Preventing premature birth — of a book that is!

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Producing a quality book is an imperative, not an option

I have an invitation to, and will be speaking at, Book Fest in the Village, November 2. It’s located in Cocoa Beach, FL. The event is from 10 to 3. When contacted, I was tempted to use one of my talks that I’ve presented in other venues. However, in the last few days I’ve decided to address a subject that some authors either ignore or aren’t aware of the subjects importance. That is “finishing” your book.

In the past five weeks, I’ve been asked to read manuscripts for associates who wanted my opinion. Most times, I try to be critically accurate while remaining encouraging and kind when phrasing my thoughts. Maintaining this standard was a true test when reviewing these manuscripts. Of the four that I read, three weren’t even ready for an editor to review. Multitudes of typos, cut and paste errors, misused words, punctuation errors (on one page I recorded twenty-one), contextual mistakes, and some unbelievable sentence construction saturated the works. What horrified me…was in two of the three cases the writer was prepared to send the work to an agent for evaluation. The only evaluation such shoddy writing gets, is which way to fit it into a waste basket.

Unfortunately, many folks engaged in proliferating “literature” don’t have gate keepers to filter stuff that just isn’t ready for prime time. It hurts me. It hurts all writers. It hurts the trash producer most of all. When people purchase something that’s not a market-worthy product, it sours the buyer!

Sometimes a writer tells me, “Oh, my books are only $.99,” or “My books are free!” They’re not. People invest the most important commodity they have in reading a book, their time.

If you’re in the vicinity of Cocoa Beach on November 2, visit the Book Fest. I’ll have some “free” techniques to help you keep from producing the premature birth of your next book.

Notes:  I’ll be doing a historical presentation this Saturday for the American Association of University Women in Fort Myers, FL. Subject–The Patriot War, A war history would like to forget.

I’ll be at the Mixon Gift Shop in Bradenton, FL on the 28th from 9 to 3, to sign books and meet and greet. Later that day I’ll be at the Charlotte County Library Short Story awards program.

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