"It came to me on the wings of sleep." Can't remember where I got that from but It's eminently suitable. I saw the future as clear as daylight. My premise is this:
One day in the not too distant future I truly believe you will be able to peruse books on line at home or in a book store. When you come across the book there will be two options open to you.
1/ Download your book to your device as we do today. Or
2/ Download your choice and your specification, hardback, paperback, etc., to a printing machine and, for a small charge, take your freshly minted book home with you in less time than it takes to make a cup of tea perhaps?
An idea I feel is worth consideration. With all the ranting and ravings about the crap on Smashwords, Amazon KIndle, etc. Might it be a good idea if in the near future books had added alongside their description, a declaration that the product had been/had not been professionally edited. This would save a lot of angst on the customer's part about the quality of the purchase they were about to make.
Grrr...to anyone who is capable of proofreading/editing her own book, as I am, this sort of proposal is annoying. My books would be marked as inferior, when they are not, or I'd have to pay for a service I don't need.
ReplyDeleteGoing by my experience on writers' sites, a proofreader would be more likely to put mistakes into my writing than take them out. I don't do typos. I remember one reader telling me I'd put 'nocked' instead of 'knocked', because it was a word he hadn't come across.
The ranting and raving will die down. Do people complain about all the bad singers/actors/dancers out there? No, because the bad ones don't get anywhere and give up. It'll be the same with authors.
Sorry but I have been engaged in other things lately. I take your point but we all miss typos, don't we? I go through my stuff many times but the errors still slip by as I am too close to my own work. I have a friend go over some of my work,
ReplyDeleteI haven't heard the word "nocked" either. What does it mean and where did you find it?
AS for your last, I agree with you except that some should get better by reading the feedback and learning. There aren't many occupations where one is supposed to hit the ground running on day one.