Quote:
Originally Posted by pwalker8
How about this. This is a old saying in the sales world, you only get one chance to make a good first impression. Thus IMPO, it behooves an author to make sure that anything they put out is as polished as they can get it.
More to the point of the thread, because of the normal release cycle for name authors (typically Spring and Fall), Summer is when I tend to try out new authors and genres. This summer I've tried authors like Brad Thor, Elizabeth Peters, Holly Black, Victor Kloss, Shae Ford and Taran Mattaru for the first time. Some are established already, some have been around for a long, long time, some are indies. I tried out other authors as well, but those are the ones that I liked well enough to make it through the book. I've given other authors a shot as well during the summer months over the years.
I tried one other author this week based on the recommendation in another thread. This particular author was an indie, IMPO, badly in need of a good editor. Not because there were misspellings and the like, but rather because the writer simply didn't know how to hang a book together. It was like some guy at a bar telling a story, jumping to the punchline without giving enough lead in to make it funny. There was very little set up and the set up was pretty unbelievable. I did finish the story, mostly because there were little nuggets that made me think he has the ability to be a decent writer, but odds are, I'm not going to buy anymore of his books, because unless he polishes up his writing a lot, it's just not worth the effort for me. That's the danger of iterating in public.
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This is all entirely true. Every word of it. I was never arguing the truth of the matter.
Since you brought up interesting points, I'd like to add to your "You can only make one first impression."
You often have to make your own chances. That's going to mean mistakes and some bad efforts. That's just the breaks. The publishing world cannot train and/or edit every writer out there. Sending in a manuscript doesn't guarantee it will be read. Once slots are full everything is sent back as "no thanks" usually without any hint of whether it was read or just rejected. Even if there are a few comments, they can be mere hints.
Getting an agent doesn't mean getting published either. Writing, by its nature, means rewriting. Art of any kind is a learning experience. Some writers keep trying and get better. Some do this via editors. Some keep right on doing the same thing over and over without improving anything.
Thank God I live in a time where I've had a chance to try. The masses of published stuff (indie and otherwise) may not please readers. That's just the nature of the business. It's very similar to art and music in that respect.
I only made my earlier statement because the truth of all this is known and not every thread has to beat a dead horse. Also, I love Elizabeth Peters, but she has some bizarre works out there. And she definitely improved over time with her writing, especially when she found her niche. She was trad all the way (except possibly for one of her non-fiction Egyptology books. I'm not sure about that one.) Her growth and her collection of works is an inspiration to anyone who takes the time to study how her writing changed over the years.