The Reader’s Perspective on Self-Published & Professionally Published E-Books

I’ve been reading a lot of e-books lately, both self-published and professionally published, and a number of these were novellas. While the stories were all engrossing and well-constructed, there were some issues in editing.

Now, I’m a stickler for correct usage and spelling, so when I spot a misused word, it bothers me because catching those mistakes is the editor’s job, whether that editor is hired by the author or by the publisher.

Not all authors are good at spelling even though they are darn good at story-telling. Still, there are usage guides available in print and online to help authors catch those common errors and learn to avoid them. Even then, some mistakes will inevitably slip by. That’s where the editor/proofreader should provide the safety net. I expect to find occasional errors in self-published work, especially that for which the author didn’t hire an editor or proofreader, but one would think the professional publishers would hire editors who keep the guides handy on their desks/computer work stations. Not all of them apparently do because in addition to common misspellings like to for too and alter for altar, I’ve seen sentences with words missing and characters’ names that changed spelling from page to page.

I’ve also seen formatting issues, for instance blank lines between paragraphs. Now this does make for faster page turns, but fewer words on the screen makes me feel somewhat cheated, as if the novella somehow has fewer words overall than promised. That’s probably not true, but marketing is as much about perception as reality.

Another odd situation in one professionally published novella was the fact the title story actually comprised only 80% of the book (according to my Kindle’s book progress indicator). The remaining 20% was promo pages for at least five additional works offered by the publisher. Now, I fully expect publishers to put sample pages at the back of books, and I sometimes am intrigued enough to look for the upcoming book, but 20% of the book devoted to promo seemed a bit over the top. Plus, I thought I still had more story left, according to the meter.

None of these little peculiarities caused me to stop reading (other than to comment to my DH about a word misuse) or to enjoy the actual story any less. All of these authors told page-turning stories, but these little “blips” do pull the reader out of the story even if for a fraction of a second.

If you’ve had experiences with this sort of thing, please share. What’s come to your attention lately?

New Refrigerator Adjustments—Don’t Bump Your Head and Hang onto the Rag!

We’ve had our new refrigerator for a month, and I’ve discovered on the drawback side that it has one fewer shelf and only two produce drawers instead of the three the old one had. I’m still trying to figure out the best spacing for the shelves. On the plus side, it has much more door shelf space and the shelves in the body are deeper. I can put much more in the door, but I have a hard time finding space for bags of salad and stalks of celery. But these are the adjustments one expects with a new model. However, there are some unexpected adjustments (lessons) too.

Lesson #1: Don’t bump your head.

The outer door handles stick out farther, and we’ve both bumped our heads and/or shoulders on the freezer door while trying to put in or take out things from the fridge section.

Lesson #2: Hold onto the rag when dusting!

My DH insists on dusting/vacuuming the space between the fridge and the cabinet. This new fridge fits tighter to the cabinet and there’s no more than an inch of space there, but he insisted on cleaning there as usual. I told him, “Use a rag draped over a yardstick, and hang onto the rag.”

My DH heard the first part but not the second, so when I came home, he had the rag stuck way back in the narrow space and was prepared to pull out the fridge to remove it. Now the last thing I wanted to do at 7 p.m. was pull out a fridge that fit perfectly where it was, so I applied my creative problem-solving skills, opened a wire coat hanger, shaped it into a stick with a hook on the end, and pulled out the rag.

While my solution may have looked brilliant, I assured him it was born of experience, having “lost a rag” myself more than once. Which leads me to the final lesson…

Lesson #3: If someone wants to clean, let him.

Hope you’re all having a wonderful new year!

‘Tis the season for...chocolate!

I confess—I love chocolate. But I’m also something of a chocolate snob these days. If I’m going to eat chocolate, I want it to be real chocolate, not the imitation stuff that fills Easter baskets and Christmas stockings. Those chocolate bunnies? Forget it. And don’t even get me started on that thing called “white chocolate.” I don’t mind carob-coated raisins; they’re actually quite good in snack packs. But if a product’s not chocolate, it shouldn’t be labeled as such.

I’m not even sure that artificial stuff has the same benefits. For instance, real chocolate is a mood elevator. Does the fake stuff have enough of the active ingredient that makes us feel better? I doubt it. No wonder we feel so icky after being conned into eating it.

When I was a kid, I happily scarfed down chocolate bunnies and Santas because, hey, it was candy. Now, though, in this era of “healthy” dark chocolate, I’ve discovered the world of Dove and Bliss. They’re mainstream products, so I’m not truly a snob in the sense my chocolate has to be expensive. However, it definitely has to taste like the real thing. If it has some caramel or truffle or coconut in it, so much the better. And if someone really wants to make me happy, stuff my dark chocolate with some marzipan.

What’s your chocolate preference? Are you particular about the kind of chocolate you like?

"The Next Big Thing" Blog Tour

I’ve had the pleasure of being tagged for “The Next Big Thing” Blog tour by two talented fellow romance authors,

Mary Hughes: http://maryhughesbooks.blogspot.com/

and Val Clarizo: http://valclarizio.wordpress.com/

They are both working on exciting projects, so be sure to link back to their websites to see their Next Big Thing posts after reading mine.  I’m excited to share what I’ve been working on.

Ten Interview Questions for “The Next Big Thing”:

 

What is your working title of your book?

