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Fantasy Book Series: Edda-Earth (Or: the fun of self-publishing and self-promoting)
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<blockquote data-quote="Ravenwind" data-source="post: 6660894" data-attributes="member: 6785772"><p>I've actually been driven out of reading quite a lot of modern fiction by this, I have to be honest. I've become a consumer of non-fiction, and a writer of fiction (off-hours, of course. My day job is as a technical writer, and I've taught college composition at two schools, too..).</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I've likened the current era to two historical ones in printing before. Back in the Renaissance, Shakespeare's plays were first published as quartos--cheaper editions, in which the pages were folded four times before being bound and then cut (octavos were considered even cheaper and poorer, generally). It wasn't until 1623, when Ben Jonson, himself a playwright and thus *invested* in making plays appear to be "quality literature," sat down with the plays of his late rival and had them published as folios--high-quality books wherein the pages were only folded once before being bound. High-class books--the Bible, Chaucer, Latin works--were published as folios. Things that weren't, were. . . transitory things. Less valuable.</p><p></p><p>Fast-forward out of the era of linen rag-paper and into the 20th century, and that same divide appeared again. Trade paperback (softbound, pulp fiction) vs. the hardbound edition. The hardbound edition said that you had *arrived.* Paperbacks? Well, the Beatles had a song making fun of people who wanted to be those.</p><p></p><p>I see the next twenty years, especially with the advent of on-demand printing, being a sea-change in which the market will establish the popularity of an author, and the ebook/self-printed being the quarto/softbound, and then, once some agent or print house notices "oh, you've had a few sales, let's see what you can do for us. . . " then the hard bound edition being issued as the mark of having, again, arrived.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I had Book II up on NetGalley as a way of getting it circulated to people free of charge. Both books have an extensive chunk available free of charge to readers on Amazon so that they can take them for a test-drive as it were. (So far, of the copies sold, I've had exactly two requests for 'refund,' which I found deeply amusing, as you can read several hundred pages deep for free, so you should probably know by that point if you want to keep going, eh?). There's also a free copy of the first chapter or so of Book I on my Kirkus author page. (Again, I'd totally link, but I'm under my post count cap. But if you Google Edda-Earth, there are lots of links that will take you there. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /> ) </p><p></p><p>Regarding the point on grammar and style? I took my MA in English (medieval and Renaissance focus), and even after having *taught* composition twice, worked for a textbook publisher, and having spent the last, oh, fourteen, fifteen years as a technical writer and editor. . . there is no way that an author can see all of their own mistakes. Your eyes gloss over them. Mechanically, reading out loud might help; that's something I always encouraged my students to do, but that's somewhat impossible over a length of about twenty to thirty pages. </p><p></p><p>I've had friends help me in typowhacking, but again, not even every editor will find every typo. I've seen doozies in Pratchett books (sadly), in which the editors clearly substituted a wrong, but similar word in a sentence, or didn't understand that a sentence was being thought, and not spoken out loud, and thus missed the necessary italics. (Which is what second editions are for. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" /> )</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ravenwind, post: 6660894, member: 6785772"] I've actually been driven out of reading quite a lot of modern fiction by this, I have to be honest. I've become a consumer of non-fiction, and a writer of fiction (off-hours, of course. My day job is as a technical writer, and I've taught college composition at two schools, too..). I've likened the current era to two historical ones in printing before. Back in the Renaissance, Shakespeare's plays were first published as quartos--cheaper editions, in which the pages were folded four times before being bound and then cut (octavos were considered even cheaper and poorer, generally). It wasn't until 1623, when Ben Jonson, himself a playwright and thus *invested* in making plays appear to be "quality literature," sat down with the plays of his late rival and had them published as folios--high-quality books wherein the pages were only folded once before being bound. High-class books--the Bible, Chaucer, Latin works--were published as folios. Things that weren't, were. . . transitory things. Less valuable. Fast-forward out of the era of linen rag-paper and into the 20th century, and that same divide appeared again. Trade paperback (softbound, pulp fiction) vs. the hardbound edition. The hardbound edition said that you had *arrived.* Paperbacks? Well, the Beatles had a song making fun of people who wanted to be those. I see the next twenty years, especially with the advent of on-demand printing, being a sea-change in which the market will establish the popularity of an author, and the ebook/self-printed being the quarto/softbound, and then, once some agent or print house notices "oh, you've had a few sales, let's see what you can do for us. . . " then the hard bound edition being issued as the mark of having, again, arrived. I had Book II up on NetGalley as a way of getting it circulated to people free of charge. Both books have an extensive chunk available free of charge to readers on Amazon so that they can take them for a test-drive as it were. (So far, of the copies sold, I've had exactly two requests for 'refund,' which I found deeply amusing, as you can read several hundred pages deep for free, so you should probably know by that point if you want to keep going, eh?). There's also a free copy of the first chapter or so of Book I on my Kirkus author page. (Again, I'd totally link, but I'm under my post count cap. But if you Google Edda-Earth, there are lots of links that will take you there. :) ) Regarding the point on grammar and style? I took my MA in English (medieval and Renaissance focus), and even after having *taught* composition twice, worked for a textbook publisher, and having spent the last, oh, fourteen, fifteen years as a technical writer and editor. . . there is no way that an author can see all of their own mistakes. Your eyes gloss over them. Mechanically, reading out loud might help; that's something I always encouraged my students to do, but that's somewhat impossible over a length of about twenty to thirty pages. I've had friends help me in typowhacking, but again, not even every editor will find every typo. I've seen doozies in Pratchett books (sadly), in which the editors clearly substituted a wrong, but similar word in a sentence, or didn't understand that a sentence was being thought, and not spoken out loud, and thus missed the necessary italics. (Which is what second editions are for. ;) ) [/QUOTE]
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