I was chatting with a youtube subscriber about Shiver and Fears books. Unlike most critics, he used kind words. One thing he said was how as an author my writing needs editing. And although he made a good point, I had to decline his suggestion. Here's why:
What makes a good story isn't just the grammar and spelling, for example:
now I didn't write this, this was written by some young kid. Now Even though words like "witches, home, corn, stories" are spelled wrong, you can still read it well enough to understand what it's talking about. Here's another:
this is another story some kid wrote, this one isn't better, in fact, you can even see some backward letters. But once again you get pretty much get the idea of the story.
Now here's my point: I don't write like this, nor do I ever mean to write like this. You might read a Shiver and Fears book and see grammar used poorly and words spelled wrong. So you sit and think "Why doesn't this guy check his work?" True is, I do. I double-check it with Grammarly and Microsoft Word autocorrect. So where do these mistakes come from? Well, when typing I might mistype a word that still makes a work EX: "she gets typed as he" or "lots becomes lits" and sentences like "There's lots of room" becomes "There's lits of room" Grammarly doesn't even catch that mistake! But a simple person can read it and understand easily.
Now there are two reasons why I don't hire someone to edit for me:
1. I did some research, Editing sites are mostly charging for word and my chapter books come around 9000 words per chapter book and they cost about $200-$300. Your cheapest choice would be
Fiverr which comes to $45 per chapter book.
Now at this point, I have 30 books, so that would cost me a total of $1350 spent. and paying for a book each month would take 2 years and 6 months. Which might mean a pause in writing any new books. Which means less work for my unpaid partners. TOO MUCH STRUGGLE!
2. Next, understand, I'm working to get young writers like these:
to have the power to make a real book without the thought of perfection writing. Most kids aren't concerned about 100% perfection in writing. Just the story. Now before you start thinking I encouraging bad grammar let me start by saying, I'm not! Kids aren't always perfect with their grammar and spelling, so does that mean they shouldn't write a books themselves? I grew up thinking books were only published by companies, and you had to contact them and ask for their approval. That's why I started my own book series, to make my own rules in writing and start encouraging the young generation to see the joy of writing not the stress of how to do it right!
Now with that said, you might not like Shiver and Fears books... that's ok because I feel you might be older than what I'm aiming for. Shiver and Fears are targeting juvenile chapter book readers. (That's about 3rd to 5th grade) Then why do I reach for adults on social media? I'll explain that on Friday!
😉
