Self-Publishing – what a farce it can be

Self-Publishing – what a farce it can be

I thought that after all these years, we may have reached a point where there was a really good alternative to having to beg, plead and bribe publishers to take notice of us poor writers. But no. We are no further forward. In fact, all we have done is turn corners, yet stayed on a straight locum, in our need to get recognized as writers. You see, the publishers may glory in their towers to pick and choose, but the writers still languish in the basements of the unknown looking for an alternative route. There really is none. Self-publishers are gushing more with ideas to lure us would-be authors, with less depth than they already had, but with a myriad of ideas that sound enticing, and possible. But, the reality is, there is only one market, and has only ever been – and that’s the reader. That poor reader. Barraged by commercialism, suffering from an over-abundance of reader material and confined by such things as Covid-19, and plain boredom, into a solitude that offers no other solace but reading as an alternative to the television.

Okay. Challenge accepted. But the self-publishing world has, through its’ own doing, attracted the mediocre and less than such. Amazon, and the like, accepts manuscripts that are totally lacking in professional editing. For instance, I bought a novel just two weeks ago that professes an interesting storyline, is self-published and offered for sale through Austin MaCauley, a somewhat respected US publisher. I hadn’t realised the depth of utter rubbish they could sell on what I had considered to be a reasonable book-selling site. I know there are differing levels of guidance one can ‘buy’ on self-publishing site, but to deliberately take on a project with zero, or less than zero, help to the writer is truly insulting to the world of literature. Austin MaCauley, like many others I assume, actually published this absolute load of shit, with its’ name attached.

“He sits there in deep thought with his cup of coffee wrapped around his hands.”

Just one of many non-sensical statements that came from, what I assume to be, an unedited manuscript on sale!

Please, will someone restrain the self-publishing leaches from destroying this industry.

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