Last week I posted how many self-published books often come up short. Comments from two self-published authors chimed in to say something I also mentioned, that there is good stuff out there among the self-published. To that end, I’m going to make a semi-regular series on those occasions when I find a self-published book I actually enjoy.
And just for the record, my criteria for this is basically, “Was I entertained as I read this?”
Man, there are people online who will make zombies out of anything.
I received my Kindle Fire as Christmas gift from my in-laws in 2011. As a person who reads quite a bit and lives in a one-bedroom apartment with my wife, it was a great gift, a real space-saver, especially since I had to give away maybe three quarters of my book collection when we moved from New Jersey to New York state for my job. Being able to fit a massive library in a single device was a godsend. And since it came from Amazon, I was able to use it to buy books directly from them. Initially, I went for their free stuff, that being public domain works, many of which were quite rewarding, like the first of Edgar Rice Burrows’ John Carter novels. I was a wee bit wary of buying too many books, since the device made buying them so easy, and many looked to cost about ten dollars each. That adds up after a while. So while looking around, I found a book that sounded interesting that would cost me a whopping $1.99. It was called Alice in Deadland, and it promised to be a story mixing zombies with the 19th century children’s classic Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
Hey, Alice was my favorite book as a kid, and I do enjoy the occasional zombie novel. What could go wrong? A lot, apparently. The book wasn’t terribly good. Mostly it was terrible. Not only does Amazon make it easier to buy books, it makes it easier for people to self-publish books. These books tend to be cheap, and, you generally get what you pay for.
