Quality Control

I had intended to save this topic for a later date, but something just happened that prompts me to bring it up now.

On the recommendation of a Facebook friend, I downloaded a western historical by an author I'm not familiar with. I thought, oh, good, a new author with a whole list of books I haven't read already. Eagerly, I opened to the first page and started reading. The first brief paragraph was in the hero's point of view. The second paragraph was in the heroine's. What? That's where I stopped, and I won't be returning to this book. I refuse to read a book written by someone who ignores the rules of craft that I've had drummed into my head for the past fifteen years and that I abide by at all costs. How much easier it would be to whip out the pages if I didn't have to follow even the most basic rules, such as NO HEAD-HOPPING. This book was not self-published, nor was it from a small press. I find it hard to swallow that such blatant head-hopping is still allowed by the big pubs in this day and time. I mean really. First two paragraphs of the book!

End of rant.

Now, to the real topic of this post. Quality control.

A year ago, one of the reasons I wouldn't have considered self-publishing was the issue of quality control. With Amazon's Kindle program, B&N's Pubit, and a whole host of others, anyone out there, even down to their siblings and cousins, can publish any old thing they whip out on a word processing program and it doesn't cost them a dime to do it. How are the book buying consumers supposed to wade through all the crap to find books worth reading? It seemed there was no answer because the vetting process, the gatekeepers, had been taken out of the equation. This lack of any kind of quality control was the one aspect of the self-publishing stampede that troubled me the most.

Then, the ebook retailers provided the solution, and it was so simple. It's called sampling. All the major ebook retailers have sampling on their sites. You can try the beginning of any ebook before you commit to buying it. The sample depends on the book length. I checked and the sample of my book is something just over the first two chapters. Shorter lengths may only be the first chapter or so. Plenty enough material to tell whether or not a book is well written--or not--and if it's something we want to spend time reading. I even sample the books from the big NY pubs and I've run across quite a few clunkers that I decided not to waste my time or money on, and this after the blurbs made them sound so good. Thank goodness for samples. Now we don't have to rely on reader reviews, which may or may not have been posted by the author's friends and family.

Samples are definitely our friends.

Have you tried sampling yet?

Into The Weeds

As an avid reader, there's something that's been bugging me for quite a while. So I have to ask, how many times has this happened to you? You're reading an absolutely delicious book by one of your favorite authors. You're three-quarters of the way through it and, so far, it's been nothing but pure escapist joy. And then, and then... somewhere between the black moment and the resolution, the author drags you so far off into the weeds you begin to lose sight of why the book was so fabulous up to this point. And instead of ending with a bang or such a heart-wrenching scene you're forced to sit the box of tissues on the table next to you, it limps along to an uninspired conclusion that leaves you with the feeling you've been cheated somehow.

I have two theories about why this might happen.

a.) The author is a pantser and has no earthly idea how she is going to resolve the story, so she meanders around until the problem resolves itself. Or...

b.) The author pens the black moment, then realizes she could wrap it up in one more chapter. But wait! She's still 20 thousand words shy of her projected word count, so she shoves the hero and heroine into the weed patch and lets them grope around aimlessly--sometimes even doing things that run contrary to what we've learned about their character--until the necessary wordage has been achieved, at which time she thrusts them back together and resolves the thing.

Thankfully, most authors are not guilty of this. But there are a handful who come to my mind who are repeat offenders. One in particular is such a fabulous writer, I'm always heartbroken when she strays off the path. And I have to wonder how she stays on the bestseller lists.

Question--can you tell which of your favorite authors (no names, please) are plotters and which are pantsers just by reading their books?

Happy reading, and watch out for those weeds!

Devon

Friday Firsts

Since a lot of bloggers have a Friday "thing" they do, I thought I'd start my own and call it Friday Firsts. Every Friday (Lord willin' and the creek don't rise), I'll list three random books from my keeper shelves along with the very first line in each book. We've all heard about the importance of first lines so the point of this is to see if the first lines of our favorite books are attention grabbers, or not. Here goes.

Stranger In My Arms by Lisa Kleypas - 1998

"Lady Hawksworth, your husband is not dead."

(This is my all-time favorite Kleypas. Don't ask me why. I think it reminded me of A Rose in Winter, for some reason.)

Allie's Moon by Alexis Harrington - 2000

Althea Ford needed a man and she'd walked all the way to town to find one.

(The appeal of this one was that the hero was the town drunk. The heroine dragged him up by the scruff of his neck and reformed him. Very Americana-ish.)

The Outsider by Penelope Williamson - 1996

He came into their lives during the last ragged days of a Montana winter.

(This is the best portrait of a gunslinger ever written in a romance novel, in my opinion. I wish Ms. Williamson still wrote historicals, but she changed her name and went to mystery suspense. Too bad.)

Happy writing and reading! And have a great weekend!

Devon

In With A Whimper...

From where I'm sitting, this year certainly hasn't started off with the kind of bang I had hoped for. My heart goes out to everyone everywhere who is suffering and grieving right now. I'm sick at heart over the catastrophe in Haiti. It's impossible to imagine the horror those people are living every day. I lost someone very close to me over the holidays and I'm just now starting to come to terms with it. Closer to home, my thoughts and prayers are also with Magdalena Scott and family. Stay strong, Mags. Your writing family is here if you need us.

