Monday, May 21, 2012

The War on Indies

The Huffington Post has a great article today about the changing industry and the current "war" between indie authors and traditional authors. Not that I subscribe to the belief that there is a war brewing between indies and traditional authors.  I mean, what is this, X-Men?  This isn't a case of mutants vs. normals or whatever. However, ridiculous assumptions aside, I think the article brings up an interesting question.

Mainly, do readers care where the books come from?

In my experience, the answer to this question is no.  Readers want a great story wrapped up in a professional package.  As long as I provide:

(1) high quality, eye-catching cover art
(2) a fast-paced, well-edited story AND
(3) a properly formatted file with a working table of contents

then I've never had readers complain about my indie-published book.  As a matter of fact, most readers don't know which of my books are indie-published and which ones aren't.

Which, in my opinion, is exactly as it should be.

I'm curious what other people think about this issue.  Do you care if your favorite authors publish on their own or with a publishing company?

Stay Naughty!

Minx

1 comment:

Simone Noelle said...

I agree with you MM on 1 and 2. I have heard 3 before as well, most recently at RWA Nationals. And I do include workable table of contents in my own books. But I don't understand why people want/suggest you do that. I confess to never paying attention or using a clickable TOC in any of the books I may buy for my e-reader. So who is using them and why? Any ideas?

Simone