Do Readers Even Care About Editing?
I guess this is more of a concern than an insecurity, but it seems like an appropriate topic for the Insecure Writers Support Group, founded by Alex. J. You-know-who-I'm-talkin'-about Cavanaugh.
We writers talk a lot about the importance of editing and spend countless hours polishing our pieces and seeking knowledgeable feedback before editing and polishing some more. And that's just to get it ready to be considered for publication. Before it makes its way onto Amazon, most of our manuscripts will be subjected to further scrutiny by a professional editor.
What I'm wondering is---is all this editing a colossal waste of time as far as readers are concerned? I mean, sure, for our own satisfaction we want our work presented to the world in its most polished form, and there will certainly be other writers and critics with their eagle eyes upon it, but does the average reader even notice or care? I'm kind of thinking they don't.
If they did, how would books like Twilight, The Hunger Games, and Fifty Shades of Grey become such consistent best sellers? It seems that once enchanted by a plot and/or characters, most readers are either willing to put up with or don't even notice that a book is in sore need of another hefty round of edits. They'll overlook repetitive phrasing, inconsistencies, and awkward, often incorrect, sentence structure so long as the story itself has pulled them in.
So if readers don't care about editing, why should I? Why should any of us?
BREAKING NEWS: Hey, as you're bopping about the hop today, be sure to stop by Stephen Tremp's new place. Mean ol' Google erroneously shut down his blog & now he's got to start from scratch! Let's all give him a follow, eh? Oh, he's also announcing a great Get Healthy blog hop.
Comments
Books don't need edits as much as writers do. After you've been doing this for years, *you've* undergone massive revising and what you write doesn't need to have fuck tweaked out of it.
That's what Girl thinks. Great post, babe.
And I do care for an edited story. But I don't give bad marks if the editing is average. I just like a great story.
Really interesting question you raise, my dear. After going through the editing process, I cannot stomach novels that have obnoxious, repeated errors. But before that I didn't mind too much. Characterization is still most important. Christian Grey and Edward Cullen's tremendous characterization (in my opinion) allowed me to overlook some flaws.
Sometimes an error can take the reader right out of the flow of the book -- some never return.
Poor ole Stephen. I'll pay him a visit...D
For me, I'd want a highly polished product...especially if it's something out there for public consumption. Literary works have the potential to transcend the ages and I'd hate to have my work known as 'crap' throughout time :)
Thanks for the shout out about the hop..
RAIN ALL WEEK IN ORLANDO AND DISNEY... I want to come home NOW. LOl. Honesty the weather here has been a great disappointment.
BUT trying to have fun anyway....
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