Bloodstone

Where did the idea come from for the book?

From a fairy tale and a myth:  Beauty and the Beast & Cupid and Psyche.  I also have visited many ruined fortresses in the United Kingdom, and the Rock of Cashel in Ireland (pictured here) is partly the source of inspiration for the ruined fortress Drakkonwehr.  Also much of the story  takes place in a forested no-man’s land called the Wehrland.

 

What genre does your book fall under?

 Fantasy Romance

 

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

 

My hero, the Shadow Man, is completely shrouded in black—face and all—for almost all the story, so any male actor with an athletic physique that would look good in form-hugging black clothing and who could handle a sword would do. Emma Watson with her “Hermoine hair” has the right spunk, athleticism, and courageous determination that Mirianna has.

 

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

To save her father Mirianna promises the Shadow Man she’ll do "anything," but the beastly, insensitive creature needs her heart, freely given, and all her courage to help him defeat the mage who cursed him.

 

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

Hopefully it will find a home with a publisher.

 

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

A good 6 years.  I got diverted halfway in by my first book THE PRINCE OF VAL-FEYRIDGE being published and all that involved, and then I got stuck at the turning point until I had a brainstorm that unlocked the rest of the story.

 

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

Kathleen Eagle’s THE NIGHT REMEMBERS has a similar theme but in a contemporary setting.  Honestly, I try to avoid making comparisons, but I’ve been told my first book, which I think of as a Cinderella-type story, resembles GAME OF THRONES while BLOODSTONE is very much a beauty-and-the-beast romance combined with the legend of a guardian holding back evil and an unraveling spell that the characters have to race against.

 

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

I’ve always been fascinated by the Cupid and Psyche tale where a beautiful but lonely girl is carried away by a creature she is forbidden to look upon and who she initially believes to be a monster.  It’s a story about how love develops when appearance isn’t a factor in the attraction.  And it’s also a story about accepting oneself, flaws and all.

 

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

There’s magic, petrified dragon’s blood, and a mysterious she-lion I very much enjoyed creating.

Now that I’ve had all the fun talking about my book, I’m passing the torch to the five authors I’m tagging.  Please visit these blogs and see what “The Next Big Thing” is coming from them:

Eve James: http://eveajamesauthor.wordpress.com

Kayla Griffith:  http://writings.kaylagriffith.net

Anne Parent:  www.anneparent.com

Steve Mitchell:  http://scmitchell.wordpress.com/

Renee Wildes:  http://reneewildes1.wordpress.com/

Books that have influenced me—

THE WIZARD OF EARTHSEA by Ursula LeGuin

I don’t remember how I encountered this short fantasy novel, but its theme speaks to me. LeGuin is a masterful writer, creating the world of Earthsea out of nothing but her imagination and filling it with beautifully described places and vivid characters on a par with Tolkien’s Middle Earth. But what sticks with me is her light and dark, sun and shadow, good and evil symbolism that pervades the Earthsea series but is fully realized in this first book.

The hero, Ged, is a young boy with enormous talent, sort of like Harry Potter, and when he’s discovered to have this power, he’s apprenticed to a wizard to learn the craft. However, Ged, unlike Harry Potter and more like Lord Voldemort’s young self, becomes impatient and wants to use the power he’s been given before he’s ready. When his master isn’t home, he pulls out the spell book and works a spell that tempts him. If only he’d learned from that disastrous encounter, but his ego won’t let him. His master reluctantly sends him off to wizard school, where he blossoms. That is, until his ego tempts him once too often and he spends the rest of the book trying to first escape from and then contain the evil he’s unleashed.

Heroes (and heroines) that commit grave errors of judgment in the beginning of a book and then spend the rest of the book trying to make up for their mistakes are frequently found in all genres. What impresses me here is LeGuin’s theme of acceptance played out by the very human capacity for both good and evil contained within one person who is neither fully evil nor fully good but capable of both. That’s what it means to be human—to accept both natures and find a balance between them.

THE WIZARD OF EARTHSEA isn’t a new book, but it should be on every writer of fantasy’s bookshelf.

Welcome!

Welcome!

Today is about the adjustments we make when something new comes into our lives.  For me it’s a refrigerator and a blog.

A refrigerator?  Really?  We got a new one thanks to a Black Friday sale, and it replaces one that had to be close to 30 years old, one we’ve used for over 20 years.  Honestly, it was held together with duct tape inside, but it ran and I knew just what I could stuff into it and how to arrange the contents.  Now I have a brand, shiny new one that’s actually larger with more door storage space, but it takes up more floor space and has fewer racks.  So now I have to learn how not to bump my head on the freezer door handle that sticks out farther than the old one did, and I’ve got to figure out how to arrange the interior to maximize the use of space.  It’s a work in progress.

A blog?  I’ve known for some time that as a romance author, I should have a blog, but the learning curve seemed intimidating, so I put it off.  Instead I had help setting up my website first.  Then I stretched and did my Goodreads page myself to gain a little confidence.  Now I’m opening this blog to see what I can make of it and I hope to make some new friends.  In the meantime, the design is a work in progress.

I plan to talk about books that have made an impression on me, profile friends whose writing I admire, and talk about writing and all its pleasures and challenges.  Please stop by and see what’s up from time to time.