Awards

Sometime ago, I reviewed a novel. This book had been accepted for publication; in fact, was in the final stages of editing and shortly going to be published. The author was someone with a long impressive list of books published by various Internet publishers. I was truly surprised by what I read. It was what I consider a second draft in need of considerable work. The story had problems like not clearly setting the scene and changing the nature of characters half way through the story. There were lots of typographical and spelling errors, including correctly-spelled-wrong-words. I was amazed that the publisher had accepted it for publication. Certainly the basic story had strong potential, but in my opinion, the version I read was nowhere near ready for publication.

That’s the problem today. It’s far too easy to publish books. At least with “mainstream print publishers,” there was a level of professionalism. Now, my 9-year-old-grandson can turn out a beautifully printed, even illustrated book, with all of his mis-spellings and poor grammar. I’m not saying that all books published by the mainstream publishers are worth reading or that all Internet published books are poorly written. Not at all. Internet publishers have opened the doors to many talented writers who found New York doors closed and in doing so have expanded the boundaries for writers and readers alike. I am saying though, just the fact that a book has been published is no longer a guarantee of quality.

I struggled to write a review that reflected the situation honestly and afterward considered what to do about the problem. We reviewers have a even more important role than we had before. Before we wrote about whether we liked a book or not. Now, we also need to let the readers know the quality of the published work. “Self-published” scares people away because we have visions of poorly spelled, poorly written, unedited books, that no publisher wants. That may not be the case. Even when there is an actual publisher and the work is edited, quality standards vary among the Independent Publishers.

I decided we need a new rating system that rates the professionalism, the quality of the book, that can promote those books, whether self-published or published by Internet publishers or small press print publishers, that live up to a standard of quality, and can warn readers of those who don’t.

The Q Awards

The Starred Q means that this independent published book is of the quality expected of a New York publisher.

The Q means this book meets the minimum standards. It may have some writing defects, a few copy editing problems, but is worth reading.

The Red Typo warns readers that book doesn't meet the minimum quality standards. Poor writing or poor editing.

I hope this helps.

Reviewers are welcome to employ this rating system.