Oh people who are all nobby about books

[LordPalmerston]

"Oh I love a real book". "I can see how much ice got left". Oh fgs ebooks are way better one handed reading. Easy storage. Easy to buy and HUGE FONT option for when you've forgotten your glasses or are drunk


Why do people go into mini orgasm about paper ?

[wordfactory]

But yes, much self published stuff makes me very grateful for my editor's assistance!

[mignonnette]

Some great daily deals on Kindle here. Have got 'Walden on Wheels'. Sounds great. Have a look at the 'Under 2,99 section as some very good choices there.

[mignonnette]

No matter how well a person writes, the lack of an objective and skilled editor's hand makes them unreadable for me.

Can you imagine AA Gills copy if he self published as by his own admission his dyslexia makes it unreadable and have heard that despite his self aggrandising re grammar, Giles Coren's copy is pretty bad.

[wordfactory]

mignon I'm dyslexic too! .

I'm very lucky that I have a trusted Beta Reader who gives all my stuff a first pass, weeding out anyhting my obvious that my software doesn't pick up.

She also knows my work really well and gets what I'm trying to do.

I then send to my agent and ed for comments.

Then there's the a host of other folk who pass their eyes over it prior to publication.

I think the main difficulty foir any novelist is not so much the minutae but the piece as a whole. Does this novel work? That is a very very difficult thing for the writer to be able to see and assess.

[mignonnette]

I am doubly impressed by anybody with Dyslexia who earns a living via the written word. My DH is severely dyslexic and he left MH nursing because the stress of ensuring his written records were double checked within a system that does not provide this service was too much for him after 27 years of it. He was a manager too and you can imagine the problems if you miss write or miss read 'Sulpiride' and 'Amisulpiride' on a drugs chart.

I hope my post didn't come across as disparaging about Dyslexia Word because I truly did not intend it to sound like that.

I imagine that protecting ones style and tone when having to submit to such a rigorous editorial process could be challenging especially earlier on in a writing career when one is establishing a voice.

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

I'm dyslexic, and I have just handed in a thesis that had over 4000 words of errors (to put that in perspective, apparently most people have somewhere between 20 and 80; over 100 is considered sloppy - so my examiner says). My examiner's report points out that until I learn not to fuck up singular/plural correspondences when writing, I will not be publishable.

What annoys me about A A Gill is that he's a monumental wanker, not anything else. Editors do an amazing job.

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

(Oh, and if it's not clear, I am in awe of wordfactory too.)

[wordfactory]

Not at all mignon .

TBF I am not prfoundly dyslexic. I learned to read at a normal age, I just have to read more slowly than many people, I think.

This is actually no bad thing for a writer. It makes me read in a different way to a normal reader. I see the nuts and bolts and the craft, especially vis a vis the structure of a story.

Writing can be slow for me. What I tend to do is all my drafting/analyzing/structuring in my head. I think this made me a decent lawyer (my previous job) and now really helps as a writer.

When I compare my problems with my Mum, it's a whole different sphere. My Mum finds words quite excrutiating. The talking book is her friend .

[mignonnette]

That is interesting to read Word. Plan to talk w/ DH about this. I have always been curious about what he 'sees' on a page. When I write (reports/assessments/journal articles on nursing etc) I also format in my head and appear to write the whole thing in like that then tumble it onto the page. I also prefer to write onto paper-WP doesn't stimulate my thought processes in the same manner-too conditioned by my early years of training and study when there were no WP's! I can see how this would guard against impulsivity in legal thinking.

LRD - Yes Gill is an arse. He apparently dictates his copy. Could you not use voice recognition or would this not be acceptable?

Well done BTW LRD. An achievement-a massive one. Having seen DH and my stepson struggle w/ Dyslexia I have some understanding of just how hard you must have worked. Maybe you will be publishable because I have never struggled to read anything you have written. I find you coherent and interesting to read.

[mignonnette]

I also need to proof before I press post.

[Fleta]

IMO there is a place for both paper books and e-readers. I prefer the former, but also use the latter.

I don't sneer at people that use e-readers. I don't expect to be sneered at because I have a personal preference.

Since my daughter was born I have bought her a "special" book each Christmas - on the most part they're classics. In each one I have written her a letter on the frontice piece - telling her why I love the book, where I bought it for her etc.

I couldn't do that with a kindle (and yes I know you can make notes on books, but its not the same)

[FrenchJunebug]

YABVVU I like books, paper, kindle, nook. Aren't you knobby about your kindle?!

[SacreBlue]

Fleta I did that but must admit I often was buying them as much for myself I still have a few very much loved children's books from my childhood as well as most of DS's hoping for grandchildren someday

We have an amazing local bookshop where I bought most of my uni books & the boy's children's books. The owner is wonderful & when DS was little he made a little book for the owner to say thank you for all the biscuits, books & chat he'd been given while I was trying to find my course books/study/have 5mins to just browse.

I do like being able to download something right away and yet that never takes away from the joy of finding a gem in the charity shop or visiting a locally run bookshop to just be

[Housemum]

I find it hard to part with any books, DD2 is going the same way, so I need to get Kindles so that we can go through the same quantity of books without stuffing the house to the rafters.

All that paper made me wonder, though, should Fahrenheit 451 be renamed for the Kindle edition? Wonder what temperature the plastic combusts at...