The first rule of wannabe writers is 'Don't be a jerk.'
The second rule of wannabe writers is 'Don't be a jerk.'
The funny bit:
Check out the oh-so-classy reaction of this self-published author to a review that she didn't entirely approve of.
Note that the review isn't altogether bad. The reviewer even commends the story as entertaining until the end, but he does mention numerous typos, spelling errors and grammatical mistakes. The comments are where it all goes sour, as the author takes it upon herself to correct the reviewer, with such gems as 'My writing is just fine' or 'My book is great'. If you read further down the comments, you'll find she stands proudly by her terrible grammar and syntax, telling people to f*ck off.
Just scan the review to get the jist of it, and look at the first ten or so comments for that lovely, self-righteous feeling of 'OMG, are people really that unaware?' Comments are closed now, which is just as well, but it did put my stressful morning in perspective.
The serious bit:
What shocked me most in all of this what that the author seemed to imply in her comments that the reviewer didn't understand her sentences because they weren't English? I'm not even sure, as this woman's wording is terrible, but I felt so incensed by her even implying that! I spent so long making sure my English was faultless, for someone who can't even realise their writing is imcomprehensible to come out with such an argument was cringe-worthy.
For the record, I thought the reviewer was definitely too indulgent about her grammar/syntax/general massacre of the English language. I wouldn't even have reviewed the book. I'd probably have asked for a refund. And applied for a job as her editor.
Here from random Googling.
ReplyDeletethe author seemed to imply in her comments that the reviewer didn't understand her sentences because they weren't English?
It's my understanding that the author was claiming that, since she was UK-born, the American reviewer might not understand some of her phrasing--that she wrote in English English, not American English.
Unfortunately for her, the sentence, "However, Katy detected in her mother in laws eyes her reading into something more with where they were really going together in life" is just as bad in UK English as it is in US English. Smashwords has a 20% sample of her book, which allows anyone to decide for themselves how bad it is.
Hi elf, welcome :)
ReplyDeleteI see what you're saying, thanks for clarifying that. It's a very poor excuse, though--it just doesn't really make sense. I live with two Americans, a Canadian and a Briton and we all understand each other. We also all write a lot better than that.
The sentence you quoted illustrates my point about the reviewer being lenient quite well. I'll tolerate typos if there aren't too many, but not everything can be put down to typos. This is downright mumbo-jumbo, not to mention that there are four punctuation marks missing in that sentence alone.