What do you think of indie publishing?

By Pamela Moeng

What do you think of indie publishing? When a novel is rejected by a number of publishers, is it pandering to ego to self publish?

I once read that one should never edit or rewrite any manuscript that hadn’t been accepted by a publisher. Do you think that is good advice? If you get a detailed critique from a reader via a publisher that compliments and criticises the manuscript, what is the sensible thing to do?

A novel I wrote made it to the top three of a national book competition but has been refused by several publishers. I’ve reworked the manuscript before submission after I got my own reader – a professional editor and writer – to read through it. I took those comments into account in a rewriting. The novel made the long list, the short list and the top three but didn’t get the nod.

The question is: what’s the next step? Rewrite according to the critique? Trash the manuscript? Self publish?

I recently read that contrary to what traditional book buyers think as cheap and poor quality e-books, the digital books published can be high quality, good reads. I’ve read only a few e-books and found them good quality, well edited works. Were they the exception or the rule?

I don’t have a Kindle or other e-book reader, depending on my Packard Bell netbook to suffice. If I did, I’m sure I’d buy quite a few e-books every month, from known and unknown authors in genres I enjoy.
Who among Storypots followers have done any indie publishing? How many of followers regularly buy e-books? If you had a choice between a brand new print book and an e-book which would you choose? Are e-book writers, those without a big name and following that is, better, worse or on par with traditional print book authors?

We’d really like to hear what you have to say.