Let’s Talk Editing

I didn’t start count­ing until half way through the book. I am not a gram­mat­i­cal guru and so some­times I think that I am just not seeing things right, but it wasn’t right.

I counted at least 10 places where a quo­ta­tion mark was miss­ing. But the most egre­gious error was in the sen­tence struc­ture. I dont know if it was inten­tional or not. I am going to review the book this week­end and will post a couple of exam­ples. Maybe NR is going for some­thing styl­is­ti­cally. It was avery good book, though.

Let’s just say that if *I* notice the edit­ing, then the whole world will too. I hate not know­ing dan­gling par­tici­ples and stuff but sen­tences with no punc­tu­a­tion? That’d just piss me off.

I haven’t ven­tured into e-books (be gentle) for too many rea­sons to count but edit­ing has come up too often for it not to be a real issue.

CindyS

I have read the word “inex­orable” too many times when it comes to the sword slid­ing home, IYKWM.

What is UP with that word? I have lit­er­ally come to despise it because I see it so many times in Romance, and often used incor­rectly, to boot. It’s so bad that I will not use it in any­thing I write, for any pur­pose.

As for the gen­eral edit­ing issue, I have a rather noto­ri­ous posi­tion on this one, but since you brought the topic up again, Keis­hon, I’ll slip this in: the media of Romance is lan­guage, as in words, sen­tences, para­graphs, etc. No writer or editor is per­fect and mis­takes will be made. I love that there are writ­ers who openly thank their edi­tors, because I think that get­ting the best book pos­si­ble to pub­li­ca­tion IS a col­lab­o­ra­tive process. And I agree with the people who say that the less engaged you are with a book, the more you will notice edi­to­r­ial prob­lems. Because for me, all roads lead back to the fact that writ­ing is an art and a skill and its tech­niques and rules exist pri­mar­ily to help the writer make his or her point in the clear­est, most engag­ing, and most effec­tive way, so that there is as little dis­tance as pos­si­ble between the words and the reader.

I read too many ARC’s to get worked up about edit­ing but repet­i­tive words drive me batty.

Unless the errors are glar­ing, i really don’t mind. Like Dancechica, though, repet­i­tive phrases are very irri­tat­ing, par­tic­u­larly when they are strong visu­als i.e., the one lone tear used more than once is highly jar­ring.

I have read the word “inex­orable” too many times when it comes to the sword slid­ing home, IYKWM.

I do think edit­ing is very impor­tant. How­ever, I don’t tend to notice a lot of gram­mat­i­cal mis­takes even in books I’ve seen other review­ers com­plain about. My brain isn’t wired that way. What drives me nuts is typog­ra­phy and print­ing mis­takes. My friend once let me borrow a book that had double spac­ing after each period. I couldn’t get past the second page because all I could see was the gaps in the text. Insuf­fi­cient mar­gins is another thing that gets on my nerves.

Keishon — I might write, but I’m a reader first. I know the whole ques­tion of “Reader Rights” has been all over the blog­sphere of late, but I’m actu­ally really sur­prised that we ques­tion them at all.

When I buy a prod­uct, be it a book or a toilet bowl cleaner, I’m enti­tled to say, “If it doesn’t work for me, I’m not buying more.” And, of course, I’m allowed to explain why. (As a writer though, I must add how it’s easier to swal­low if a person can actu­ally explain why or what they didn’t like.) Proc­tor & Gamble do not get to sue me for not liking their clean­ing prod­ucts and stat­ing why as long as I’m not lying. Every penny I spend on some­thing other than feed­ing and hous­ing my son is pre­cious and I’d rather know I’m spend­ing it on some­thing worthy of the sac­ri­fice.

So, to answer the lesser ques­tion, if you feel there is a poor edit­ing job going on, sure, that’s a more than valid reason to be dis­en­chanted with a book. And if you notice the trend coming from a spe­cific pub­lisher, there shouldn’t be anyone out there stop­ping you from saying so.

Though, lol, it’s not likely the pub will thank you.

As a writer, I admit, gram­mar is not my strength. I rely on my editor (lol, pos­si­bly a bit too heav­ily) to help me see where I missed some­thing. She’s only human, of course, and she’s going to allow me to misuse the Eng­lish lan­guage a bit if it’s the best for the story. BUT — big but there — she’s not going to let me ignore the basic require­ments. Such as peri­ods. And quo­ta­tions. And you know, linear ref­er­ences. That’s what makes her an excel­lent editor.

I think the fluff up is really because authors like to fancy them­selves as “artists”, never real­iz­ing there’s two types of art out there — Fine Art and Graphic Design. One is to please the artist, the second is to please the audi­ence. You must still have a level of talent to do either, but the latter means you write FOR some­one else and you earn from it. You put it out for public con­sump­tion and grant Reader Rights by doing so. A fine artist has the right to thumb his nose at detrac­tors because they have not paid for the priv­i­lege. (He also enjoys the right to starve to death or earn his living else­where and enjoy his inner peace, owing noth­ing to no one. But that’s nei­ther here nor there.)

Any graphic artist — or editor — worth their salt is going to tell you that in order for a prod­uct to be com­plete, it must pass muster, be those artisitic guide­lines or basic gram­mat­i­cal tests, and that they do their best to keep these errors from hap­pen­ing. But if you see a gross number of errors, some­thing needs to be said. Oth­er­wise, how is some­thing going to get done? Any­thing exces­sive is a fail­ure some­where and readers — and writers — have a right to know.

Hope that wasn’t too much of an opin­ion, Dee