Kipped 3: Indies - shooting yourself in the foot?

Getting shot is painful.
I've never been shot in real life, but I have been in dreams (I've also hit the ground after a fall, so nix the theory that you die if this happens). 

Indie authors are sprouting like weeds because of the easy-to-publish formats we are blessed with.  Unfortunately, some of them never learned to write and are polluting the system with the idea they can get rich quick by offering a 99 cent book. 

Vultures are also emerging from this era of epub.  They are the people that steal others people's work, cobble it together, and resell it under a different title. 

I resent these two kinds of authors because they are giving ebooks a bad name.  The only way to clear it up is personal responsibility: when you release a book, make it your very best work.

Here are some ways to avoid shooting yourself.

1) READ
Before I set my goal of 12 in 12, before it was even a vision, I loved reading.  I was/am a voracious reader.  Focus on the genre you like and choose its best selling books - study them.  However, expand your mind and your talent by reading other kinds of books.  You may be surprised where ideas can come from.
 
2) Edit...Edit...Edit...repeat
I usually go through 5 drafts of my work before I let anyone read it and after they read it, I edit at least one more time.  If you can afford one, hire a professional editor (their prices vary, but $3 a page is the 'norm' the last time I checked).  Do NOT trust your spell checker.  Get a dictionary, a thesaurus - tools for grammar, etc.

Here is one of my personal reasons for needing an editor:  As a young adult, I intended on becoming an Executive Secretary and among my courses: Speed Reading.  The first day they tested us to see where we were.  I was already at 700 words per minute.  When I finished the class, it was well over 1,000 - not a large jump, but speed and retention (remembering what you read) are two different animals; one is a cheetah, the other is a domestic cat.

One thing you're taught in Speed Reading is to ignore small words (if, and, but, for...).  Because my eyes  are trained to ignore small words, when I edit, I tend to skip over ALL 2-3 letter words.  This really becomes apparent to my pre-readers.  I'm getting better at it, but a far cry from perfection.

3) Amputation:  what you do for dry rot
During my 12 in 12, I probably cut 300+ pages of unusable material.  That may not seem like a huge amount to a non-writer, but that's an entire book (months of work).  I toss all my cuts into a junk bin to use later, perhaps in the same series, or another book.  Just because it doesn't fit into one book, doesn't mean it won't work in another.   If you get stuck, you can always go to the junk bin and see if there is an idea with merit, dust it off, modify, etc.

4) Cool off
While the manuscript(s) are in the hands of pre-readers/editors, I'm usually writing another book (or three).  When your work returns and you re-read it, mistakes can jump out at you and you can take an ax to them, tighten loose nuts, or laugh at yourself and make a few quick changes. 

5)  If it's not fun, don't do it!
One of the first things I do every day is turn on my computer.  Now I write 5 days a week instead of 6.  Sometimes I only get 2 hours in, most of the time, its 8.  No matter the number of pages, this is a business for me.  It is a privilege to have the freedom to delve into the world of imagination and I intend to make the most of it.