You Get What You Paid For

Two years ago, an author friend recommended that I:

1)  Read “Fiction Writer’s Workshop” by Josip Novakovich

2)  Read “Characters, Emotion, and Viewpoint” by Nancy Kress

3)  Read books of my genre to see how other authors are writing.

Not wanting to spend money on all the books I planned to read, I joined BookBub and ReadCheaply, and downloaded free books to my Kindle.  Approximately 390 books later (I’ve read perhaps half of the downloads), I have a few observations to report.

I haven’t spent much money on my reading materials.  I purchased “Characters, Emotion, and Viewpoint” because the font in the book was too small, and my Kindle has adjustable font.  At an average cost of $3.00 per book, I have saved over $1000.

However, there is a trade off.

Free books are generally offered to jump start the book review process.  Books with few or no reviews are new, either recently written by a new author or a new book in a series.  My Kindle library contains a few books that are not the first in a series, but not many.

Here are a few of my discoveries of free books.

The majority of the authors are newbies.  They’re offering the book for free to generate interest and book reviews.  Many have jumped into the book writing business without taking any time to investigate the craft and learn how to be a writer.

Most of the free authors break many or all of the writing rules of a good writer.  A recent freebie, Dark Space by Jasper T. Scott, started the book out with a prologue.  A half dozen writing books say prologues are taboo; bring the prologue into the book as back story.  The second problem with Dark Space was too much telling and not enough showing.  I flipped through more than half the novel.  The third problem was dialog.  The author would have a large paragraph of narrative appended with a short dialog.  The dialog should have been a new paragraph.  Finally, the prologue is ten pages long, and is followed by chapter 1, “Two Days Earlier”.  I think the author is a little confused.  I gave the novel 3 stars for concept, but 1 star for following the rules of writing, including keeping sentences below 20 words (which the author does not do).

Another novel I recently completed reading/scanning was Hollow Space by C. F Barnes & T. F. Grant.  The premise is the last human colony vessel is being pursued by a race of giant insects.  I give the premise 4 stars.  But, the authors break too many rules to be awarded any more that 2 stars for readability.  On the first page is a 57 word sentence that just goes on forever.   Combine large sentences with only narrative, and the book gets bogged down.   At the end of the book, I have no affinity for the characters.  They are not my friends.  Barnes and Grant could write a dozen more books, but I would not be interested in reading any of the them.

Unfortunately, I’d say over half of the books I’ve read fail even the most basic tests of writing.  They fail the “Show, Don’t Tell rule”, they don’t create a character I want to make my friend, they just aren’t books I enjoy reading.  Why do I read them?  I want to learn more about what not to put down on paper.  

I will continue to download free books, continue to evaluate what other authors have written, and continue to improve my own writing by evaluating others.  Hopefully, that will make me a better writer.  I already have seven books finished (or at least the first draft is finished.)  Tom Clancy was an overnight success with his sixth novel.

After three years of writing, I hope I have learned something about writing.

#RClintPeters #TheAuthorsClub