I hope I’m reading it wrong but this thread at deCompose sure smells of old assumptions to me. So not only are self-pubbed works intrinsically sub par, self-pubbed writers rash and impatient, but somehow the decision to self-publish is karmic suicide and negates the agent/big house option. So real writers wait and go traditional?
I’m half-looking for the writer equivalent to the Purity Ring now.
***
Like I said, I’ll certainly query agents and any publishing house that accepts my work. But I’m also going to keep writing, and when I’m done – if there are no takers – hire an editor, commission a cover, buy another ISBN and kick it out the door.
Hot Space Station Justice 
Heh. I see what you did there.
Like I said – maybe I’m reading it all wrong, but *sheesh*.
I’m not sure you’re reading it wrong, but I do think that most traditionally published authors had to work long and hard to get where they’re at, so they’re naturally going to be a little territorial. This may also be true for self-pubbed authors, but there’s no guarantee. I know a person who is a good writer with zero impatience who decided to dump all his books on the e-book market w/o even waiting for critique partners to help him edit them–I’m talking 20 books that might have been good if he had slowed down. But one person’s unhealthy personality traits shouldn’t taint all self-pubbed authors.
I’m the first person to call much of what’s self-published an “electronic midden of story”. But it’s clearly a false syllogism to say that all self-published work is less-than because of the arena where it meets the marketplace.
The irony is–and I really dislike one to one comparisons but I’m gonna do it here–your self-published book is better than a couple of the “traditionally published” books I’ve read by authors who frequent that blog. Yeah. I said it and I mean it. I’m talking from a basic craft perspective: Better use of character, better word choise, better plot development. Running Black is just a _better_ book than [fill in the blank].
I really think, too, that in a faith where we have the example of the forgiven debtor and all these people are constantly whinging about how “real publishers” and “the mainstream” don’t take them seriously that it’s a bit rich for them to not take others seriously….because of where those people are published and/or marketed. It’s sort of like in politics where people say derogatory things about the guy they didn’t vote for after complaining for years about the derogatory things others said about the guy they DID vote for. “Everyone did it to me first so it’s okay.”
But most of all I think it’s incredibly crappy to turn this woman’s good news and happy success into an “In YO FACE, INDIES!!!” moment.
Yes. Ladies and gentlemen, it’s true. I actually lauded a book for having “better word choise”.
The irony police are at my door even as we speak.
I actually had to stop visiting so many writing blogs because I can’t handle all the over-thinking, comparing, advice, advertisements, blah. Are we fiction writers? If so, then stop talking about writing/publishing and just write! Then, like you say, kick it out the door. That was some very good advice you gave me on my blog and as it turns out, my read through has been going very well. Funny how that ego tends to get in the way.
I’m not dissing Mike’s blog, by the way. I personally wasn’t offended by his post. I don’t sense arrogance from him, which is why I still visit his blog every day. I do notice much arrogance in the fiction writing world (published authors and publishing insiders looking down their noses at the rest of us peons) so I get what you are saying here.
Mike’s is the only writing blog I still visit and I’m cutting that down for the exact reason you mention: stop talking about writing and just write. 🙂
Jessica – I’m glad your read-through is going well. That’s good news. And I’m not dissing deCompose – just not finding anything there to help me focus and improve my actual writing. (which, like you said, seems to be too common) That thread served as a reminder for me to take my own advice and just write.