Free book (Kindle UK) Strictly Come Dancing: Shimmer [Media Tie-In Novelization]

[ATDrake]

Strictly Shimmer is what the actual title of Amanda Roberts' media tie-in novel seems to be, judging from the cover art and copyright page. This of course, ties into the popular reality TV show and is free courtesy of publisher HarperCollins.

Currently free @ Amazon UK. I would not expect to see this elsewhere as this is HC's UK division and I think people in the States watch a different dancing competition show?

(after reading the description) Either this is the most self-insertiest self-insert fic I have ever seen actually published, or "Amanda Roberts" is a totally made-up media personality like those "Castle" series of tie-in mysteries to go with the TV show.

Description
A 100% official Strictly Come Dancing novel, featuring the dancers, stars and judges you love!What if an ordinary girl's Strictly dreams became a glittering reality?

Meet Amanda Roberts: a production runner on the set of Strictly Come Dancing, desperate to fit into the world of the dazzling and the beautiful. And when she discovers all the backstage drama, Amanda wonders if she is tough enough to survive.

But then things start to change…And incredibly she finds more GLITZ, more MAGIC and more ROMANCE than she could possibly have imagined.

Prepare to be dazzled as you tango into the glamour and mayhem of the world behind the glitter ball. PREPARE TO BE SHIMMERED!

[koland]

Not very good reviews (although an upcoming novel did pretty well).

Free on iTunes for those in the UK: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/stri...07168065?mt=11

[ATDrake]

Just as well that it's free, then. Mind you, one of the reviews does point out that it contains inadvertent entertainment value for the easily amused Gentle Reader.

[koland]

I went outside of Amazon to find reviews (and try to figure out if the author was supposed to be a real person - it appears that it is).

http://strictlycomeblogging.blogspot...rictly+Shimmer - summary: not bad, full of errors. "This is sloppy and made me feel more negative about a mediocre book."

http://tv.uk.msn.com/blog/strictly-c...f11b31&_nwpt=1 (this person liked Chance, which is another based on the show : "The book struck me as a rush-job plagued with grammatical errors, spelling mistakes and too closely based on the actual show to carry off its own story."

[ATDrake]

And they charge $8.96 USD for this quality probably-ghostwritten* product to Canadians, too. We appear to have no tsk-tsk headshaking smiley, so I'll just use this one -->

So much for publishers being the gateway filter to less amateurish and better-made books.

* I may be needlessly maligning the ghostwriter profession here.

With that many grammatical and plot and character-naming errors in the text, it seems entirely possible that the novel really was done by a low-ranking production assistant with no writing experience whatsoever who managed to get a lucky break, because a professional ghostwriter would presumably have more pride in their work and a higher standard of actual writing, one would hope.

[koland]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

With that many grammatical and plot and character-naming errors in the text, it seems entirely possible that the novel really was done by a low-ranking production assistant with no writing experience whatsoever who managed to get a lucky break, because a professional ghostwriter would presumably have more pride in their work and a higher standard of actual writing, one would hope.

I would hope so.

Then again, I've suffered thru some very, very badly written books (by big name authors), full of typos and grammatical errors, in addition to the other flaws.

I still think Patriots was one of the worst I've forced myself to read (I gave it a horrible review and the publisher sent me the sequel ... in hardcover, yet ... ).