A publisher should know how to spell

Or at least hire people who do.

I just finished a book published by a small press. I admire people who like books enough that they're willing to invest time and money in starting their own press, but there should be two basic rules to the process: you publish well-told stories, and you publish in accepted English with proper sentence structure, nouns and verbs in most, if not all, sentences, and good spelling.

An author doesn't have to be technically good to tell a compelling story. When the kiddo was twelve years old, he mentioned to me that John Grisham had a heck of a lot to learn about point-of-view, but he told a darn good story. (Yeah, that's one of the hazards of growing up with a writer for a mom.) You can make mistakes in POV, have uneven pacing, throw in a few underdeveloped characters, but if your story is compelling, readers won't care.

This particular small-press book wasn't compelling. One-dimensional characters, pacing that went from zero to sixty and back again in the space of a paragraph, no plot to speak of, awkward writing, no emotion whatsoever.

And on top of that, NO editing. "Their," "they're," and "there" were used interchangeably. So were "it's," "its," and "its'." And the author had this knack for finding a word that was similar to what she wanted but not it -- "circumvent" for "circumnavigate," "proficient" for "prolific," "catechism" for "cataclysm." Even simple words were off -- "he" when it should have been "she," "her" for "his."

I don't blame the author totally. I believe every writer has an obligation to learn to spell and construct sentences right along with plotting, characterization, and pacing, but we aren't a nation that considers good language skills important.

But the publisher . . . They spent money to publish this book. They arranged distribution. Presumably, they've paid royalties to the author. They had an obligation to turn out a grammatically correct book, and they failed. Big-time. They presented to the consumer a product that was shabby and shoddy.

Hire a copy editor. I know God made them for some reason other than to harass me. (Yes, I say that with a wicked smile. I have been known to harass them right back -- and I usually win our arguments.)

If you're publishing a book, publishing one that's written and punctuated in proper language is the least you owe your readers. Rachel9:44 AM