There's a thread the indie authors at the KDP Forum have been watching. It's a Kindle thread about hating indie authors - and no, I'm not linking it here. Some of the posters are hoping that Amazon will ban indie writers. I doubt that will happen, not just because Amazon makes a lot of money from indies, but because I think Amazon realizes that a varied marketplace is the best fit for a varied world.
Some folks like indies and some don't. That's fine. If you don't like indie authors, you shouldn't buy our work. Fair enough. I have no right to force my indie books on someone who prefers traditionally published work. But banning indies? The group has no more right to deprive others who like indie work of it than I do to force them to read it. Respect is a two-way street folks.
But reading that thread and then reading some of the reader comments on some of my work have caused me to go back and check a couple of things. There are comments talking about grammatical errors and misspellings through a couple of my books. I'll fess up to needing to fix Brotherly Love in which I kept spelling lose (as in my mind) with loose (as in my accounting methods).
But the other books referenced? There's a comment talking about all the typos and spelling errors in A Golden Forever. I ran back over that one, and couldn't find the errors. However, I ran across several sections where I'd used colloquial phrases or people who spoke differently. In those sections the spelling is different. But I really know that scared isn't spelled scairt. I just spelled it the way the character spoke.
There are a bunch of places where I write the way the work flows and sometimes that's not grammatically correct. But my B.A. is in English. I underestand grammar and (mostly) I even remember the rules when I write. But I don't let 'em fence me in. Sometimes. I don't like. Fences, rules or people who. Avidly. Support. Either.
There are surely misspellings in my work. But I'm going to make it my mission to re-edit everything and to run it through a neat site that checks spelling, grammar, style and punctuation. I've made enough on my e-books to finance that, and I'll do it because I don't want any of my "human errors" to keep people from enjoying my books.
Having said all that, I realize that there are readers who won't like my work for reasons as wide and as varied as today's virtual bookshelves. Most of the time I write over the top and take it way past what readers anticipate or expect. For stretches in my books a lot of the "action" is internal - a conflict a character is having with himself or herself. I enjoy mind hopping. It's one of the reasons I read romance instead of watching it on TV - I don't just want to know what happenned, I want to know why it happenned. Why it HAD to happen.
Some readers don't like it as far over the top as I write it. Fair enough. Some readers love the trip and email me asking about the next journey. Love that. I'm gonna do the additional editing I can do and then have ErrNET follow behind to catch what I miss. But the editing site will see some style choices as errors and I'll disagree and leave them in, just as they are. The style has to stay true to the work.
There are people who don't like any indie work. Others just don't like my work. And there are some wild, free spirited readers who'll go over the top with me and yell because I didn't take 'em higher. You'll forgive me if I'm just a bit more partial to the last group.
Fences can only confine you if you stay on the ground and refuse to climb to see how high you might go. And if you keep climbing, you might get to the top and jump off to find that you can fly. I'll meet you there - flying over rules and reality, over borders and boundaries, past can't and must.
If you're grounded in reality and rooted by rules, then my work isn't for you. You won't like it no matter how it's edited or formatted. If you're a dreamer who opens a new reality with each book then you might like the view from over the top. I'm always happy to fly with readers who have spirits big enough and open enough and wise enough to know that limits are only figments of our imagination.