Tom Crayder's Page and a Gripe

First thing first: Tom Crayder has his own GoodReads group now:  Ask Tom Crayder.

Drop by and talk to Tom about life's problems and get his unique take.

Now, on to the blog post!

“Typographical errors, plot holes, poor punctuation, and terrible grammar, are all sure signs of an independently published book.”

That’s what I read recently (no, they were not referring to any of my work so this is not personal).

Really?  Really??  Have you read any traditionally published books lately?

I’ll admit (never use a contraction outside of dialogue) that I can’t (Help!  I can’t stop!  Oh, no!  I did it again!) read while I write so it’s been a while since I have finished a full length, traditionally published novel.  However, the last few that I read were FULL of all of the mistakes stereotypically attributed to indie books.

I do not know (ok, getting better, I guess) if the economy has forced cuts to the editing staffs at large publishers.  I do know that in the age of computer programs that find errors and with the ability to transmit the latest versions of a manuscript at the speed of light, books SHOULD be coming out with fewer errors.  They are not.  I could give examples of errors by well known authors but shall refrain from doing so here.

Just trust me when I say that errors are rampant even for authors that have entire “Big Six” departments at their disposal.

I don’t (damnit) pretend to write great literature.  I tell good stories (I think) with interesting characters (I hope) and try to not let my writing get in the way of the reader enjoying my stories.  I know that I have annoying tendencies like leaving punctuation outside of quotations, comma dilemmas, and the occasional malapropism (like calling people “expandable” instead of “expendable”).  Most of those get found and fixed thanks to my beta readers and the editorial process.

I also know that I break some rules on purpose, like I have done in this post by over-using parentheses.  I use contractions in first person narratives at times.  I love my ellipses and detest the em dash.  And I will never, ever, stop using two spaces after the full stop period of the previous sentence.  Sometimes, I even use conjunctions to begin sentences…

All of this is to once again say that indie authors need to be judged by the same standards of traditionally published authors.  We know there are a ton of bad indie books out there and we do not like them either.  We, however, do not hold the poor quality of some traditionally published books against ALL traditionally published authors.  We only ask for the same consideration.

In my next post: I should have written vampires and how Jim Butcher almost killed Tom Crayder.

(Please note that while he is one of my favorite authors now, Mr. Butcher has no clue who I am or who Tom Crayder might be so there was no ill intent on his part.)

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