Don't be that guy!

Last night while most of America was watching Eli kick Tom's ass, I was half watching Super Bowl (whatever number we're on) and catching up on my favorite blogs.  I also was looking for some new ways to cross promote and get my 3 books more exposure when I came across a blog post that I thought was going to be relatively interesting and one of those "we're in this together" posts.

Boy, was I wrong.

Granted, the author started off talking about how great being an indie author is and how tight the community is but then WHAM! The second paragraph became a bash fest for those indie authors (like myself) who sell their books for 99 cents.

Apparently, according this blogger/indie author, those who sell at 99 cents or OMG!!! give their books away FREE for a few days are just part time writers who just write for fun and do not understand the importance of editing, cover art, etc, because after all, we're only doing this as a hobby.

Excuse my French but I call bullshit!

It would be a complete waste of time to defend why I sell at 99 cents.  I'll let my Bestseller status speak for itself, but come on, one of the best things about being indie is the community of Indie Authors who are supportive of each other and work together to take the publishing industry by storm.

Don't be that guy who feels that because you paid a cover artist and an editor a shit-ton of money, you have to criticize other authors.

That's just not cool.

We all work hard, even the authors who write for fun and give away their books.  Sure, some books are better than others but that only applies to the books.

NO ONE IS BETTER THAN ANYONE ELSE!

Plain and simple.  Because at the end of the day, we're people and who are you to say that you're better than me because you charge $3.99 for your book and I charge 99 cents for mine?

There should be a standing rule in the Indie author community..."Thou Shalt Not Bash Other Indie Authors".  You should have to agree to those terms before hitting publish on KDP.

It's okay to feel that you wrote a better book or novella than someone else and it's absolutely okay to have an opinion on the whole 99 cent pricing thing...I don't know an author who doesn't have an opinion on any and/or everything.  But when you're opinion is put forth in such a way that puts down another person's hard work...well, just don't do that.  Find a better, less meaner way to get your point across.

In layman's terms...

Don't be a douche.