Micro-Publisher Endorses the Move by 'Amazon Quality Police' to Clear Out the eBook Sludge Pile

Oct. 13, 2011 - PRLog -- Perfection and the Sludge Pile are the two elements being addressed by A.V. Harrison Publishing in its blog as this week comes to a close.

The angst among IndiePub authors who plan to make a long-range career of writing is palpable. And that angst is brought on by the ‘sludge creep’ that is taking over Amazon eBooks and soft cover titles. It has never surprised anyone to purchase a Smashwords title and struggle through an author’s poor paragraph structure, bad grammar, and misplaced colloquialisms. But evidently the sludge being published by some $.99 authors and the ‘Free Sells!’ crowd is starting to bug ‘Amazon’s Quality Police’.

"I have always maintained that nothing dubs you as an amateur author faster than pricing your titles as ‘Free!’ at the starting gate. (eBook pricing – topic for another day). But stepping in front of give-away pricing is homemade covers and ‘I know what I’m saying – You figure it out’ editing." opines Emily Hill, author of such titles as 'Ghost Stories And The Unexplained' available on Kindle and Nook.

Visit http://www.avharrison-publishing.com for details.

Sludge Creep.

I define ’ sludge creep’ as all elements of poor quality publishing. Sludge Creep hurts the IndiePub movement and is now being flushed out by Amazon according to L. J. Sellers and Jeff Bennington in their respective blogs this week. Jeff Bennington announces in his blog that Amazon is growing concerned with the volume of … let’s say it since he doesn’t… “crap” that is crowding out quality publishing.

Quality Editing

Sludge, for the sake of this article, includes books with amateur covers, paired with ‘I know what I mean – YOU figure it out’ editing goofs. “We pulled into pork.” instead of “We pulled into port.” As a member of Small Publisher’s Association of North America and a micro-publisher registered with Ingram’s I am very attuned to quality product, appropriate pricing, and publishing trends. And, that said, I am thrilled with Amazon’s move to hold traditional publishers and IndiePubs to the same standard – perfection.
I’ve always asked my writer colleagues to call me on typos and grammar oversights in my titles – and I impose myself on them in the same regard. My first one star review was over typos. I’m a quick learner – I took the title down and started over. A friend of mine who speaks Danish read the novel and found seventeen errors that my $900 editor had overlooked. “Oops!” hardly covers my piss-off. Who was the editor? No one I’m using now!

Quality Book Covers

Same with book covers! Although I will ‘IndiePub Coach’ a writer through to publication, and beg them to pay for a professionally designed cover ($400) if they don’t – they don’t. I can’t stop them from publishing a dumb cover. But I won’t feature their books on my website, or promote their book in my blogs. Why would I push forward an author who hasn’t put in the investment that I put in on MY titles? I’m facing the same recession constraints that they are – believe me! For two years now I have been begging authors in my ‘All Smart Cookies Can Self Publish’ series to step up to the CHA-ching! There IS initial investment involved in publishing. The eBooks whose titles hawk ‘publish for free’ are frauds. Yes, ‘publish for Free! then charge Free! makes you a fraud author in my book. If you have a truly gifted graphic buddy, or a professional editor you can barter with – step forward. But, in the meantime it looks like the Amazon ‘Sludge Flush’ is on its way – heading toward quick-buck writers who slap up typo-laden sludge.

Here are my resources for editing and design: First off, my great editor pals Lynnette Phillips and Gretchen Houser; plus Anita Davies for UK clients.

I use Kathi Humphries for book cover design. Visit http://www.kathihumphries.com for details and to see Kathi’s fine work.

I coach ‘Smart Cookies’ on the formatting, uploading, and marketing of independently published titles. And, my live-link eBook guide only costs $3.99!

Check the ‘See Inside The Book’ feature of ‘All Smart Cookies Can Self-Publish’. Visit http://www.amazon.com/Self-Publish-September-Independent-... for details.

Don’t get pulled over by Amazon’s Quality Police!

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A.V. Harrison Publishing features ground-breaking topics from emerging authors. Its books are distributed by Ingram, available on Amazon.com and B&N Nook. Owner, Emily Hill, invites submissions and can be contacted at info@avharrison-publishing.com.