I recently completed my second year judging for the Ben Franklin Awards. I enjoy volunteering as a judge because it gives me an opportunity to get a broader view of what is happening in the publishing community, particularly with indie/small press books. I wanted to share a few thoughts about entering contests in general based on my experiences as a judge, as I think they may be useful for authors who are may want to enter contests in the future.
You have to at least admire the sheer hubris of an author who simultaneously spends $500 on a Kirkus review and then claims that they asked Kirkus not to publish it for “Branding Reasons.”
There is a special place in Hell for John Locke.
Because I know how much you all love the bizarre emails that I get.
Apparently, the experiences of an actual INDIE AUTHOR who has been self-publishing for ten years hold less weight than those of a former trad author who just joined the indie side.
In Part Three of the series, we examine how readers view indie books and what they really care about.
In this article, we look at the actual results from the first of our informal surveys and identify important ethical considerations for authors.
Even if you have maintained a healthy level of confidence without creeping into an unhealthy sense of entitlement, it is easy to get caught up in the “us versus them” mentality that permeates through many independent publishing communities. It is a mentality fed by almost every single subsidy press and POD service, because it specifically discourages authors from following the traditional publishing route for all of the wrong reasons.
No single project on ethics will sway the mind of someone determined to screw over others for personal gain. Thankfully, most people want to do the right thing and want to behave in an ethical manner. But the road is not always clear, and it is easily clouded by unrealistic expectations, a sense of entitlement, and misplaced fears.
Part one of the Author Ethics series begins with a brief overview of ethical theory.
