I was following an author. They last updated their blog over a year ago and indicated the book would be released by Christmas 2019. That was the last update to the blog until a recent update where they made it clear the book was going to be released on Amazon in the near future. That was more than a year later.
The author has done one smart thing; he hired an editor after publishing numerous earlier books. I don’t know if it’s an editor that a copy editor or one that simply addresses plot holes and other inconsistencies.
If I ever go with self-publishing books, the first thing I will do is hire both a copy editor for proofreading and an editor who looks for plot holes and other issues. These are not cheap hires although using something like a hiring service like Fivver may save some money. The reason for self-publishing vs. trying to get a traditional publisher, it’s too hard to find one that will take a new author. Next, as I noticed in various social media groups, the traditional publisher has too much control and keeps most of the money from your book. From the handful of authors who have been picked up by traditional publishers, they were surprised the traditional publisher expected them to market and advertise their own books.
Unfortunately, that’s true of new authors who get picked up by traditional publishers. I know of well-established authors where the traditional publishers don’t bother to have the new books checked for proofread or other errors. They didn’t take the competition seriously when it showed up. By the time they did, it was too late. There are only a handful of traditional publishers out there. One of them only accepts less than 100 new authors per year.
