Predisposition

[Nik]

Guys, would appreciate your opinion on the following.
This is what one of the reviewers wrote in her review of my book:
"Considering the author was born in Kiev, I expected to find some grammatical and syntax errors."
First of all, I want to clarify that I'm totally fine with her review and have no problem whatsoever with it.
But it made me think, that in a broader sense when a reader looks at the name of the author and it has a foreign sound to it, intuitively some (hopefully not many) would assume it might be inferior in language, quality, grammar, etc.
What do you think?

[Bill]

There may be some truth to that. But I think there are quite a few other things--which may or may not have anything to do with the quality of writing--that people tend to judge quickly before the ever worry about the author's name, e.g., cover, title, number of reviews, etc. If you have all of these bases covered, I doubt you will lose many sales--if any--on account of a foreign sounding name. But...It's kind of hard to say without knowing the exact name, or in what genre you write. In any case, I certainly wouldn't assume that the grammar was bad based on a name.

[Lisa]

Do you say somewhere in your bio that you were born in Kiev? Assuming just because you have a foreign sounding last name that you were born in a particular place is like saying "because his name is Smith, I was expecting him to have a better understanding of the basic forging processes". It's never crossed my mind to judge a book to be inferior writing because the author's name sounds like English might not be their first language.

[[deleted user]]

I would not assume beforehand if the writer was not born in a land that English was their first language, that there would be grammatical errors. If I found them once I was in there, I would make the connection. I read this year, "Zorro" by Chilean author Isabel Allende, and it was one of the finest stories and best editing jobs ever.

Send me the first chaper of your book and I will look it over to see what may or may not be needed or if there was any validity to what they said. morris.graham@sbcglobal.net

Morris

[Nik]

Thanks for the reassuring words, Bill and Lisa..
I was only slightly concerned about that, but as soon as I saw this sentence that the reviewer put, I thought to myself that such an assumption, resulting from name or bio, may actually cross many minds.
Imaging a 'moment of truth' when a potential buyer is looking at the list of books on Amazon, hesitating which to purchase and takes a momentarily decision, even a slightly alien element may probably deter some. I hope the percentage of 'missed sales' would be insignificant though ...
I do mention in my bio (not on GR), but on Amazon that I was born in Kiev, USSR and some other details, as I write books about oligarchs, set partially in former USSR and the bio helps proving competence to that extent.
I can probably address this concern by assuming an Anglo-Saxon pen name, but on the other hand I have 2 books already under Nik Krasno, so whatever little reputation, I have acquired as an author, would be lost... Dilemma -:)

[Srdjan]

Stereotypes, that's what it is. It really depends, I have seen people that are perfect in grammar but horrible with pronunciation and the other way around. Sometimes you just have better educations and sometimes people are more willing to go the extra mile to learn grammar.

Basically it's not really a bad thing, I mean if you are good it will work in your favor on the other hand if you are bad it will just enforce the stereotype.

[Nik]

Morris wrote: "I would not assume beforehand if the writer was not born in a land that English was their first language, that there would be grammatical errors. If I found them once I was in there, I would make t..."

Many thanks for your offer, Morris. I'm sending it over..

[Nik]

Srdjan wrote: "Stereotypes, that's what it is. It really depends, I have seen people that are perfect in grammar but horrible with pronunciation and the other way around. Sometimes you just have better educations..."

I spent some decent money on editing and proofreading and I hoped that most readers would assume that much and won't disqualify the book for stereotypes. I would assume that even Shakespear or Byron would have used proofreading, if they had that option -:)

[Bill]

Maybe it's just me...but I would assume Nik Krasno was a fictitious pen name, rather than a legitimate, foreign name.

[Nik]

Bill wrote: "Maybe it's just me...but I would assume Nik Krasno was a fictitious pen name, rather than a legitimate, foreign name."

That would be a fine assumption, but not many would give it a second thought -:)

[Micah]

When I read something from an author with a name that sounds "foreign," I naturally assume they are a writer.

That is, I expect every writer to be a professional. I don't expect grammatical errors or poor sentence structure or improper use of words. I expect a well-written book.

Expecting anything else would be like expecting a chef who is not Japanese to make low-quality sushi. If they're selling sushi, it should be good sushi. I don't care if the chef is Anglo, Hispanic, African, or Eurasian. If you serve food, it should be well prepared food.

If you write books, they should be well-written books.

[[deleted user]]

Micah "If you write books, they should be well-written books."

And that says it all.

Morris

[Owen]

Nik wrote: "Guys, would appreciate your opinion on the following.
This is what one of the reviewers wrote in her review of my book:
"Considering the author was born in Kiev, I expected to find some grammatical..."

I put this in the same category as: "Considering this is a book by an indie author, I expected to find some grammatical..."

I see that a lot. Some reviewers bring up such things, for whatever reason. I don't find it significant.

[Nik]

Thanks, guys, for your valuable input!
After all, Nabokov somehow coped with it and ended up with his 'Lolita' considered among the best modern classics and Orest Stelmach now does that well too...