Welcome to Sugarbeat’s Books – The Home of the Romance Novel!
Today we are welcoming Stella Deleuze to the blog. I’ve asked Stella to talk today on a topic near and dear to my heart – Rushing to publish. As many of you know, I’m involved in a YA book that is about to be released. It’s been alot of fun, but certainly alot of work. I find it amazing how difficult it is to see issues in your own work – even obvious grammatical or spelling errors. I also read alot of self-pub fiction. Reading a story peppered by spelling mistakes or common grammatical errors detracts from the story itself. Stella is an author, but also works as an editor. I’ll give you more information about Stella at the end of the post.
Take your time, please.
Since self-publishing has become so popular, more and more authors, who have given up on the prospects to receive the stamp of approval by one of the big six houses, literally burst into the market; Kindle, Smashwords, Nook, you name it. The result: a lot of books that simply aren’t ready.
I’ve read a few books and had my editor’s pen running in the back of my head – always a bad sign – which lead me either, delete the book prematurely, or leave a not so positive review. It saddens me when authors go and publish a book which clearly could do with one or two more rounds of editing to make it shine.
Of course, good and bad is a matter of perception, but as an editor, I do read on a more professional level and wrong dialogue attributes or plot inconsistencies bug me. They distract me from what is said or the scene I’m in, whether it’s romance or humour, science fiction or non-fiction. I’m not talking about a missing comma or the odd typo, that happens to all of us, but the number of errors I saw in self-published books were alarming.
I’ve contacted a few authors, telling them about my concerns and the answers ranged from, “Thank you so much, I’ll correct them now”, to “If you don’t stop complaining, I’ll start with your book.”
I think the majority of authors are so proud of their first book, their baby, and, of course, so are their friends and family, it doesn’t even cross their minds to ask for an independent opinion.
What I don’t understand is that they don’t ask google, which is my first resource if I need a question answered. Writing rules, writers’ sites/communities, writers groups…there’s so much to learn beforehand.
I believe everyone, especially new authors, need a pair of honest but helpful hands to help them improve their manuscript. Almost every new client I take on sends me the manuscript with the words: I’ve been through it and I’m really happy, so are a few people who read it, I don’t think it doesn’t need much more work. Then, they learn. In the end they’re saying they couldn’t believe how much work it actually required, how much better it reads without that long, unnecessary scene, without this extra character, after the rewrites. Plot holes and dislikeable characters are my main pet peeve; how can you expect your reader to fall in love, identify, sympathise with your character when you made it impossible to like him or her?
Writing isn’t about chucking some words onto paper, it’s not about eliminating white space, it’s about filling the pages with words and sentences, paragraphs in the most skilful way, to make sense, so that one can forget the troubles; it’s about creating a different world, engaging the reader. Even if you have talent, you need to practice your writing, learn the “how to”, in short: do the hard work. And I’m certainly not someone sitting on a high horse, I’ve been through about fourteen edits on my first novel, too. When I stared out, I had no idea of writing, I just wrote. It was when I finished that the really hard work began. I joined a writers’ site and learned something new every day, from dialogue attributes to show/tell, flow, POV, etc. I compared my dialogue with a traditionally published book and went through my manuscript to adapt. It was hard, but it was worth it. I’m getting very positive reviews and splendid feedback on both of my books.
Stella Deleuze describes herself as a versatile writer on her blog. Although she has spent many years in Germany, she now lives in London with her pet iguana Zorro. She has written several book as well as other works and edit’s other people’s work as well. She can be found at her blog : Stella Deleuze. I highly recommend that you drop by and read what she has to say on her blog!! After taking a quick peek to make sure I listed her link correctly, I found myself reading and reading. Her blog is filled with what I’d call Truisms. I especially like her take on people behaviour on the various Social Media. She had me agreeing with almost everything she said!
Excuse me, where is the exit
Life writes the best comedy; you only need to open your eyes
There are some unwritten rules: some clothes look better on the hanger, the minimum of vases required in your house should be ten, to be British you must go out ‘naked’, cycling is not good for your heart, there is never a loo when you need one and you can’t escape unwanted entertainment in public transport.
A collection of comical short stories of every day’s life.
and
No Wings Attached
Life couldn’t get any worse for 32-year-old Celia: single again and working in two jobs she hates; the last thing she needs is falling for gorgeous, out-of-her-league, arrogant Tom.
Being a wish-consultant, Tom has to make up for a failed case and is sent to make her wishes come true without his usual skills. Not easy when she’s reluctant to talk to him. In order to help her become happy, he needs to win her trust and unexpectedly develops feelings he shouldn’t have.
When finally everything seems to fall into place for Celia, she receives a phone call that turns her world upside down once again.This is a light-hearted romantic comedy a la Bridget Jones meets Charmed; no vampires, no werewolves, only the odd human with some supernatural powers. Suitable for readers who usually don’t like paranormal.
