But the mechanics, grammar and writing were horrendous....and very distracting. The book was published by a South African company that offers self-publishing and traditional publishing opportunities; it's not clear to me which venue was used.
Regardless....SOMEONE should have edited and proofed it. There were long rambling sentences that made no sense, subject/verb agreement was hit or miss, and the author changed tenses in the middle of a sentence. I find it hard to believe that NO ONE caught these glaring errors.
But the it's/its mistakes killed me. Both were used incorrectly about 50% of the time. Really, author?? Here's the deal, for future reference: IT'S = IT IS (it's a contraction, hence the apostrophe); ITS = POSSESSION (the dog chased ITS tail). Got it? Please, for the love of all things chocolate, get your writing skills together!
Yes, I'm a former English teacher. Yes, I have an English degree. And, yes, I suppose those who know me might suggest that I am slightly anal about all things English. But is it too much to expect an error-free book? I understand one or two things may get through, even after a meticulous review, but, in my opinion, this book wasn't even ready for publication.
Then again, I found this on the publisher's website: Its our experience that every author....
*sigh*
Have you been distracted by errors in a poorly published/written book?
Have you been there?
P.S. I felt it was unnecessary to tell you anything about the book, author or publisher. I don't want to be trashed on someone's blog when my book comes out, and the book itself wasn't the point anyway. Karma's only a bitch if you are! ;)
Never try the "free" novels offered for Kindle! Some of them are so very bad that I have to deleted them from my "library".
ReplyDeleteNoted! Thanks for the heads up!
ReplyDeleteThere have been several ebooks I experienced very poor proofing and editing. I even read one that was actually a very long book - 600 plus pages - the publisher chopped up into three seperate books. And that was done very poorly too. Made me mad because the premise was awesome but everyting else BAD. Fortunately I didn t buy the book, its was given to me for reviewing. My review, and the only bad one I ever wrote, never made publication.
ReplyDeleteSome errors are not distracting but some are so obvious they cannot be avoided. *S*
I was going to say the same thing Sara said. The free Ebooks are crazy bad with errors. At first i thought you were talking about reading my blog. hehe. Sometimes i get in such a hurry and blogspot does not do the ol punctuation check for me.
ReplyDeleteHah! I totally HAVE been there. You know I edit…but I also edit docs at work, and some I get from people making ungodly amounts of money kill me the most. YOU are the one with the college education, not me. I mean, I have SOME (and loved my English classes the most), but really? Its & It’s? Their, There, and They’re? Come ON, people…my high school kids are better at this than you are. ;)
ReplyDeleteOh God yes! It drives me insane. My daughter is as annoyed by horrid grammar as I am. She was telling me tonight that one of her exes (they remained friends - they make a good team, just not a romantic pair) enlisted her to help educate a friend whose grammar errors were so egregious that said ex had caught on to them!
ReplyDeleteSigns, flyers, newsletters, advertisements trying to get my business, it bothers me that they can't be bothered to proofread/edit before putting it out there. Free books, I delete them because I don't invest time in stories the authors don't care enough about to present properly. If I'd paid for it? I'd be finding who to write to simply so I could suggest a better educated proofreader. *scowl*
In the English I speak, dogs are more likely to have TAILS than TALES.
ReplyDeleteOMG! You're so right! I can't believe I didn't catch that. Good job! Ahhhhh.....the irony. Thanks for stopping by and finding my mistake (which I corrected). : )
ReplyDeleteMy pet peeve is when people use the word 'only' and put it in the wrong place, in the sentence, 99.9% of the time.
ReplyDeleteYour write, Claire. Its so wrong. Wait. I guess I am ewesed toit.
ReplyDeleteMy typing leaves much to be desired..."I have deleted them from my 'library'." Sorry...
ReplyDeleteBad grammar drives me nuts. But now that I'm older, sometime I will typing away and go, wait is that spelled right? Do I put a comma here? Can I end a sentence with with? It's like I blank out. I was a nearly perfect student in English classes so it's weird when I draw a blank lol. Many times I have published a blog post and immediately catch an error I missed while editing. Sometimes even a few days later it pops out at me and I think, how did I miss that??
ReplyDeleteI work for Social Services and the newer caseworkers cannot spell. Incredible. How did they graduate college?
See? I forgot the "s" in sometimes and the word "be" in the same sentence...sheesh lol. I blame it on typing slower than I think .....yeah, that's it. Hahaha.
ReplyDeleteI agree! I've seen so many incorrect flyers and signs! I can't believe that people that create them and then paint/print/manufacture them don't catch the mistakes. And it makes me wonder that if they are that lax about spelling and punctuation, are they lax about their business or product. Maybe it's silly, but I think it's important!
ReplyDeleteYou must be ewesed toit! lol Thanks for stopping by!
ReplyDeleteYep -- the entire meaning of the sentence can change based on word placement. Thanks for reading!
ReplyDeleteSome of 'em are....not most, I promise!
ReplyDeleteI would never criticize your blog! lol Everyone makes mistakes! But it's consistent (or inconsistent mistakes). In the book I read, it's and its were interchangeable. Crazy!
ReplyDeleteExactly!
ReplyDelete