even finish because they were so badly written.

Then you came along with your novel, The Greek Seaman. Truth be told, I never would've heard about your novel. That was until there was so much internet buzz on how you behaved like a complete bitch on Big Al's Books and Pals. And it was because he gave your novel a bad review.

Congratulations. Not only have you ruined your own reputation as an author and an individual, but you have singed the reputations of indie authors worldwide who have worked hard for several years, and continue to do so, in order to be accepted by readers—especially those who dismiss indie authors as amateurs who aren't good enough to get a book deal. And it hurts when I hear someone dismiss me or other indie authors as not being a real authors.

You ought to know that in this business—whether you are traditionally published or an independant—there are readers that will either like or dislike your novels. That's life. I'll admit that I made the mistake of sending the wrong advance reading copy of my novel to reviewers. Fortunately a few of them alerted me to the problem and I was able to get them the right copy before the novel went on sale. I'm not saying that I'm the best novelist around, because I've already accepted that I'm still learning. And I know that I can and will still improve. That's what being professional is all about.

I didn't bother to comment on BigAl's Books and Pals because at this point it would be pointless. But tell me, wouldn't it have been easier to simply ask the reviewer where the problem areas were? At least you would've known whether you needed to either hire a professional editor and/or fire your old one. Wouldn't it have been easier for you to take advantage of digital publishing where you could easily upload a revised copy to Amazon or any other vendor? Believe it or not, readers still check out books that have negative reviews, and they do so by clicking the Send Sample Now that would allow them to judge the book for themselves. Don't you think that would've been preferable than going Chris Brown on the reviewer? Because as you must know by now, the worst place to have a meltdown—especially when you're wrong (which you were)—is the internet.

Way to go! You've singlehandly brought more negative attention to yourself and to your novel in one hour than ten reviewers could've done in a year. You want proof? Look at the number of 1-star reviews you've received. Maybe that's what it'll take for you to know that that's it's high time that you grew the f*ck up.

Best,

Russell Brooks
Author of Pandora's Succession and Unsavory Delicacies.

PS. To prove my point on the advantages of digital publishing, I invite every reader of this blog that spots any typos or repeated words to please comment about them so that I may correct them.