Tuesday 3 August 2010

A Case of the Jitters

Oh help. It's all getting a bit too close and scary now. Can't get brain to work at all. Keep jumping from one thing to another, getting totally sidetracked by Twitter and really not focusing on the things that NEED to be done.

Oh well. Is all forward movement, if nothing else.

I have now heard back from every single reviewer, and they ALL liked the book. How ace is that?

Latest quotes:

"It's loaded with sharp dialogue, some gorgeous imagery, and is punctuated with a down to earth wit which has you laughing and smiling. This is easily one of the more original stories I've read all year."
- Gordon McLean

"Wonderfully odd and utterly compulsive - some of the snazziest similes I've read all year."
- Jen Maltby

Well, all right then. I say "all". There is one reviewer I haven't heard from. And she is, just a teeny bit, scary. She is Jane Smith, from How Publishing Really Works. She is an actual bona fide editor. And she has another blog devoted purely to reviews of self-published novels. And she holds no punches. The thing is, she specifically says "I'm going to count all the errors I find in spelling, punctuation and grammar and when I reach fifteen I'm going to stop reading." ... and she critiques covers as much as contents ... and yet I sent her a proof copy to review! Am I insane? Yes. I am.

Oh well. Let's be honest: This whole project has a touch of the insanes about it.

Edit: Oh, hang on, there was another reviewer I hadn't heard from! I had lost track, but she just contacted me to say she's enjoying it. So that's OK.

Right. I must go and flap elsewhere. Anon.

3 comments:

Dandelion said...

Well, I don't think you need to worry about a woman like that. People don't want books that adhere to the rules for the sake of it. She needs to wise up and realise that creative approaches to spelling, grammar and punctuation are every bit as legitimate as forms of expression as any other. She is throwing babies out with bathwater, if what she says is true.

Beleaguered Squirrel said...

Woah there, she is lovely woman and has been very helpful so I don't want to alienate her!

She is dealing with self-published books, which are notorious for being, er, sub-standard. Which is why what I am doing will be seen by many as career suicide.

Her attitude to grammatical errors won't be anything to do with creative use of grammar - it will be because she is sent a lot of poorly-produced manuscripts, and will have to have some way of weeding them.

Beleaguered Squirrel said...

And the errors I am worried about will be actual real errors, not creativity! But thankyou for the support dandelion, I do know where you're coming from.