Comments on: Diamond in the rough

By: Johnathon Fairless

Johnathon Fairless — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 00:17:09 +0000

Your article is wonderfully authored. I welcome this kind of content. The material here is formatted well and the points made are sound and original. Thanks for making this interesting.

By: Marni

Marni — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 01:30:26 +0000

Yup, that’ll do it. You have my appreiaction.

By: arbraun

arbraun — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 03:11:53 +0000

The Number One Book I Did Not Finish But Very Much Want To Try Again:

The Descent by Jeff Long.

The Number One Book That I’ve Already Tried More Than Once But Couldn’t Engage With, I Don’t Know Why:

Dead Sea by Brian Keene.

The Number One Book That I Found Mostly Painful and Likely Will Not Revisit:

The Ruins by Scott Smith.

The Number One Book I Shlogged Through and Almost Abandoned, But Kept On; No Pay-off, I Felt, In the End:

Suffer the Children by John Saul.

The Number One Book I Struggled Through, Maybe Put Down For a While, But Finished and Am Very Glad I Did:

666 by Jay Anson.

By: Carolyn

Carolyn — Wed, 19 May 2010 14:30:29 +0000

Bill Deasey's Ransome Seaborn is an amazing book. Really, really, really good. I would love to see him go mainstream with his writing.

It was the PODdy Mouth Needle in the Haystack winner some years back. He's since self-published a second novel Traveling Clothes, which I haven't yet read. He's a musician by vocation.

By: Keary Taylor

Keary Taylor — Wed, 19 May 2010 13:24:19 +0000

The only self-published stuff I've ever read is poetry by a few local authors. I've recently self-published my own book and have gotten amazing feedback, nothing bad from it yet. I get a little scared every time I see that an agent has posted something about self-publishing, it almost all seems to be so negative. I was suprised to see a little sunshine in this post. Thanks for not putting a dark cloud over my head!

By: GhostFolk.com

GhostFolk.com — Wed, 19 May 2010 12:33:01 +0000

When I read recently that Roddy Doyle self-pub'd his first novel THE COMMITMENTS, I swallowed my tongue. Yeah, the good ones are out there… somewhere.

By: bitter and twisted

bitter and twisted — Wed, 19 May 2010 00:55:30 +0000

With regard to fiction only: There are two types of self-published books. There are the ones that are not as good as the author thinks they are and there are the ones that are quite brilliant, have unique and refreshing plots and venture to places that the too formula publications don't reach.

What both types will have in common is that they will have been refused by a great number of agents before the self-publishing route will have been considered by the author.

Why have the good ones been missed by agents? Because agents will not have liked the authors profile, or the synopsis will not have revealed in two pages just how cleaver the twists of the plot are. Even when a story is showing potential it will be refused because it doesn't fit the business modular requirements.

The publisher who is supporting the author mentioned will find there is a massive sleeping market for what he is offering and from where I'm looking from, she is taking a first bold step to setting right an industry in decline.

Please leave the name of the book and author on the next blog entry, as I would like to buy a good book. something I haven't done for a number of years as there hasn't been one available.

By: Vera Nazarian

Vera Nazarian — Tue, 18 May 2010 22:38:49 +0000

Sure, there's my own Mansfield Park and Mummies, not to mention all my critically acclaimed small press (not self-published) other titles.

As a two-time Nebula Award Finalist it is extremely frustrating for me to have neither agency representation nor major publisher interest.

By: WriterGirl

WriterGirl — Tue, 18 May 2010 22:10:46 +0000

I have to say I don't think I've ever read a self published title. I'm sure that there are great ones out there but the traditional publishing model means that I know that it's been edited by professionals and chosen by a whole team of people as a good read. With self publishing you could buy something and you don't even know if it's a first draft or not until you've already paid for it.

By: The Daring Novelist

The Daring Novelist — Tue, 18 May 2010 22:04:19 +0000

My to-be-read pile is so large, I'm not sure I could pull out a particular title yet. (There are a lot I'm excited about reading, but I haven't got to them.)

I also think that, at the moment, a lot of authors are like me - putting up their "non-commercial" work first to get feel for how it all works. While I know there are some winners out there now, I'll bet there will soon be a lot more.