Apologies and complaints and grumpy cat ...

Ug, so this is just a blog post to apologize and complain. I take it back, all you drivel-writers out there. Well, most of it, anyway. Writing a book is damn hard. Every time I think I'm close to being finished, I go through another revision and realize "Shit, this needs a lot more work." So if I've shelved your book on my "don-t bother" bookshelf on Goodreads or given you a bad review on Amazon, I'm sorry. I do have respect for all the hard work you've put in, even if the end product leaves much to be desired.

I think an editor is essential to making really great stories. For those of us who are just starting out, maybe we should all agree to edit each other's books. Do you know how much a professional content edit costs? At my current work's length, between $1,200 and $3,000, depending on the editor. Sorry but I don't have that kind of money lying around, and even if I did, it would be spent on something else, like, I don't know, food, water, shelter, manga. Necessities, people.

What's amazing to me is that the authors I've criticized the most (and by criticized the most I mean they pissed me off so much that I have taken up arms in the form of a bad Amazon review) have self-published 6 or 7 or 10 books. I can only hope that they are improving as they gain experience, but based on their reviews, which I do read as opposed to their books (fool me once, shame on you), I don't think that's the case. If nothing else, they provide motivation for me to strive to do better.

LOL

Well, people (I'm not comfortable naming names), I can do a soft content edit, and I can also do copy editing. I have no professional training but I did work at a publishing company where I did just that for a couple of years. So if you are a self-published writer in the young adult/urban fantasy genre, please feel free to reach out to me. It's for the betterment of all of us wannabe/self-published/prolific writers of crap-ass stories.

J. L. Dodd

From Goodreads:

“Anyone who says it’s easy to self-publish a book is either lying or doing a shitty job.”
― Nan McCarthy

“The good news about self publishing is you get to do everything yourself. The bad news about self publishing is you get to do everything yourself.”
― Lori Lesko