Blog by Toby Welch

<< back to article list

A Word of Caution About Publishing E-books

I am a huge fan of e-books. They have opened the publishing world to thousands if not millions of writers who otherwise would not have their words published. E-books are a creative outlet that allow people to write and share their work that perhaps wouldn’t have otherwise left their desk drawer or computer hard drive.

But this relatively new outlet does come at a cost. Because it’s so easy to publish an e-book and because it can be done at no cost and with no lag time while you wait to hear back from editors or publishers, it is often done with little consideration for spell checking and grammar faux pas. In some cases, people are publishing e-books after finishing the first draft when the work clearly needed a dozen drafts. It’s horrifying to read even the book blurb and see typos and errors. If the writer can’t do the 400 character blurb without typos, how much confidence would a potential reader have in the book itself? I know for me the answer is pretty darn close to zero.

I cannot stress strongly enough that you need to edit your work as thoroughly before e-publishing it as you would before sending it to a traditional publisher. Your reputation is on the line; it’s your name on the byline. You won’t get a second chance to make a decent first impression with your readers.