Go get a kick in the butt from Wendig

"Let’s just say it now and say it proud, trumpeting it so loudly that You All The Way In The Back can hear: this should be the year that self-publishers take responsibility. For themselves and their work as well as the larger body of DIY work existing out there in the world. Let this be the year that indie writers step into Thunderdome armed to the teeth with all the best weapons and armor. (Instead of, say, a mop handle “sword” and a flak jacket made from Schlitz cans.) Let this be the year that you do the work and take the time to get your books up to speed so that self-published books become indistinguishable from any other book on the shelf. Because, let’s be honest: 8 times out of 10 you can spot a self-published book a mile away.

Let this be the year that self-publishing serves readers as much as it serves writers."

Chuck Wendig spends some words kicking the butts of us self publishers. He wants 2012 to be the year we start thinking about the readers. He makes lots of great points. There were several quotes I wanted to pull. There's a bit about self publishing being an insular world that I couldn't have agreed with more.

I left the post excited and inspired. There's so much that self-publishers can do, but it's going to take us thinking differently. Thinking about innovating. Thinking about the responsibility we have. We can't just pat ourselves on our backs for going the "indie" route. 

What I copied above is just the nut graph. Go read the rest for yourself. Be warned, though. Chuck writes this in the way that only he can so watch out for the dirty, dirty words.