http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcJjMnHoIBI
I think I’m starting to get into some type of groove here. Get the son ready for school and then on the bus. Finish morning email if I haven’t done it already. Bike, shower, eat breakfast, and then off to writing/editing. Stop when the son gets home, which leads to homework, prepping lunch for next day, playtime, dinner, shower time, and maybe a little computer work if he wants to watch his movie. I don’t feel like I have more time than previous systems, but I think I do. Might be because of the project I’m working on.
This editing is taking FOREVER! I’m trying to be meticulous, but I’m only doing 20 pages a day. I think it’s because Prodigy of Rainbow Tower still holds a lot of my experimental writing style remnants. I’m hoping to finish by Wednesday or maybe earlier, which gives me a day of handling other projects then off to Allure of the Gypsies. That one shouldn’t be very hard because it was the first to be viewed by an actual editor. Still, there is something needling me and it might stem from a 3-star review on Beginning of a Hero.
People will say ‘this author needs to edit this book’ when they do a review. Fair enough and it’s a valid complaint. Yet, what happens if the author does what the reviewer says and fixes the problems? That reviewer isn’t going to know unless they read the book again, which is unlikely. You can’t contact them to let them know because there’s still that strong ‘authors need to be read and not heard’ mentality. So we do it for the future readers, but you’re still going to have those ‘need editing’ reviews sitting there even after you do the repairs. Again, this is just a sudden realization I had and I’m still going through with the edits.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2mU6USTBRE
To be honest, it’s been a rough review week. I shouldn’t complain about the 2 or 3 stars, but it does get vexing when you really want to ask the person a question. This is the situation that drove me nuts in college. The class would read and review your work while you sat there silently. If they went in a strange tangent by delving too far into your work then you couldn’t do anything about it. It’s like you had to pay attention and take notes even though you were internally screaming the explanation to their questions. I used excerpts of larger works in these things, which just made it extra aggravating. As you can guess, I hated these exercises because I was more interested in a discussion that didn’t imitate the sibling game of ‘you don’t exist’.
Sounds like I’m irritable . . . I kind of am. The editing feels like I’m slogging through a swamp in concrete boots. A few people have thrown the ‘time to get a real job’ line at me this week. Amazing since I rarely left the house, huh? There’s also the issue that I have several ideas that I’d love to bounce off people, but nobody has the time. I’d post them here, but some hold spoilers for a few books. (Yes, the ending of Legends of Windemere has hit a snag in that the one I had ready for years no longer works.) Also, I notice that some people think my WIP are ones that will be appearing within the next year or two. That gets awkward. Still this leaves me holding the bag with these ideas.
So, what are my goals for the week?
- Finish editing Prodigy of Rainbow Tower.
- Survive watching the NY Giants second game today. I might wait for my dad to come home, so we can skip the commercials . . . and the bad stuff.
- Do a week or two of October’s posts. Looking at a week of ‘Son Stories’, one on Monster Sizes and Styles, and one on various parts of a book (Narration, Action, Dialogue, Description, Overuse). I’ll be doing the Monster Mash game during Halloween week too. That was a lot of fun and I hope people remember it.
- Start editing Allure of the Gypsies.
- Continue biking.
- Culinary experiment: Making my homemade Penne with Vodka Sauce tomorrow to let it sit overnight . . . I might eat a little beforehand. Then Monday I’m going to put some of it on a Borelli’s pizza crust, sprinkling some mozzarella cheese, and try to make a Penne ala Vodka Pizza. Going to be interesting.
- Maybe take a small trip to the mall on my resting day to use the last of the Auntie Anne’s Pretzel coupons. I would buy ‘Godzilla’ or ‘Winter Soldier’ on DVD, but I’m sure the prices are nuts. Wow. I just thought how VHS was never that expensive, which makes me feel ancient.
Legends of Windemere 
You’ve hit on a good point with the editing of published books: that while your edits may benefit future readers of the book, the reviewer who complained that the book needed editing isn’t likely to read it again, even if you could alert him or her to the updated version. I think the thing to strive for is just getting more new readers and better reviews for that particular book so eventually those 2- and 3-star reviews drown in the 4- and 5-star reviews.
