When it became easy to publish, people published crap. Buckets and boatloads of it. A gate was opened, which was previously closed to just anyone dreaming of becoming a published author. Whether because of budget or ignorance, people published within days of finishing writing and screamed from the rooftops, “Look at me, I’m published!”

The public did not react well. Paying similar prices for books untouched by experienced professionals and for their favorite best sellers equally often resulted in scathing permanent consumer review public records, dooming that sales listing. Indie published books quickly became widely known for, and disregarded as, unreadable because of the reputation established just from that initial flood of unprofessionally published books. That reputation continues to fester in large part because people are still flooding the marketplace with crap. It is much better than it was and with Amazon’s preview mode, a well packaged indie book has a…