Occasionally I’m asked to read the writing of someone I don’t know very well. They occasionally approach me to ask for my opinion and I’m loathe to say no because it’s difficult for them to do. This isn’t a problem if they have talent but there’s no way to know at the start. And it’s just awful when the writing is terrible. By terrible I mean an inability to tell a story, not just bad grammar – an editor can fix that.
A colleague came to me this week and asked me what she should do about an elderly friend whose writing is bad and wants her help with approaching a publisher. She is past the “will you read this?” stage and has tried to be gentle and suggest some changes. Her friend waves off her criticism and insists that he needs to go directly to a publisher. She is, understandably, hesitant. She doesn’t want to set her friend up for a fall but she doesn’t want to be the one to tell him he’s not capable, at least not yet.
So, she asked, what should I do?
I said go to Kobo. Help him self-publish and let the market decide. There is nothing keeping him from uploading his work as a self-published author. He might get criticism. It’s more likely that he’ll simply be ignored. But it won’t be on her to do it. She’s concerned about his feelings but protecting him from authentic reactions to his work, when he’s so convinced it deserves an audience, isn’t right either.
So, did I do the right thing? It seems like a win-win to me. She gets off the hook from being the bad guy. He gets into the wide market. The rest is up to fate. He might even find an audience, who knows. That’s the thing about opinions. They can be wrong.
For your friend, I think it is a win, win lose proposition. If he self publishes and is ignored or worse, critiqued and reviewed harshly, he’s very likely to immediately turn to her and ask, ‘why didn’t you tell me what your true opinions of my writing were?” We unfortunately live in a society where were quick to point fingers at others for our own mistakes, and in this case I see this as a very real possibility. so, as within life in general, its a choice, do you provide a reality check now, or later. Either way, its going to happen!
There is nothing wrong with constructive feedback, for example: if the book is already in something like Word, your friend could suggest that he run his book through the spell/grammar checker to tighten and clean up any possible oversights. At least this way she can offer assistance without directly getting involved and he might realize the errors of his ways once he sees the number of corrections required.
The issue goes well beyond grammar. It’s a gap in generations and views on life. His female characters are either meek or begging for sex and my friend is understandably reticent about bringing up that particular aspect of his stories. What 20-something wants to talk about sex to a 70-something? Anyway, I appreciate your thoughts on the matter.
He should send it to Harlequin Romance in Toronto. No matter how much they ask for strong women, they still buy those that have women “begging” for it and giving in to the pressure of smoldering eyed, slim hipped, hair-just-brushing their collar, dominant men. You don’t even need to query first.
Haha. Good advice!