Quote:
Originally Posted by Catlady
I mostly have bought backlist. Most have been relatively recent--last ten years or so--but some are vintage pulp reissues from the thirties, forties, and fifties. Don't know what the process was on those, but they've been just fine--no major errors.
|
Perhaps you found a case of "gives a damn"? If the conversions were done by people who care, or the author cares (and his or her publisher allows him or her to do something about it), there's a much higher chance of a good conversion.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Catlady
My first question is, Did this book have a first-person narrator? If of was used throughout, the author had to have made a specific choice to do that, for whatever reason, and clearly the publisher accepted that choice. Editing it to your liking is just wrong! It's like an author using present tense, and you change it to past tense because you prefer past tense. My second question is, What's the name of the book/author/publisher?
|
No, the book did not have a first-person narrator. It was written third-person with a single POV character. The book was One Second After by William Forstchen and published by Tom Doherty Associates/St. Martins Press/Tor/Forge depending on where you look (they're all the same company, pretty much).
I should've (should of?) read reviews a bit more closely before buying it, as every single one complains about the immature editing, but I was drawn in by the story concept. If it was only internal or external dialogue that had the mistake I would've left it in. If it was an obvious affectation like Cormac McCarthy's lack of punctuation and paragraph-long run-on sentences I would've left it alone. This was very obviously an author who can't write the English language (despite having written 40+ books) with an editor who can't read. Since Barnes & Noble won't accept returns on Nook books, I edited it so I could make it through without poking out my eyes.
Maybe that's wrong, but welcome to the digital world
. I also use Greasemonkey scripts and Stylish user styles and ad blockers in my web browsers, despite that not being how site authors want me to read their web sites.