Re:Publishers Determined to Kill E-Books
by thaumasiotes on Sunday December 29, 2019 @05:46PM
(#21909141)
> You can hire someone to do that though--along with cover design etc. And publishers often don't do an awful lot of heavy editing in my experience.
I bought and read a few self-published books on Amazon. The lesson I learned was that you should never, under any circumstances whatever, pay for a self-published book. The average quality of writing is atrocious.
Publishers may not do much direct improvement of your writing, but even if they perform a purely censorious function of printing good writing and refusing to print bad writing, they're adding a lot of value.
(And my understanding is that they do in fact work with you to improve your writing, but I have no experience in the field.)
I bought and read a few self-published books on Amazon. The lesson I learned was that you should never, under any circumstances whatever, pay for a self-published book. The average quality of writing is atrocious.
Publishers may not do much direct improvement of your writing, but even if they perform a purely censorious function of printing good writing and refusing to print bad writing, they're adding a lot of value.
(And my understanding is that they do in fact work with you to improve your writing, but I have no experience in the field.)