Enquiring Minds need to know…

[erastes]

(name that quote….)

I’m interested – published authors, do you read your stuff once it’s in print?

I don’t. I think it’s the equivalent of an actor who can’t bear to look at him/herself on screen perhaps.  I think mine stemmed from my first print sale, which was “Bright Souls” a vampire short story – and being Alyson they provided no back and forth editing, no galleys etc (lesson learned very early on) and when I got my author’s copies I was understandably thrilled. But oh the disappointment when I saw the actual piece – someone – god knows who, had put apostrophes all over the place and it looked awful.  I could have cried.

These mistakes weren’t mine – any of mine were still there too, and I think that’s what put me off.  So I can’t read my stuff.  I know I will have to at some point, read Transgressions because in case it goes into a second edition, I’ll need to winnow out the errors that I know are there, but I just can’t do it yet.

Part of it is also that I’m getting better, little by little, and when I do see an excerpt of Standish for example I think “oh GOD – I wouldn’t write like that now.”

What about you? Do you read yourself? or do you, like me, shove your author’s copies on the shelf and never touch them again?

 

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Comments

[lee-rowan.livejournal.com]

I do the "make sure the proofs I read got into print all right" examination.

Since I'm writing a series, I usually skim through the previous book before getting into the next one. I also skim through a book if I'm looking for something different in the way of excerpts to post--something interesting without putting the whole book up, a thousand words at a time.

And in general... they aren't as ineptly done as I remember them. There are even a few spots where I think I nailed it.

Sure, I see the mistakes. My own bugbear is using the same unusual word more than once in a handful of pages (or, worse, on the same page) and there are lots of those. I see them--friends apparently don't, because I've asked. But by and large, I've told the stories I meant to tell. They'll never be Great Lit'rature, but I'm not embarrassed to admit to them. I'm not trying to be egotistical, but if I didn't believe I could produce something decent, I'd never ask a reader to pay for my stories.

But for the first six months to a year after it's done...? Do Not Want. The edit/rewrite process makes me so sick of the thing I don't want to even look at it.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Yes, exactly. After it first comes out, especially. I can't even open the cover...

:)