Editing Woes/Review of The Haze

Have I mentioned lately how much I hate good stories getting ruined due to lack of decent editing? *sigh*

I'm nearly finished reading The Haze by Janine Olsson, and it has some really exciting and intense moments, but I'm finding the story difficult to read due to poor spelling and basic grammar issues.  I find myself wanting to seek out the author and ask if I can have a go at editing the book for her. There is no copyright page in the version I downloaded, so I don't know if she used an editor or not.  I honestly don't even remember where I got the download.  I thought it was from Bares & Noble, but that doesn't seem right coming from them either.  I hope it isn't a pirated copy, now that I think about it.  (If it is, I'm sorry, Janine.  It was not intentionally stolen!)

This story took awhile to get off the ground, but now that I am into the meat of the book, I find myself starting to like all the characters.  It's an interesting story involving family betrayal and affairs of the heart.  The main characters are vampires, but we also get to see shape shifters and weres of all sorts.  I find it interesting how the species put aside their animosity and use their differences to their advantage as the situation warrants. I can't really comment on much more since I have yet to finish reading the book, but I will say that I do like the story.  I just wish an editor could get their hands on it, and a more polished version could be released.  Ms. Olsson may find much more success if this were to happen.

It's a shame when someone has such potential and it gets held back because they have no help with such basic principles of writing.  Irritates me to no end.  My mother often chastises me for doing too much editing for free.  Many don't understand why I don't charge more, and this book is the perfect example of WHY I provide such a low rate fee schedule and often do editing for free.

There are so many great stories out there to be told.  There are audiences for any genre imaginable.  Readers will gobble up books in their favorite genre and beg for more as fast as their favorite authors can supply the material.  With the digital age of publication taking hold in today's book market, independent authors have more opportunities for seeing their work published than ever before.  With that, comes a lot of garbage, but there are also a lot of diamonds in the rough that just need a little polish for their target audience.  If I can help those writers get a little closer to their goal by offering an inexpensive editing service to assist them, then that is what I want to do.

It saddens me to read books like Janine Olsson has written when they could be so much better.  So if you get word of this, Janine, please consider finding a helpful editor.  The story is there.  The grammar, sadly, is not.

If anyone out there wishes to contact me about editing, feel free to send me an e-mail  creechwriter@gmail.com.  I'll gladly send you a fee schedule, references, and samples of my work.