Where the Work Is

Not a perfect example of a good sentence.

So I’ve been reading a free e-book the past few days, and for good reason: I wouldn’t pay for it. The book. No, I meant it was free for a good reason, not that I’ve been reading it for a good reason. Yeah, my bad; I should have worded that better. Speaking of wording things better, this e-book I was talking about: I won’t mention it by name or author because that would be mean. So take this as an insight into why books – even e-books – should have a particular sales figure attached to them; a sales figure, for instance, that might let you know at least if the book is well-written.

See, everyone’s up in arms about e-books taking over the world and burning print books, and how to avoid copyright infringement, and whether to set e-book prices at $0.99 or $9.99. But really what needs to be argued is the simple fact that books that have been looked at by several people who look at books for a living, and are then revised by people who write books for a living, are a better bet for your $9.99 than a book written by someone who does it after a day of cold-calling families as they sit down to dinner, and are looked at by people who do it after a day of cleaning up after two toddlers and wishing they had pursued their love of biology in a Master's before marrying that guy, that sells for $0.99.

Do you follow me?

So what we really need in the e-book world is the same thing we had in the early printing world, and something that continues a little bit even today: a recognizable and reputable imprint. Think about groceries: things like rice, sugar, bananas – it’s fine to get the Flavo-Rite brand of those, because it’s hard to screw up a natural product. But you start getting into processed foods, things that are flavored then dried or frozen – you might want to stick to the name brands. It’s probably not going to make you sick, and with enough experience you’d get used to it; but those store-brands just never seem to get it quite right. Same with reputable imprints over vanity-publishers: you can get used to bad writing, but it’s just not the same.

A lot of times – not always, but I’ve run into it – if you start pointing out too many little flaws in a written work, the writer sets his (or her) jaw and exhales just a little bit – just enough for you to know they think you’re being nit-picky.

But that’s where the work is. If a writer isn’t ready to find every missing quotation mark, glue together every fragmented sentence, and re-hang every dangling modifier – they’re not ready to be an author. Writing – especially fiction – is almost never one of those professions like doctors whose overbearing parents forced them into a career they don’t like. So if you’re going to call yourself an author or a writer, it needs to be because you love the English language (or whatever language in which you write).

It doesn’t mean you’ll love every minute of it, but give yourself a head start, right?