Why editing and proofreading is important
When you're publishing your own work, whether online or on Kindle, there's always a chance that some mistakes will slip though. It's human nature - when you work on something for a while, going the same passages over and ever and editing them to sound just right, you tend to ignore smaller stuff. That is why editors are important. They look at the text with fresh eyes, and because they're supposed to notice both the big stuff and the smaller stuff, they're much more likely to catch it.
(That lesson was driven home to me not that long ago when I posted " Stranger Things Happened" without running it by anyone - only to have phoenix_anew e-mailing me to kindly point out all the typos and grammar mistakes I've made)
Writers who are published by actual publishers - whether they're "traditional" or eBook publishers - weren't supposed to have this problem. Publishers have editors and proofreaders whose job is to make sure all the minor kinks are ironed out.
Emphasis on "supposed to."
corrinalaw is a journalist and a writer whose superhero romance books were published by eBook publisher Samheim Press. I originally found out about her through 79semifinalist's Twitter feed. I liked her articles and blog postings. I've read parts of one of her debut superhero romance book - Phoenix Rising. And while the book wasn't without flaws, it struck me as a basically enjoyable, solidly written series. So when corrinalaw posted an excerpt from her follow-up to Phoenix Rising on her blog, I was looking forward to reading it.
But when I did, my first thought was... Well, this is just plain unpolished.
And that's what kills me. The issues it has are minor. An editor should have caught those on the first read-through. But he or she didn't - and we get a fragment that looks not quite ready for release. The fact that the segment was posted to promote a giveaway of the book makes that especially unfortunate.
I've been wondering how to respond to it. I was originally going to comment, but the blog doesn't allow comments unless you have a log-in. And livejournal makes it much easier to format text without remembering all the nitti-gritty HTML. So I figured I'd post the whole text here, with my comments and corrections in red.
Still haven't decided if I was going to share it with Lawson (though, depending on her LJ settings, me using her account name could send out an alert... I'll cross that bridge when I come to it).
According to the original blog entry, this is the first meeting between the main characters, Dee and Phillip. The story picks up from Dee's point of view.
There was one unfamiliar face, though it was hard to get a look at him from this far away. All she could tell was that he had a thick shock of dark hair and that he was nicely built. She judged him to be about six feet tall. He wore jeans, boots and a short blue coat that showed off strong shoulders. From the possessive way he gestured at the Charger, he must had to be the driver. [Changed to maintain tense consistency]
Tall, dark and handsome man walks into a bar. She smiled. Sometimes clichés did come true. She could use a night of staring at someone like that. The distraction would be welcome, after today, just so long as he wasn’t arrogant, like Genet. She hoped the stranger had restored the car himself rather than buying it as a toy. That would mean he was a real mechanic, not somebody out for a joyride in his new toy. [Redundant, given the previous sentence]
Del opened the window and leaned out. The fall breeze blew her hair in her face and she had to push it aside to see. “Are you going to all spend the night in the parking lot drooling over that car?”
Jessica laughed. “It’s not just the car I’m drooling over!”
“Well, bring him inside and buy him a drink instead of staring at him in the parking lot! I need paying customers!”
The car’s owner looked up at her. Del still couldn’t see his features clearly [inserted because, without it, the passage is redundant, as it doesn't establish anything we haven't leaned earlier] , but there was something familiar about the way he focused his attention on her. At first, she thought, “cop”, but that wasn’t it. Intense, she thought, despite the fact he was standing there calmly. She took a deep breath as her face grew warm. Oh, my. No wonder Jessica was drooling over him. He had presence, much like his car.
The passage does a good job of introducing the male lead, establishing the attraction between him and the female lead. Dee's interest in cars informs her perception, which helps develop and define her character. But those small and easily fixable issues take away from the passage's strengths. Just a little bit. And it doesn't have to be this way.
(That lesson was driven home to me not that long ago when I posted " Stranger Things Happened" without running it by anyone - only to have phoenix_anew e-mailing me to kindly point out all the typos and grammar mistakes I've made)
Writers who are published by actual publishers - whether they're "traditional" or eBook publishers - weren't supposed to have this problem. Publishers have editors and proofreaders whose job is to make sure all the minor kinks are ironed out.
Emphasis on "supposed to."
corrinalaw is a journalist and a writer whose superhero romance books were published by eBook publisher Samheim Press. I originally found out about her through 79semifinalist's Twitter feed. I liked her articles and blog postings. I've read parts of one of her debut superhero romance book - Phoenix Rising. And while the book wasn't without flaws, it struck me as a basically enjoyable, solidly written series. So when corrinalaw posted an excerpt from her follow-up to Phoenix Rising on her blog, I was looking forward to reading it.
But when I did, my first thought was... Well, this is just plain unpolished.
And that's what kills me. The issues it has are minor. An editor should have caught those on the first read-through. But he or she didn't - and we get a fragment that looks not quite ready for release. The fact that the segment was posted to promote a giveaway of the book makes that especially unfortunate.
I've been wondering how to respond to it. I was originally going to comment, but the blog doesn't allow comments unless you have a log-in. And livejournal makes it much easier to format text without remembering all the nitti-gritty HTML. So I figured I'd post the whole text here, with my comments and corrections in red.
Still haven't decided if I was going to share it with Lawson (though, depending on her LJ settings, me using her account name could send out an alert... I'll cross that bridge when I come to it).
According to the original blog entry, this is the first meeting between the main characters, Dee and Phillip. The story picks up from Dee's point of view.
There was one unfamiliar face, though it was hard to get a look at him from this far away. All she could tell was that he had a thick shock of dark hair and that he was nicely built. She judged him to be about six feet tall. He wore jeans, boots and a short blue coat that showed off strong shoulders. From the possessive way he gestured at the Charger, he must had to be the driver. [Changed to maintain tense consistency]
Tall, dark and handsome man walks into a bar. She smiled. Sometimes clichés did come true. She could use a night of staring at someone like that. The distraction would be welcome, after today, just so long as he wasn’t arrogant, like Genet. She hoped the stranger had restored the car himself rather than buying it as a toy. That would mean he was a real mechanic, not somebody out for a joyride in his new toy. [Redundant, given the previous sentence]
Del opened the window and leaned out. The fall breeze blew her hair in her face and she had to push it aside to see. “Are you going to all spend the night in the parking lot drooling over that car?”
Jessica laughed. “It’s not just the car I’m drooling over!”
“Well, bring him inside and buy him a drink instead of staring at him in the parking lot! I need paying customers!”
The car’s owner looked up at her. Del still couldn’t see his features clearly [inserted because, without it, the passage is redundant, as it doesn't establish anything we haven't leaned earlier] , but there was something familiar about the way he focused his attention on her. At first, she thought, “cop”, but that wasn’t it. Intense, she thought, despite the fact he was standing there calmly. She took a deep breath as her face grew warm. Oh, my. No wonder Jessica was drooling over him. He had presence, much like his car.
The passage does a good job of introducing the male lead, establishing the attraction between him and the female lead. Dee's interest in cars informs her perception, which helps develop and define her character. But those small and easily fixable issues take away from the passage's strengths. Just a little bit. And it doesn't have to be this way.