I finished reading a book on marketing that, while good, worthwhile, and filled with lots of ideas and information (much of which I already use) to get your book out there and selling, it fell short, in my estimation.

Yes, it discussed the importance of building a fan base and giving fans what they want, and it also suggested one way of developing your career as being to call on others more experienced in your field and essentially “use” them and their influence to get ahead (something I didn’t particularly agree with).

But where the book fell short was in not once mentioning the importance of “promoting the writing and books of other authors” or in working with other authors to create a community in which all can thrive. Authors who read and follow the advice in this book will come out looking like lone wolves grasping after sales alone…

IT’S CELEBRATION TIME!

I’m so thrilled to be able to share this celebration of Reading Recommendations’ 2nd Anniversary with so many of the authors and friends who have made the blog what it is today! Since Nov. 18, 2013, I have been promoting Authors on this blog – more than 250 of you!! – to a readership that is worldwide in scope. What began as a way of getting the word out about a few of us has blossomed into an effective means of increasing awareness of books, authors, reading and writing far beyond what I ever believed to be possible! Thank you to everyone – subscribers, readers, authors, publishers, editors – all of you who have read and/or contributed to this blog in one way or another. Please continue to share the information you find here so that other readers may discover Authors and their Books – Great Reading…

I recently read a blog post by Tahlia Newland entitled “Opinion: The Core Problem with Self-Publishing is Quality Assurance.” The post was well thought out, actually, and there was a lot that I agreed with her about. However, my one big issue was her solution: having self-published authors submit their work to big publishing houses for their opinions before publishing to determine whether the book is “good enough.”

Ms. Newland suggests that every self-publishing author submit their book to publishers and await feed back before deciding whether to publish or not. Her reasoning is that 10% of books submitted to publishers were well written, but not good enough for the publisher to sell, so if you’re lucky enough to have your book fall under that category, then you “deserve” to self-publish.  I have a problem with that.

When did self-publishing become about who deserves to be out on…