GAH!!!!! What is it editing these days? The NCP Awful Editing Virus is spreading like wildfire. Siren is completely infected. Even Samhain has fallen victim. I’m reading less from Ellora’s Cave, but I’ve seen the beginnings there as well. Top that off with an ebook that had so many issues and I’m disgusted with the killer combination of higher prices and lower quality! Just thinking about the prices these books will command in print makes me cringe.
In the last two weeks “…. he raised his hand to touch her check…”, then ” …… her interest was peaked..”, and ” …… lieing on the bed…” – no, I did not just make these up. And here I thought “….imminently well qualified ….” was bad. Who knew? I am flexible on things like blogs, forums, journals, etc. I mean, who has time to polish these things? But the authors of these grammatical atrocities are professional writers – and more to point, asking me to PAY to read this stuff. When I part with my hard earned money, especially in these tighter financial times, I deeply resent the disrespect that publishers and authors are showing readers by allowing such sloppy work to enter the marketplace. The works read like unedited final drafts. Messy and unpolished. I’m left with a distinct sense of the author being too rushed and the publisher completely uncaring. Worse still, these were from established, well regarded, popular, authors. Are they trading on their names? I only tolerate that so far and stop buying. Believe me, there a long list of authors that I no longer buy automatically – ebook and print.
When I’m getting charged increasingly higher prices for shorter and shorter works, bad editing and higher prices become a killer combination. It’s bad enough that too many stories lack imagination and just regurgitate old themes and characters over and over, now the simple mechanics are being allowed to erode to the point where they actually interfere with the flow of the story? No, let’s add egregious editing errors into the mix! They are a tremendous distraction, and very insulting. If you want top dollar for your product, I expect quality in return. With prices of ebooks at the small publishers rapidly out pacing mass market paperbacks in escalating cost, while quality is falling short in so many easily correctable areas, the incentive to continue reading them is evaporating. Seriously, how many ways can you have sex before the whole thing passes from hot to just plain boring – or worse, laughable? Yes, it’s erotic romance – romantica if you prefer, not great literature, but come on, I deserve better than this!
Like most people who are lifelong readers, I enjoy the flow of words and ideas. Quality writing is a joy to read. I have never begrudged the money I’ve spent on books, and I spend thousands each year. A book is something I can enjoy again and again each time I read it. Joining PBS has prompted me to buy more books, not less, despite getting plenty of books through them as well. I’ve found a lot of authors I might otherwise never have tried and read books I’d never heard of before. My friends on Goodreads have added even more titles for my wish list. As bad as the quality of print books have gotten, and there is no question that both mechanics and plot/writing are suffering with many popular authors, ebooks are on a steeper downward quality slide.
I always used to say, not all readers write, but all writers read. We learn to speak and express our ideas through our command of language. Is there a more important skill than this? The clarity and definition of ideas and concepts are passed from generation to generation through the written word. That we should treat this most important method of communicating and preserving our ideas with such cavalier disrespect is little short of criminal. We are raising a generation unable to communicate. Language can bring us together or keep us apart and we taking the voice from people and dumbing it down to new lows. What a sad heritage we’re leaving. A generation that can text but not write and can’t be bothered to read. No wonder there’s such frustration. They have never developed the tools they need to express themselves. And heaven knows with what passes for quality writing these days, they stand little hope of learning them.
- Title: The Valkyrie
- Author: Mandy M Roth
- Type: Urban fantasy
- Genre: First person tale of redemption and resurection
- Sub-genre: Supernatural loses her memory and but finds her soul
- My Grade: C+ (3.5)
- Rating: PG-13
- Length and price: Short Novel, category – about 50,000 words for $4.50 (10% for short time)
- Where Available: ebook available on the Samhain site
- FTC Disclosure: purchased book from publisher’s site
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