The telephone arrived in my home as a black, rotary-dial wall-phone on a ten-party-line that hung in a living room unheated in winter when I was ten. I have never attempted to text on a smart-phone and feel uncomfortable with instant messaging. Since I became acquainted with Kindle on my tablet and BookBub’s free offerings I have become acquainted with a cadre of young authors who grew up texting, skyping, and using instant messaging with aplomb. They also went to school at a time when self-expression was more valued than grammar, syntax, or spelling. Some seem to be barely literate.
When writers sat down with quill and ink, pencil, or ball-point to laboriously double-space up to 20 versions of their books their editors blue-penciled mercilessly and all non-essential text got eliminated. Much the same occurred when the typewriter made things easier if not quieter. It was the arrival of computer word-processors 30 years ago that revolutionized writing forever. Today most copy does not see paper until the day it is printed on newsprint, glossy magazine, or paperback. More recently digital self-publishing has virtually eliminated the middlemen and books go almost directly from the author to the reader’s nook or kindle. Budgetary constraints seem to have almost eliminated proofreading and even the most prestigious outlets print copy with glaring errors.
Since computer word-processors arrived on the scene I have read too many books that would have benefited from being 200 pages shorter. The word-bloat is palpable. More recently the e-books appear on my tablet missing even the simple formatting of page justification. Authors may not be using instant messaging abbreviations and short-cuts but punctuation, capitalization, and formatting seem to have gone out the window. Spelling is a sometime affair and homonym errors, such as to, too, two abound. After a page or more of dialogue it helps if the reader is given some indication of whom said what; especially in the absence of capitals and periods.
Free or not asking the reader to edit your copy is an insult. I don’t hit send on any copy be it E-mail or this blog-post until I have run spell-check and reread the text at least once or more. I wish writers would do the same. Alas I fear too many don’t recognize their own errors. I have read 21 books in the last month and earned my 50-book pledge, perhaps Malthus’ Law of Diminishing Returns is beginning to kick in.
When writers sat down with quill and ink, pencil, or ball-point to laboriously double-space up to 20 versions of their books their editors blue-penciled mercilessly and all non-essential text got eliminated. Much the same occurred when the typewriter made things easier if not quieter. It was the arrival of computer word-processors 30 years ago that revolutionized writing forever. Today most copy does not see paper until the day it is printed on newsprint, glossy magazine, or paperback. More recently digital self-publishing has virtually eliminated the middlemen and books go almost directly from the author to the reader’s nook or kindle. Budgetary constraints seem to have almost eliminated proofreading and even the most prestigious outlets print copy with glaring errors.
Since computer word-processors arrived on the scene I have read too many books that would have benefited from being 200 pages shorter. The word-bloat is palpable. More recently the e-books appear on my tablet missing even the simple formatting of page justification. Authors may not be using instant messaging abbreviations and short-cuts but punctuation, capitalization, and formatting seem to have gone out the window. Spelling is a sometime affair and homonym errors, such as to, too, two abound. After a page or more of dialogue it helps if the reader is given some indication of whom said what; especially in the absence of capitals and periods.
Free or not asking the reader to edit your copy is an insult. I don’t hit send on any copy be it E-mail or this blog-post until I have run spell-check and reread the text at least once or more. I wish writers would do the same. Alas I fear too many don’t recognize their own errors. I have read 21 books in the last month and earned my 50-book pledge, perhaps Malthus’ Law of Diminishing Returns is beginning to kick in.
