There should be an easier way to tell when books are self-published...

[thistlechaser]

Sorry for two posts in one day, but this annoys the heck out of me. I started the year's second book, and it's BAD. I mean bad-bad. Self-published bad. The first paragraph:

"By the gods, pull the damn sword out," the man on the floor howled out into the tavern. Although down the bar, Glorias' ears heard him well enough. The aged warrior looked over at the figure laying face down on the dirty boards. A man screamed in agony while a halo of patrons surrounded him.

So many 'buh?'s in one paragraph! The first sentence is horrible. Remove everything outside of the dialog, add an exclamation mark. That doesn't make it into a good first sentence, but it makes it better. What the hell is up with the second sentence? Why "Although"? Third sentence is okay, other than I'd hyphenate "face-down" (complex adjective). The fourth sentence is the worst. What man? Why "A man"? When paired with the third sentence, it makes it sound like a totally different man is now being talked about!

Plus, on the very first page is a simple grammar error!

While a plump drunkard shambled over to shut the wooden door, Glorias' leaned out from the far end of the bar.

Glorias's what?

Plus their use of possessive on Glorias makes me all frowny. I know there's no ONE TRUE WAY to make a name ending in -s be possessive, but way I learned it (Strunk&White), a ' with no S after for possessive is used only in ancient, biblical names.

Charles's cookie.
Jesus' pie.

The publisher is Seventh Star Press, which I never heard of. Their website is ugly and clunky. I can't find mention of them elsewhere on the net. I'm assuming it's not self, based on this from their site:

Seventh Star Press does not accept or open unsolicited manuscripts. We are currently focusing on our 2009 release schedule and are not adding any new authors/projects at the moment. Please feel free to check back here, as any changes regarding this will be posted here..

Hi typo in their site, too! One or three periods! Pick one! ARG!

Comments

[veloxe.livejournal.com]

One of these days I'll figure out the whole possessives on an S ending. As of now it seems to pretty much come down to how I'm feeling at the time.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

For me, it was easy. That was the first rule I learned when I first discovered how much I love grammar. It's cool that there is a rule for it! ...it's just too bad that it's not the only rule for it.

[veloxe.livejournal.com]

If I remember my English courses correctly it was basically "ALWAYS!" with the S' as opposed to S'S. Although I find it looks strange without the other S after the apostrophe but then when I do include the other S it just makes me think of contractions like "it's" and "who's". Charles is cookies!

Damn you English! why can't you be simple like XHTML?

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Know what's really been bothering me lately?

Hoof, hooves.
Roof ... roofs.

What the heck is up with that! Suddenly my brain refuses to write anything other than "rooves".

[veloxe.livejournal.com]

I just blame hoof for this one. Should be hoove.

[quistie.livejournal.com]

I know I am way too neurotic about possessives, but here goes...

For proper names, if only one individual is being discussed, there is an s following the apostrophe. For example, Thomas's thesis, not Thomas' thesis.

If more than one individual is being discussed, then no s after the apostrophe. For instance, Adamses' residence.

For names ending with an eez sound, omit the s after the apostrophe. So, Ares' Mask is correct. (FFXI has "Ares's Mask," which is incorrect.)

[veloxe.livejournal.com]

Firstly, that icon is so awesome.

I will remember this rule from now on. If for no other reason then because I don't want to fail Professor Grimlock.

[quistie.livejournal.com]

Yes, Professor Grimlock is my favorite icon! I believe it came from the promotional material for the Grimlock's New Brain episode.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Hm. We're saying the same thing in two different ways, I think. "Ancient biblical" names end in the eez sound when they end in an S (Jesus, Moses).

I hadn't thought about the "If more than one individual is being discussed" part though, that's good to know!

[quistie.livejournal.com]

Jesus is an exception to the rule. It does not end in an eez sound as you mentioned, so I am not sure why the s is omitted there. I believe Chicago Manual of Style simply explained it was an exception...

I am not sure about Moses, honestly. I assume the s is not omitted, but it could be another exception for all I know.

[ani-mama.livejournal.com]

The big problem with English grammar is that there are so many exceptions to the rules! XD

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Totally agreed! It drives me crazy sometimes! Then I learn something new and get all happy again. :P

[awhisperofdusk.livejournal.com]

Beyond the objective errors, of which there are many, I would argue that the book starts off at a pretty awful place. ._. There's in media res, and then there's your story flopping around on the ground, confusing the reader.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

100% agreed. Media res can work great, but in this case? It doesn't at all.

[prettyredeyes.livejournal.com]

Ew. Sounds like bad fic. Only bad fic is usually free and you can hit the back button and escape relatively unscathed.

I grew up with several teachers who drilled for NO S after the apostrophe. So I may be wrong now but my brain can't seem to unlearn Thomas' cookies. :o

It did manage to unlearn the rest of the drilling that 'ain't' ain't a word. XD I don't really use that at all anymore (unless it's appropriate for some character I'm writing, which is exceedingly rare) but there were several years of gloating there when they added it to the dictionary.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it reads like awful fanfic. I'm so tired of getting burned by this self publishing crap! It's worse than bad fanfic and you have to pay real money for it!

I got lucky with "ain't". I rarely heard it other than rare character dialog in books, so it never got stuck in my head.

but there were several years of gloating there when they added it to the dictionary.

Ha! :D

[loup_noir]

I just finished reading what purported to be a professionally published book, and it was riddled with typos, homonym mistakes, and hideous grammar. Even bestsellers from major publishing houses have problems. It's a shame that, in an effort to keep costs down, editing gets punted.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Agreed. Not all self-publishing is bad, not all of professional publishing is good. It annoys me to heck when I read a book from a major publishing house with typos. If I can find them, someone else sure should be able to!

[avocado-love.livejournal.com]

Ack. You're right, that's terrible! Sometimes you can get that from small presses. They don't have a lot of budget for editing, or are just plain bad at it. Or... well, I hate to be cynical, but quite a few people who are self published realize the stigma of it and so create their own publishing houses to hide the fact that they're self pubbing. I don't think this is the case here, but I have come across it a time or two.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I suspect this might be a really, really small press instead of self-published, but based on the quality of the website... I don't expect good books from them. c.c

[chichiri.livejournal.com]

Did you know that the book was self published before you got it?

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

No. I almost never buy self published books if I know ahead of time. The only exception is if they're by someone I know. When it comes to self published books written by people I don't know, there has never been one case where it wasn't so badly written/edited that it was unreadable.

[kamalloy.livejournal.com]

Yeah, looks like some research may be warranted when you're thinking about books from publishers you don't know.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately that's the case. You can't even trust reviews anymore!