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Wherein I ramble about books, movies,
music, TV shows, my life, and occasionally, hot emo boys.
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Monday, February 19, 2007
A view to a rant
Since I've been reviewing ebooks, both for Bam's site and RRT, something has become clear to me. I said this on Bam's blog in the comments:
I stand by that comment. I wish epublishers were a little tougher in their criteria, even if it means I get rejected more. I'm not against epublishing, quite the contrary. I love ebooks. In fact, that's what I buy most of because I live in Mexico and I don't have a BN or a Borders nearby anymore. So if I want some fresh reads, I go online.
Epubs offer a chance to stories that are too edgy or too far off the beaten path to have a chance anywhere else. I love the variety. Gems like FINDING HOME by Lauren Baker and Bonnie Dee and NOBODY'S HERO by Diana Bold (I'll be writing a review of this for RRT) simply shine.
However, the main bone I have to pick with the industry as it's developing -- and Mrs. Giggles already touched on this, though her focus was publisher-hopping -- is prolific authors who publish twenty short stories a month. Many belong in an anthology, and some shouldn't be read outside a critique group. As a reader, I don't feel I'm getting my money's worth for $3 / 14 pages.
There's no story. In general it's 2 pages of infodump backstory and twelve pages of boinking. I have nothing against boinking. I love it, but I want an actual story, complete with plot, motivations, conflict, characterization, setting, all the bells and whistles. What remains is porn, if badly written. If it's elegant, then call it erotica. Honestly, though, I don't need to buy wanking material. Literotica has tons of free sex stories and some are just as well written as what certain epubs sell. That's a problem.
Maybe authors will line up to prove me wrong. Maybe there are tons of stories out there that are fully fledged in 14 pages. I just haven't found them.
The mistake a lot of authors make is putting stuff out that just isn't ready. It either needs a lot more revision or it needs to be scrapped as a practice project. The proliferation of epubs means that just about anything can find a home somewhere, but that doesn't mean it should.
I stand by that comment. I wish epublishers were a little tougher in their criteria, even if it means I get rejected more. I'm not against epublishing, quite the contrary. I love ebooks. In fact, that's what I buy most of because I live in Mexico and I don't have a BN or a Borders nearby anymore. So if I want some fresh reads, I go online.
Epubs offer a chance to stories that are too edgy or too far off the beaten path to have a chance anywhere else. I love the variety. Gems like FINDING HOME by Lauren Baker and Bonnie Dee and NOBODY'S HERO by Diana Bold (I'll be writing a review of this for RRT) simply shine.
However, the main bone I have to pick with the industry as it's developing -- and Mrs. Giggles already touched on this, though her focus was publisher-hopping -- is prolific authors who publish twenty short stories a month. Many belong in an anthology, and some shouldn't be read outside a critique group. As a reader, I don't feel I'm getting my money's worth for $3 / 14 pages.
There's no story. In general it's 2 pages of infodump backstory and twelve pages of boinking. I have nothing against boinking. I love it, but I want an actual story, complete with plot, motivations, conflict, characterization, setting, all the bells and whistles. What remains is porn, if badly written. If it's elegant, then call it erotica. Honestly, though, I don't need to buy wanking material. Literotica has tons of free sex stories and some are just as well written as what certain epubs sell. That's a problem.
Maybe authors will line up to prove me wrong. Maybe there are tons of stories out there that are fully fledged in 14 pages. I just haven't found them.
Labels: SBD
I agree with that 100%!! I recently bought several new ebooks from a publisher i'd never used before and was appalled that the $3 and $4 books i bought ranged from 16 pages to 30 pages. In one case I thought i was buying Part 2 in a series and it was most definitely Chapter Two. I kept hitting the scroll button on my Palm, wondering where the HELL the rest of the story was.
I've read some epubbed books that were really shit. Most of them are good to very good to extremely good, but that's because I'm very discerning and tend to buy only from the biggest epubs. I've read some of the stuff the other comapnies put out and while most of it, as you said, just needs more editing, I've read a few things that never should have made it out of the box under the bed. Never ever ever.
December, I know you can just as easily find a dreadful book on the shelves of a brick and mortar bookstore. I've certainly read my share of books that way that left me blinking in astonishment that the thing actually got published. But for ebooks it's even more seductive.
Annie Author finishes a book and thinks it's lovely, so she emails it to ten epublishers. Chances are, somebody is going to take it just like it is, playing those odds. She doesn't need to agonize over whether it's ready. She works in volume, not quality. That bothers me. I know volume earns more money but is it really best for one's career long term? I'd rather be known for putting out great books than lots of them.
With my books, I have to really comb through the mega-novels myself, because I tend to wear out the editor really fast; it seems I don't get many comments or requests to change things because (I guess) my books are usually so long. I regret that Dead to the World wasn't as well edited as I would have liked, but I did learn my lesson for My Sun and Stars and combed through that one myself.
I don't work in volume, though.
L.E. Bryce
www.lebryce.com
Probably be unwise to admit this on my own blog, but I'm viewing this more as a science experiment than an actual step up.It's not even written in my style, its more a corny, emotional jugular type thing. But I hope it serves as a way to see what the process is like, even though I feel like a bit of a hack for doing it.
I definitely agree that the quality of epubs is spotty. My CPs and I were just chatting about this "problem" last night, in fact. And that chat, along with your rant, is what led to today's post on my blog (which isn't written just yet, but should be up fairly soon!).
Hi, Jacq. I'll certainly check it out.