Welcome, A to Z bloggers, visitors, and of course all my faithful regular readers! This year's theme for my A to Z:
Short & Sweet Reasons Why You Need an Editor
So without further ado . . .
Really bad books are everywhere.
When I first got a Kindle, years and years ago (2009, if I recall correctly), I discovered a thing called “Top 100 Free Books.” Not only could I get classics for free, but I had a list of 100 books at my twitchy, download-eager fingertips.
I naively loaded a bunch of them without even bothering to read some of the descriptions—because my Kindle, the newest of its type that Christmas, was equipped with “experimental 3G connection” that was convenient for speed but didn’t lend itself to any kind of decent book cover graphics (think one-inch thumbnails). It was the precursor to the Paperwhite, except mine had a tiny (tiny!) push-button keyboard to navigate, and no touchscreen capability. Hot stuff that Christmas, old news the following year.
I soon discovered that “Top 100” only meant “downloaded more than others.” At least 97 of those 100 books were absolute garbage, unedited and filled with writing that was worse than what a grade school child could put together.
You don’t have to search for bad books. Just don’t let yours be one of them.
I have a ton of those on my iPad. It's not just that many are poorly written and edited. With so many free books, the novelty has worn off.
ReplyDeleteI suppose that's how I feel, too. How many can I actually read before I die? Lol
DeletePaperwhite, 3G connection... I don't even know what those mean, haha. I'm only a little bit familiar with Kindle. But as always, the advice here shines through. Why doesn't it bother some people that they're putting out crap that will last forever online?
ReplyDeleteThe Paperwhite is cool because you can read it in the brightest sunlight outside and it still looks like newsprint. No glare, no washout. And the 3G was the super-big bonus that year, because all the other losers had to connect their Kindles to a computer to download books, whereas I had the magic of wireless connection from anywhere. I still ended up with a lot of crappy books, though—but I got them faster than anyone else.
DeleteHi Lynda - yes way too many poorly written books ... and even printed ones ... I gather Disinformation has been poorly produced. Just completely puts one off ... cheers Hilary
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure why there are still people out there who see it as a get-rich-quick scheme. You'd think they'd have learnd by now that it doesn't work that way.
DeleteLife is too short to read bad books, and there are so many. Like you say, Lynda, don't let ours be one of them. Oh, the pressure. :)
ReplyDeleteNice finding your blog.
Silvia
https://silviatomasvillalobos.wordpress.com
I seriously look around my house at times and wonder if I'll ever get around to rereading the books I've loved, and reading the as-yet-unread books on the shelves. I almost have to force myself to make time for pleasure reading when things get busy. I love it but can get lost in good books, so if I'm doing a lot of editing, I can't allow myself the luxury of hours on something that's not earning money.
DeleteThanks for the visit!
I think most first-time ebook buyers go through the "twitchy, download-eager fingertips" phase.
ReplyDeleteIt's the "kid let loose in a candy store" experience!
I think it's something most people can't stop themselves from doing at first. But once you realize the quality is not there, you start to become a lot more selective.
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