In defence of indie authors

There is unfortunately a down by many people (including a few indie authors) who will always go out of there way to bring a fellow hard working indie author down. I find it quite sad that these authors spark off about other authors, when in actual fact their own work badly needs professional editing and proofreading. This attitude does pull the indie market down. In my opinion it's a case of people in glass houses, should never throw stones.

I would never criticise a fellow author ever. I think to do it on an open forum is plain wrong. I would definitely not give them advice in a review. That is not the idea of reviews! Why on earth continue to read a book if the editing is that bad? I know I would return it for a refund. Anyway, you normally take a sample and that gives you a good idea of the book, editing and story line. 
I've even known people give a review on a sample. I don't think I would ever do that. It isn't fair to the author. You need to read a good percentage of the book to get a real feel of it. 
No matter how well meaning you are, unless you are a professional editor in every way, and by this I mean fully qualified with papers to prove it, I think it's best to keep silent. Or at the very least email your thoughts to (after all that's all they are) the author privately. As readers we're asked to critique the book content, not give advice about editing.

I'm fairly sure I would complain about poor formatting in a Kindle book, but nothing else. After all as I mentioned it's so easy to return a book nowadays, why bother to read something your just not enjoying? It's rather strange to say the least. Authors will soon realise something is wrong if they have a high percentage of their book returned.

I do know an excellent proofreaders and editor. If anyone wants contact details please email me. 

There are still a few self-published authors who churn out badly written, unedited books, but they soon become known for it, and no-one will buy from them in the future.

I will admit it took me a long time to find a good proofreader, I'm so glad that I persisted in my search. I try my hardest to get it right for readers, after all the reader is the most important person. It is all about pride in your work.

As far as traditional publishing goes I have found that the standard of many books is slipping, it’s the same with magazines. I think it is a sign of the times. It is a little discouraging when you have looked forward to reading a book to find it doesn't come up to the standard of yesteryear. There again does anything nowadays!

Seriously, nowadays it doesn't really matter how your book is published as long as it has an excellent story line, and is well edited. In other words a book needs to be a page turner to hold a reader’s interest.

I can't recommend any self-published books as I now read traditional published books. Only because I can buy them far cheaper (loss leaders). Indie books unfortunately are quite high priced. At the moment I prefer reading paperback books to e books. I will go through my files and find the titles of some of the indie books I have enjoyed in the past.