How could this headline in Good E-Reader not catch your eye?
Very true. However, the vast majority of traditionally published books are also terrible -- Sturgeon's law exempts no-one. Furthermore, reviews in major media outlets have been bought for decades, either overtly, or covertly via the supposition that only works from within the traditional industry are eligible for review.
In other words, self-published works are a lot like traditionally published works. To disparage self-publish works for being so is hypocrisy.
There are a lot of terrible books out, but that doesn't mean that certain ways to get published are not good ways.
I have self published 2 books, and have gotten great feedback. I don't know about buying likes on fb, I wouldn't do something like that.
Sixty years experiencing life's mysteries, five writing, researching, drawing, and editing, allowed a compelling story to emerge. Read my mind, it is a book.
When I talk to groups about self-publishing, my first piece of advice always is to find good editors and proofreaders. I use both, and my suspense series has many fans who keep asking when the next book will be out. On the other hand, I've seen enough unedited trash that justifies the general negative view of self-publishing.
The idea that self-published books are a compendium of trash is not entirely false but many traditionally published books are not any better than some self-published books. Some writers simply choose to self-publish for a niche audience and meet up with a certain necessity especially when the traditional publishing firms are playing 'difficult' to get by. In Nigeria, for instance, many people are self-publishing because the big firms in the industry are becoming conservative. They don't want to wake up to new prospects and take the risks involved in publishing previously unpublished authors. Hence people write and self-publish their books. And these books sell. How? State governments and universities adopt these books into their curricula and students buy them. All self-published books are not trash. A host of them are better than many 'Stephen Kings'.
When I was writing the stories in my collection "Love from Planet Wine Cooler," I wanted the validation I got from editors in the traditional publishing relationship. I wanted someone with authority to tell me my story was a good one.
I published almost all the stories with traditional paper journals, vetted web sites and I won a few contests. When it came time to publish the collection as a book, the publishing houses that were open to reading short stories mostly stopped reading short stories. What was left were small presses who would produce print runs of 200 to 500 copies and weren't willing to pay me at all.
So, I went at it alone. I still struggle with the decision.