Dear Authors

[ladysprite]

Please take at least a little time and energy to research the details of what you're writing about, lest you wind up looking like an idiot in the eyes of your readers. Especially if you're creating an intricately detailed world, and then wind up including completely irrelevant details that are unnecessary for plot, draw attention to themselves by being forced in out of the blue, and irk your readers to the point that they wind up getting drawn again and again into ever-worsening frustration and distraction over, say, the fact that the average sheep does NOT, in fact, weigh a quarter-ton.

I'm looking at you, Jim Butcher.

In other news, I have been informed that a "blue-faced leicester" sounds less like a kind of sheep and more like Cockney slang for a criminal act. I shudder to think of what said act might be, though.....

Comments

[spiritdancer]

Another example: fantasy novel where the heroine make a deal with the fae king, involving her having twins, the one child going to the fae in exchange for "the luck" for her family for the next generation (a deal the family has had for many generations). All thru the book, you are told that the deal has to be kept. When the babies show up, the fae king takes both children. Uh, hey, you broke the bargain, king - you lose. Instead the heroine gets to be Janet to Tamlin ::arrrgh::.

Oh, and the age of the heroine and her brother at the time he was taken by the fae seems to be variable, including who was older. Makes me want to make an edit pass & send the darn thing back, as that is nonsense a beta reader should thwap the author with. Too bad, as she used to be a favorite of mine. I suppose it's related to the editors (or lack thereof) at that particular publisher.

At least I borrowed it from the library, and didn't buy my own copy, or I'd be sorely tempted to mail my copy, with pointed snarky comments added, to the author asking for a clean copy or a refund.

[visp.livejournal.com]

But hey, maybe the fae king thought he could get away with cheating.

[spiritdancer]

Then the heroine should argue that point when she goes to collect the kids, rather than agree to go thru the trial. The "king" in this case seems to be an earned title from his clan, and that cheat showed him as not worthy to lead (stated in the epilogue - not the cheat, but what he put the heroine up to).

The book in question, btw, is Home from the Sea by Mercedes Lackey, under the Luna imprint. Luna was one of the first to cross-over romance with fantasy, with more of an emphasis on the romance. Lackey has done very well there, apparently, but the writing seems to have suffered quite a bit (see the note about reading a library copy - things have gone downhill enough that I'll still check it out, but only when I happen across a copy).

[spiritdancer]

I've been doing beta reading for a couple of authors on and off for a few years. What I'm having problems with in the book? Should have been torn apart by anyone actually reading for content before the darn thing hit the printer. I'm guessing there was a tight deadline, proofing for spelling/grammar only, and an editor who didn't really care about anything but getting the book out on the market in a hurry.