Quote:
Originally Posted by mr ploppy
I wonder how many editors rejected Feersum Endjinn?
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0. :-).
That wasn't a first novel, and it's published by exactly the same publishers as the previous and successive (sf) books.
A degree of consistency is important.
I'm sure one could find valid reasons to use homonyms and erroneous grammar in narration. Do it right, justify it, and readers can temporarily adjust their reading protocols. Feersum Endjinn is highly structured: the phonetic voice is very distinct, and it alternates so that only half the chapters are phonetic.
But if the first sentence is borked, there's no framing device, no obvious pattern to the deviations, and it's a cheap self published work, etc - then Bayes says the deviations are due to the author's English, and I think the reader is justified in assuming so after two pages.
Me, I take the view that those sort of mistakes are contagious and I don't want to risk infection.
I sometimes read 'Tales of Mu' (nsfw blogfic), where quite a few typos, missing words and other stuff slips through. But there's a thriving readership, and the author accepts corrections quickly & without comment. I don't get that vibe here (I think it *could* be done, even with a traditional novel & nothing more advanced than a standard free blog / wiki / account, but not simply by publishing on Amazon).