Now, for a complete change of subject...

Rules of Engagement, by Christina Dodd, was published in Oct. 2000. I know because I looked it up. Why? I received a Google alert about this book in my inbox the other day. It turns out the hero's name is Devon Matthews. How funny is that? If I ever happen to meet Ms. Dodd, I'll probably have to explain that my pseudonym is a combination of my children's given names and not a ripoff of her character. I may have to buy a copy now and read it. Just because.

I haven't been online much during the past many weeks, but I have been writing. More recently, I've been working on a laptop that isn't online. I disabled the wireless function so I'd have no temptations or distractions. My goal for the year is to finish three projects. Two full-length and one short. Wish me luck. :o)

Devon

Wednesday Hodgepodge

Some book buyer stats that I found interesting came in today's market update from Cindi Myers.

According to PubTrack™ Consumer, a service of R.R. Bowker, LLC.:

23% of books are purchased through online purchase/e-commerce

22% are sold through large chains (Barnes & Noble, Borders, Books-a-Million)

10% are sold through book clubs

7% through independents

6% through mass merchandisers (Wal-Mart, Target, Kmart)

4% through warehouse clubs (Sam’s, Costco, BJs)

2% through supermarket/grocery stores

1% each through discount stores, drug stores, religious bookstores and book fairs

22% through a variety of "Other outlets" which includes author hand-to-hand sales, churches and other organizations, craft fairs, speakers selling from the back of the auditorium, etc.

I have no idea how this would translate to romance sales, but I'd be interested to know. I remember a few short years ago, the claim was that Amazon and other online retailers accounted for only 2% of romance sales. I think it's safe to say that number has probably drastically changed.

I have a gripe. (So what else is new?) Lately I've been trying desperately to find a romance I can lose myself in. I prefer historicals because I read for pure escapism, so the farther away from today's reality I can get, the better I like it. Within the past month I've bought three historical romances. The first book--a very popular and highly reviewed Regency Historical from Avon--was a wallbanger for me because the hero did something early on that made him so unsympathetic I couldn't bring myself to read any farther to find out if he redeemed himself or not. He was so repugnant, I did not care. The second and third books are an Avon and Harlequin, respectively. Another Regency-set and a Western. Both are so full of anachronisms, I'm constantly yanked out of the story. I have to wonder what's going on with editors these days. Most of all, why aren't these authors doing a better job of policing their own writing? I'm familiar with both these authors and they're both better than this. So I have to wonder what's going on with all the modern terminology and even slang being sprinkled through these historicals.

For anyone reading this who writes historicals, here's a link for the online Etymology Dictionary. Just click on the words and it will take you there. When in doubt, click over to the dictionary and it will tell you the definition(s) and year the word in question came into use. This is such a handy tool, I keep a shortcut right on my desktop. End of rant.

Okay. Getting back to the manuscript now. Hubby's working evenings this week, so the next several hours are mine, mine, ALL MINE!

Devon

Sloan Seymour's Debut

I know it's been a few days since I've blogged, but I have a good excuse. I've been writing!

I wanted to get on here and tell you about a new author, who's also a friend and chapter mate, and introduce her debut novel, That Montana Summer. The book, which is a contemporary romance set on a ranch in Montana, releases in e-format today over at The Wild Rose Press. The print version will be out in the fall.

Sloan Seymour is a natural storyteller with a gift, and I was so tickled when she received her very first review today from The Romance Studio. Here's a link to the full review.

The reviewer, evidently, saw the same thing I saw in Sloan's story the first time I read her writing. Pure talent. She's got a huge career ahead of her. Her characterizations are some of the best I've read anywhere and she lends such authenticity to her settings, you think you're there. I highly recommend That Montana Summer and can't wait until Sloan finishes her current work in progress.

Devon

What I'm Reading

"Loving Mercy" by Teresa Bodwell is the western historical romance I ordered last week. I started reading it a couple of nights ago, and I'm enjoying it very much. Ms. Bodwell's style and kickass heroine remind me just a bit of Maggie Osborne, whose books I loved and miss.

Here's the blurb from the back cover:

~~~~~~

Mercy Clarke had no trouble getting a hundred head of cattle to Abilene. Getting back home through five hundred miles of untamed frontier is something else again, especially with a handsome gambler like Thad Buchanan tagging along. He swears to pay her in gold if she guides him to Fort Victory, but she doesn't quite trust his fine manners and gentlemanly ways. And then there's that look in his eyes--he could make her forget that she's sworn off men for good...

As Thad sees it, the same rules apply to playing poker and loving women: it's all about knowing when to hold 'em. And come to think of it, a pretty lady like Mercy Clarke would fit very nicely in his arms. Now, if she could be persuaded to put down that rawhide whip and tell him exactly what she has in mind, he has no doubt they could come to an agreement that will satisfy them both. No doubt at all...

~~~~~~

What I've read so far leads me to think there's more "story" here than the blurb implies. And I hope that turns out to be true. Kensington has been gearing its marketing toward selling everything with a sexual angle. I think (and hope) this book is more than that. If so, it might just bring me back to reading. I'll be keeping an eye on Ms. Bodwell and looking out for more books from her.

Devon