on The Book Shepherd:
In front of me were a newbie author and his first fiction manuscript. He was hesitant to speak as I welcomed him and then started asking a few questions.
Before he arrived in my office, I had quietly sat down and read the first three chapters to get a feel for his story and style of writing.
I knew it needed editing, but so do all books to some degree. The opening chapter had legs and moved me to the next, always a good sign. Could it move to the editing stage? My recommendation to him would be a yes, as was with the editor I would assign it to who had already done a pre-screening of the manuscript felt that it was ready to start formal editing.
The author was shocked that I could make that decision without reading all 100,000 words of his masterpiece. I felt his resistance reaching across my conference table.
Unfortunately the word ‘Princess’ is indeed gendered and layered with generations of bias against women and girls … how about the genderless ‘special snowflake’ appellation which has exactly the same usage in social media today?
Love you list, which these days applies for both indie and trad publishing dreams.
I had a chuckle at his, ‘have you read ALL 100,000 words?’
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Reblogged this on Stevie Turner and commented:
What usually happens is that newbie authors think they have written the next War and Peace, and are in a rush for the world to marvel at their expertise at creative writing. They don’t want to know or even admit they are are at the bottom of a steep learning curve, and therein lies the problem.
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