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Yup. Look to the future is all we can do. I still have that ‘present tense’ hurdle to get over with people since some people scream for editing and use examples that are current under the style. Would be nice if reviews didn’t have star ratings, which seem to differ for everyone.
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I haven’t done it yet, but I’m going to very soon, because I got a couple of painful editing reviews on African Me. I’m going to pop “Revised edition: This edition of African Me & Satellite TV contains editorial revisions” and the date in the blurb section in bold print – that way future readers can see that I’ve made corrections after the reviews. That penne sounds wonderful – can’t imagine making it from scratch.
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The trick to making it from scratch is to get most of the other people out of the house. Seriously, it’s really easy as long as you’re not sharing the kitchen with others or having to control the child.
I’m thinking of doing ‘Revised Edition’, but I’d be scared that there are still problems. Maybe down the road though.
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I was reading a blog post where it said that Tolkien’s books still haven’t got all the typos out to this day, and that he was still editing them for years after publishing. The people who pick on a couple of solitary typos or gremlins are almost always writers themselves. My aunt has just found two more typos after seriously rigorous editing and more editing – they lurk sometimes. I’m sure that unless a book has a gremlin on most pages, most normal readers wouldn’t notice, and most decent people wouldn’t feel the need to shout it from the rooftops. Makes me really cross when I look at some of these pompous reviews about a typo or two, and then go look at the published works by the review authors – I’d rather have a typo in a decent work of fiction than a flawlessly, expensively edited couple of hundred pages of drivel.
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Never heard of that, but I wouldn’t be surprised. Things might have been fixed as they were reprinted and publishers were told of the mistakes. I see typos in traditionally published stuff all the time, so it’s easy to see how human error always comes into play.
I always wonder about those who do the ‘needs editing’ reviews. I’ve seen one or two from a person who ends up having an editing service, so they’re trying to drum up business. Other people I think love to do the ‘gotcha’ thing as if the author and all the positive reviews need to be taken down a few notches. Many of those end up having typos in the reviews themselves. I think these types of people are a minority though. Most move on and many of those who do the ‘needs editing’ review do want to help the author. It’s the ones with attitude that make it hard to take them seriously because you get the sense that they’ll find something wrong even if you fix the book.
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They will absolutely find something wrong even if you fix the book – there are some properly mean, weird people out there who feel that whacking a popular author makes them look better. Your awesome rankings and fans show the lie though.
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Thanks. It is kind of sad how a popular hobby in today’s world is to tear people down. You see it all over the Internet.
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You are right about asking questions. Would be great, but not going to happen either. Best to you this week and please report on the vodka, penne pizza result.
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I’ll be making it tomorrow night. I’ll make sure to take a picture too. Hopefully it goes smoothly.
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You really gave me something to think about. I’ve sometimes posted in my reviews that the author needs to edit their book, but it never occurred to me that maybe they did edit the book and published a new edition of it. Maybe it’s time I revisited some of the books I already reviewed and see if the authors fixed things I stated were problems with the book.
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I’m curious how that would happen too. I always assumed that Kindle automatically updates the books on it, but I saw one person mention a typo I fixed a year ago. Might depend on a person’s settings.
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I’ve only had my Kindle alert me to an updated version of a book once in the year I have owned it. So I’m not really show how Amazon handles them.
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That might be another obstacle to figure out.
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If it makes you feel any better, some readers (like me) don’t read reviews before purchasing because we’re scared of spoilers. I might look at the overall star rating, but I usually go more by recommendations and especially from reading the sample. If the sample’s solid and edited, you’ll grab readers like me even with those reviews still there. 🙂
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Thanks. I know a few who do that too. It is rough since so many people believe reviews are the life blood of indie authors. Good point on the spoilers too. Some reviews just put them in there without a warning.
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I have one review that’s basically a plot synopsis. It fell off the top/most recent reviews, do I didn’t worry about it, but wow. O.o
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I’ve had a few like that. Though my favorite is one where the person compares my writing style to someone shopping for groceries and screaming their actions as they go along. Very bizarre.
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Just when you think editing will take forever, it winds up taking twice as long. 🙂
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I think it’s up to thrice now. Save me from my past self!
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