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

[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