Quality Control: Self-Published Author's Guild?

[EruditeFool]

Really the main service this guild would provide to authors would be some kind of fancy stamp to put on the covers of their books. A shiny seal of approval that says something along the lines of, "An official selection of the International Guild of Independent Authors". You could start doing that without any high profile backers, and if you do it right consumers will eventually start trusting the stamp, and it will actually become meaningful.

ETA: Also, thank you Deornoth.

I think you may be on to something, Goblin King. This would also start the debate of who would run the organization.

[PaulineMRoss]

There's always been discussion about some way to give self-pubbed authors a stamp of approval. There are websites where, for a fee, you can submit your book and, if it's approved, you get to flaunt some kind of shiny thing on the book. Which all sounds pretty dubious, but if there's curation going on, someone has to pay for the cost of that.

There's a website called BookVetter, where authors review each other's work anonymously to get it to a 'vetted' standard, when it gets onto a list for book review bloggers to access. It's a combined critique/reviewing site which (in my opinion) has some issues.

There's a new one starting up, BookSignal, which won't necessarily read and review the whole book, but they will look at the quality of cover/blurb/chapter 1 and weed out the poorly edited and amateurish ones. [Neil, you should totally submit Duchess to them; they're not charging yet, but that will change.]

The romance authors have got their act together a bit better, though. One of their existing guilds (Romance Writers of America?) now accepts self-pubbed authors IF they have a certain level of sales behind them. That might be the way, ultimately, if the existing organisations open their doors to self-pubbers. Not holding my breath, though.

[TrackerNeil]

The romance authors have got their act together a bit better, though. One of their existing guilds (Romance Writers of America?) now accepts self-pubbed authors IF they have a certain level of sales behind them. That might be the way, ultimately, if the existing organisations open their doors to self-pubbers. Not holding my breath, though.

Frustratingly, it's a chicken-and-egg thing. If you can't get publicity you can't get sales, and if you can't get sales...you see where this is going. I think that's the thing the indie-loathers just don't get. Books don't sell just because they're good; they sell because the right people hear about them. The best book in the universe will linger unsold if nobody knows what it is and how to buy it, and with reviewers in near-total lockstep in opposition to self-published works, an indie really has his/her work cut out.

[Gneisenau]

Explicitly what would be some of the criteria that the self published author needs to have get stamp of approval ?

[TrackerNeil]

Explicitly what would be some of the criteria that the self published author needs to have get stamp of approval ?

Again, we're talking about an organization that does not exist here, but in my view the main criterion would be writing proficiency. I've read some indies who clearly need a good deal of work before they're ready for a college-level writing course, much less authorship, and that makes us all look bad. In fact, I can't think of anything else that would be a fair standard for evaluation.

[PaulineMRoss]

Books don't sell just because they're good; they sell because the right people hear about them.

The right people being the people who want to read that kind of book. The self-published authors who've hoisted themselves into making a living from their books have generally done it by very astute marketing - the right promotions at the right time - as well as having multiple books out. Some romance writers pump out a book a month. Those of us who write slower have to be a bit more patient, I think, and learn from the marketing experts while we build up the back catalogue.

I honestly don't think that any kind of 'stamp of approval' is going to help sell self-published books. I don't buy a book because it's got some kind of shiny blob on the cover, or someone said it was a quality book, I buy it because it looks like an interesting read. I don't even know, half the time, whether a book is traditionally published or self-published. I always look at the sample before I buy, and if that draws me in, I'll buy (or borrow, in these Kindle Unlimited days).

[TrackerNeil]

I honestly don't think that any kind of 'stamp of approval' is going to help sell self-published books. I don't buy a book because it's got some kind of shiny blob on the cover, or someone said it was a quality book, I buy it because it looks like an interesting read. I don't even know, half the time, whether a book is traditionally published or self-published. I always look at the sample before I buy, and if that draws me in, I'll buy (or borrow, in these Kindle Unlimited days).

After nearly three years at the indie business, I still can't say I know what sells books. However, I think good reviews definitely help, and a recognized stamp of approval might move some reviewers to reconsider their opposition. Or maybe not; that opposition seems quite resistant to external forces.