{"id":651,"date":"2020-09-10T08:18:03","date_gmt":"2020-09-10T08:18:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/undinestudios.com\/blog\/?p=651"},"modified":"2021-08-19T03:17:50","modified_gmt":"2021-08-19T03:17:50","slug":"first-world-problems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/undinestudios.com\/blog\/?p=651","title":{"rendered":"First World Problems"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I\u2019m<\/span><\/span> about to complain about the most first-world of all first-world problems, so before anyone reads this, I warn you: the following may prove to be a very unsatisfying read, and it basically amounts to me grumbling about not getting a free lunch. <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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I enjoy reading and writing. Reading is easy. But writing, if I\u2019m trying to do it the right way, can present many challenges. Some are easy to overcome, while others have stumped me for years. Some things I can\u2019t even articulate well enough to ask Google. Overcoming any of these challenges, easy or difficult, is incredibly satisfying. <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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I use a service called NetGalley, a tool for authors and publishers to give readers a free copy of a book in exchange for a review. Independent authors typically use this (expensive) service because they\u2019re desperate for anyone, literally anyone, to read and review their book. (It\u2019s attractive to me for this reason!) Publishers typically use this service ahead of a book\u2019s release so that, by the time the release date rolls around, there\u2019s already a solid buzz and a good number of reviews praising the book. <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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One of my requests for an advance review copy (ARC) of a book was approved recently, and there was much rejoicing\u2014many of my requests are denied, since a positive review from little old me will generate very little buzz. After downloading the book to my Kindle, I saw this familiar disclaimer: \u201cDigital Galley Edition. This is uncorrected advance content collected for your reviewing convenience. Please check with publisher or refer to the finished product whenever you are excepting or quoting in a review.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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(All this means is that readers shouldn\u2019t freak out if they run into typos or bizarre sentences, because proofreaders and editors haven\u2019t yet made the final pass.) <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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I realized before I even finished the first few chapters that I was going to love that book. And I was right; now that I\u2019m done, I can say with confidence that it\u2019s the best book I\u2019ve read all year. It\u2019s creative, it has compelling characters, good pacing. Truly, it\u2019s a good book. <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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But there were also many issues with the text. And I\u2019m not talking about typos\u2014though there were many\u2014I\u2019m talking about accidental rhymes, repetitive sentences, instances where the same word was used three or four or even five times in a single sentence. There were passages where, when the author talked about something that occurred in the distant past, \u201chad\u201d preceded literally every single verb. <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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These issues excited me, because I knew that I was going to buy this book. (Sidebar: I will typically buy a physical copy of a book I enjoyed, even if I received a free digital copy, just so I can have something to put on my shelf.) And I realized that if I took good notes on this uncorrected proof copy, then I could compare it to the finished book and, basically, get a free peek behind the curtain; I\u2019d be able to see exactly where professional editors and proofreaders tightened things up. I\u2019d get to see which sentences were rewritten, to see how many instances of \u201chad\u201d would be removed from a character\u2019s memory, to see whether an editor thought en dashes with spaces on both sides warranted corrections (to be em dashes without spaces). <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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There was even an instance where a semicolon and an en dash (masquerading as an em dash) were used in the same sentence. <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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So yesterday I finally get the physical copy of this book. I pull out my Kindle and immediately start comparing the notes. And, woe is me, the text is completely unchanged from the uncorrected proof copy I read. Even the typos and dropped words are exactly as they were in the ARC. I was shocked. This isn\u2019t the first time I\u2019ve purchased a first-edition hardcover book, and I understand readers should expect errors in a first edition (Ringworld, for example, had the main character traveling around the world to extend the length of his birthday, but the character was flying around the world in the wrong direction, hardy har har), but I\u2019ve never see this many errors before. <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Mostly, I\u2019m dispirited by this because I didn\u2019t get my free lunch\u2014as an aspiring writer, I was hoping to see exactly what would chap the butts of professionals, to see what would warrant re-writes. But it also just stinks to have a physical book from a major publisher with so many straight-up errors. Books are pretty much the only place these days where the written word really matters. <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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A friend pointed out it\u2019s possible the uncorrected proof was used by mistake; that there\u2019s an immaculate manuscript floating around somewhere, but because no one is in the office due to the pandemic, someone slipped up and grabbed the wrong digital file. I don\u2019t know. But when the paperback releases next year, I\u2019ll definitely thumb through it at my local bookstore to see if anything has been updated. <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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I am bummed.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m about to complain about the most first-world of all first-world problems, so before anyone reads this, I warn you: the following may prove to be a very unsatisfying read, and it basically amounts to me grumbling about not getting a free lunch. \u00a0 I enjoy reading and writing. Reading is easy. But writing, if …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/undinestudios.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/undinestudios.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/undinestudios.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/undinestudios.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/undinestudios.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=651"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/undinestudios.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":652,"href":"https:\/\/undinestudios.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651\/revisions\/652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/undinestudios.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/undinestudios.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/undinestudios.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}