Grammar Police
While I was following conversations on Goodreads, I came across a few comments about grammar. One in particular caught my attention…
-“You can’t become a professional until you make every mistake in the book, and that includes shoddy editing, terrible covers and more typos than you can shake a stick at.
It’s only by doing all of those things will you learn not to do them…no manner of others telling you will drive that point home.
You might lose some readers, but in these days of Traditional Publishing dying this is your only option, unless you’ve got money.”-
This is so true. Like myself, I was not able to acquire an agent or traditional publisher so I took the self-publishing road. I have NO money to hire a professional anything. Everything about my book I did myself including editing. Because, as authors, we are so in tune with our stories that as we read and re-read and re-read again, we tend to expect what word is going to come next and if it’s spelled wrong or we accidentally used ‘your’ instead of ‘you’re’, we sometimes read over it.
Grammar issues come not because we are illiterate or uneducated but because we have thousands and thousands of words circling inside our brains and when we’ve stared at our computer screens for too long they all start to look alike. I also believe that where you live reflects how you speak and how you speak reflects how you write. For instance, someone from Alabama will spill out words that sound different from someone from New England. To me, this sort of makes the grammar police a bit unfair.
Some readers insist that having perfect grammar is essential to enjoying a book. I would have to disagree. Anyone who has read my book knows that I have my own problems with grammar, however, I do not believe a reader should base their opinion of the book on a few typos. I was recently told that my book averaged about 2 mistakes per page but as I read over it I didn’t notice that many. Out of over 136,000 words I found five typos. That seems pretty good to me. Comma usage is usually my biggest problem. And I cannot tell you how many times I’ve been told I have run-on sentences, which are actually compound sentences. I had an English professor in college point out that I used them abundantly.
I also feel like if a reader is keeping tabs on how many grammar mistakes they find then they are not giving the story the full attention it deserves. They’re missing out on the essence and deep down soul of the words. I understand that a misspelled words will throw a reader off, I’ve been there myself, but as you keeps reading you adapt and find yourself back on track. Even traditional published books have grammatical errors. I found several throughout the Twilight saga not to mention an error in the plot, but it still sold millions.
I also just want to say that I appreciate when a reader points out the grammar mistakes I've missed in my work. This helps me to get my book in the best shape possible. But for Indie authors, I think it should be a courtesy not to mention the grammar flaws in a review. They'll get fixed, it's just a slower process than traditional publishing.
Give indie-authors a break. It's a learning process. We’re having to do this all on our own and we’re nowhere near professional yet but maybe one day we will be. Maybe one day we’ll write the next New York Times best seller.
http://kelliethacker.wordpress.com/20...
-“You can’t become a professional until you make every mistake in the book, and that includes shoddy editing, terrible covers and more typos than you can shake a stick at.
It’s only by doing all of those things will you learn not to do them…no manner of others telling you will drive that point home.
You might lose some readers, but in these days of Traditional Publishing dying this is your only option, unless you’ve got money.”-
This is so true. Like myself, I was not able to acquire an agent or traditional publisher so I took the self-publishing road. I have NO money to hire a professional anything. Everything about my book I did myself including editing. Because, as authors, we are so in tune with our stories that as we read and re-read and re-read again, we tend to expect what word is going to come next and if it’s spelled wrong or we accidentally used ‘your’ instead of ‘you’re’, we sometimes read over it.
Grammar issues come not because we are illiterate or uneducated but because we have thousands and thousands of words circling inside our brains and when we’ve stared at our computer screens for too long they all start to look alike. I also believe that where you live reflects how you speak and how you speak reflects how you write. For instance, someone from Alabama will spill out words that sound different from someone from New England. To me, this sort of makes the grammar police a bit unfair.
Some readers insist that having perfect grammar is essential to enjoying a book. I would have to disagree. Anyone who has read my book knows that I have my own problems with grammar, however, I do not believe a reader should base their opinion of the book on a few typos. I was recently told that my book averaged about 2 mistakes per page but as I read over it I didn’t notice that many. Out of over 136,000 words I found five typos. That seems pretty good to me. Comma usage is usually my biggest problem. And I cannot tell you how many times I’ve been told I have run-on sentences, which are actually compound sentences. I had an English professor in college point out that I used them abundantly.
I also feel like if a reader is keeping tabs on how many grammar mistakes they find then they are not giving the story the full attention it deserves. They’re missing out on the essence and deep down soul of the words. I understand that a misspelled words will throw a reader off, I’ve been there myself, but as you keeps reading you adapt and find yourself back on track. Even traditional published books have grammatical errors. I found several throughout the Twilight saga not to mention an error in the plot, but it still sold millions.
I also just want to say that I appreciate when a reader points out the grammar mistakes I've missed in my work. This helps me to get my book in the best shape possible. But for Indie authors, I think it should be a courtesy not to mention the grammar flaws in a review. They'll get fixed, it's just a slower process than traditional publishing.
Give indie-authors a break. It's a learning process. We’re having to do this all on our own and we’re nowhere near professional yet but maybe one day we will be. Maybe one day we’ll write the next New York Times best seller.
http://kelliethacker.wordpress.com/20...
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