Are self-published books any good? Part 3

The Self-Published Novels

I have now read through all of the self-published samples and the verdicts are below. I’ll also post a summary of the results shortly.

Lexi Revellian – Remix

What a place to start! In terms of quality of writing, Remix is indistinguishable from a professionally published novel. Quirky, cosy and instantly likeable, the plot skated along, never faltering and managing to pull off a neat balance between originality and familiarity. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it
I’m not sure it was quite as good as the sample for Room, but it was close. I’ve bought the full book and would have done so even if it was 10 times the 49p price tag.

Lauren Burd - Immortal

After Remix gave me confidence in self-publishing, Immortal brought me crashing back down to earth. It was so bad I couldn't even finish the sample. Bursting with superfluous detail (we're told the main character's every movement, brushing her teeth, brushing her hair, lifting her bag...) and repetitive, cliched descriptions (everyone has ivory skin), this confirmed all my worst fears about self-published novels. There were also a litany of embarrassing spelling and grammatical errors. I gave up after reading 'faux pa'.

CS Marks – Elfhunter

Elfhunter is an unashamedly derivative fantasy, but one that is no worse than many of the professionally published tomes on the market. Alongside its imitation Tolkien setting, it suffers from some clunky sentences and the author’s eagerness to fill the reader in on the world’s history in the first few pages, but these are faults that are common across the genre and Elfhunter was certainly charming in places.
I read a lot of this kind of thing years ago, but not so much any more and there was nothing in this sample that really grabbed my attention. I imagine it would appeal to a lot of people, but it isn’t one for me.

Ali Cooper – The Girl on the Swing

After the two previous self-published mis-hits, my confidence was beginning to waver. However, the excellent Girl on the Swing has gone a long way to restore it. From the evidence of this sample, this past-life drama is elegantly written and expertly crafted and I got so lost in the story that coming to the abrupt end of the sample gave me a bit of a jolt.
Like Remix, this is easily better than most of the Booker contenders and is another self-publishing success. I'm keen to read the rest of the novel as I really want to know how this pans out.

Patsy Whyte – No Easy Road

Despite its listing in Amazon’s fiction section, this is actually an autobiography, albeit one with a very novelistic style. Whyte’s writing is very vivid and she creates strong images in the reader’s mind. Even just the few chapters of the sample were moving and insightful and I felt privileged that Whyte had chosen to be so open about her harrowing life.
This is not the type of thing that I would normally read, so I don’t think I’ll be buying the full book, but I’d certainly recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading ‘triumph over adversity’ true-life stories.

Kenneth Rosenberg – No Cure for the Broken-Hearted

I had fairly high hopes for this one as it was the highest-ranking self-published book that I selected from Amazon. Sadly, I was disappointed. For me, the writing in the sample was fairly pedestrian and lacked the wit or sparkle necessary to drive a romantic novel. Compounding this, the text was also hampered by basic grammatical errors, such as ‘principle’ for ‘principal’.
Not something I would recommend, but may be an enjoyable read for someone who doesn’t want anything too demanding and is willing to ignore the grammar.