Friday 15 October 2010

Devon Holiday




Our weeks holiday in Devon was lovely. We were blessed with gorgeous weather, with warm sunshine most days. Branscombe is such a pretty village, very quaint and oldie worldie, most of the houses are thatched.


We have spent many happy holidays in this village, using the holiday house as a base to visit the surrounding coast and countryside.




This time we had some friends staying with us, and we all got on extremely well and enjoyed a brill time together.


It was a holiday complemented by good friends, good food, and wonderful surroundings. Can't be bad.

Thursday 14 October 2010

I'm quite pleased, my editing is going reasonably well. Okay, I have to send the manuscript to my editor for a final check, but God willing she should find things greatly improved.
Slowly, but surly, I am learning.
English was never one of my better subjects at school. I have all the imagination in the world, but getting it down on paper, so to speak; In a way which is intelligent and readable, is something else entirely. I confess, where grammar is concerned, I am a little dyslexic. So, whether I will ever find myself in a position, where I can safely trust my own editing, is rather doubtful. Sadly, my work may always need some sort of check, as I want it to be as good as it can be, for God, for me, and for my readers.

However, I do have a grip. It seems to me, that publishers and even editors are becoming very pedantic. What ever happened to reading a novel and simply enjoying it. These days a submitted novel has to be word perfect before it even gets a look in. No longer do publishers read a submitted manuscript and think, 'I like this, warts and all, it has potential.'
In all honesty, why employ editors if they are not going to edit. Publishers could save a lot of money by firing them and leave it the author, which in all honesty they do anyway. The whole thing seems crazy to me.
For example J.K. Rowling's first book apparently was not perfect. But the agent saw it's potential, and what potential!! He took a risk and it payed off.
Lets face it, like most things in life, there is no such thing as a perfect book. I have read many books by well known authors and found glaring mistakes that have been missed. I heard on the news recently, that a well known author with one of the larger publishing houses, had to have his books withdrawn due to glaring mistakes, oops!! how expensive is that, money and reputation wise. Again what were the editors doing, not a good job obviously.
Imagine, this author's embarrassment, while doing a public reading he had to stop and apologise to his listeners because of all the mistakes he found in his own work. Poor man, it must have been awful.

Sadly, these days I sit down to read a book and find myself noticing the mistakes in the text. Again I say, what happened to reading a good book and merely enjoying it. Let's face it, half the time our amazing brains ignore the mistakes anyway. Hence the problem that they slip through the net. But does the average reader really care? I don't think so. If they enjoy the book that's all that matters to them. That's what my readers tell me anyway.

I am self published, after struggling to find an agent/publisher and coping with the innumerable rejection letters. However, due to a publisher interest in my second published book, I have tentatively put my toe in the water once again. I totally agreed with her that my book needed work in the grammar department, hence all this editing. But even though she was the one who approached me, I'm still not sure if it's the way I want to go.
Like all of us authors I love to write, and enjoy the freedom and lack of pressure that goes with self publishing. Also, I do believe it will be the major way to go in days to come, with all the new technology available.
Not only that, I'm no longer a youngster and don't feel I can afford the long drawn out process attached to main-stream publishing. I have many books buzzing around in my head, all demanding to be birthed, while there is time.
I want to live each day God has given me to the full and achieve all I can for His glory and praise.
That said, I firmly believe my work must be its very best, before it's held in a readers hands.
So, here we ago again, edit, edit, edit. :)