06-11-2013, 06:43 PM | #46 | |
Maria Schneider
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I really liked Man Who Crossed. I have started something else by Chris Strange and it wasn't my thing. But I did think both books were decently edited and as good as a lot of what is out there. Different tastes, I guess! |
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06-11-2013, 07:13 PM | #47 | |
Grand Sorcerer
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That's not a condemnation of self-publishing. It's just that, at the very least, mainstream publishing books have been through a handful of readers--the agent, the editor, the proofreaders--all of whom had to agree, "this book does not make me want to throw it through a window and then punch out the person who wrote it." There's no comparison. Mainstream books have been through a filter. Sometimes the filter works well; sometimes it fails to block out the stuff it should; it always, at the very least, blocks totally incomprehensible and/or hideously offensive drivel. Mainstream books are full of sentences with subjects and verbs. The run-ons, which they try to avoid, are rarely more than 35 words long. "I" is capitalized except for deliberate, stylistic-choice situations. A character named "Mary" is not called "Marry" in half the dialogue. Self-pub books have *no* filters. So while they have plenty of terrific authors who, for whatever reason, are not going with mainstream publishers, they also have plenty of offerings that *no reader anywhere* thinks are worth spending money on. It's like comparing art gallery paintings to refrigerator art. Sure, some galleries show awful stuff. And some refrigerators host terrific artworks--especially by those people who could also have art careers. But the criteria are so different there's not really any point in directly comparing them, as a group. |
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06-11-2013, 07:31 PM | #48 |
Wizard
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Every time someone talks about all the quality checks that trad pubbed books go through, I think of a Lora Leigh book that came out a few years ago - I forget the title. One of the man characters changes names partway through the book, and a crucial scene was dropped and had to be pubbed on Leigh's blog. Yeah, sure, quality checks.
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06-11-2013, 07:32 PM | #49 |
Grand Sorcerer
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Are you kidding? Editors need to make a living too. Editing isn't a hobby.
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06-11-2013, 07:56 PM | #50 |
Maria Schneider
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06-11-2013, 08:25 PM | #51 | |
You kids get off my lawn!
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I've been happy to buy reissued ebooks that otherwise look self-pubbed, but had originally been through traditional review/editing. |
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06-11-2013, 09:23 PM | #52 | |
Wizard
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Editors like to make a living as well - so many people seem to ignore a simple fact that time is a most valuable commodity and if you want someone to use chunks of it on your behalf then it's not unreasonable for them to expect suitable remuneration... |
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06-11-2013, 11:45 PM | #53 |
Is that a sandwich?
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06-12-2013, 12:41 AM | #54 |
Guru
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Mr. Franklin. Paging Mr. Franklin. Call for you from Mr. Sturgeon. Please pick up the white courtesy phone. Call for you from Mr. Theodore Sturgeon.
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06-12-2013, 07:44 AM | #55 |
Maria Schneider
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I know. I didn't take that wrong. Do you UF at all? For the worst cover ever, but a very good book: Demon Hunter with Baby. Pretty kick-ass. A few typos. I've probably already rec'd Frank Tuttle on here (most of his work is via Samhain, so technically he's not indie. And his work could be considered on the cozier side. Some awesome stuff though. I have turned in a few 'typos' in his stuff; hopefully they have been fixed!) |
06-12-2013, 07:46 AM | #56 | |
The Dank Side of the Moon
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06-12-2013, 08:37 AM | #57 | |
Grand Sorcerer
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06-12-2013, 08:38 AM | #58 | |
Grand Sorcerer
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06-12-2013, 08:43 AM | #59 |
Maria Schneider
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06-12-2013, 08:44 AM | #60 |
Grand Sorcerer
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I read genre romance stories, and tbh whilst I am more than happy with the quality of both publisher and self published stories the majority of readers are too emersed in a love story with hopefully a happy ending to worry too much about grammer. Formatting is a bigger issue as we all want our ebooks to look good on whatever device we have, but grammer we are more forgiving on.
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