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A while back, Random House gave Advanced Reader Copies of an upcoming book from China Meiville to the good people of Unshelved (a webcomic I read which takes place in a library). In turn, they offered them out to the first people to respond. I got one.
That was was pretty cool. I like Meiville's work, and not only was I getting a free book, I was getting an ARC months before the official publishing date.
I read it through and took notes as I went. An ARC hasn't been fully proofread, so there were some little mistakes. I jotted those down. Being the grammar nerd that I am, I'm not ashamed to tell you that I got a little thrill just from the thought of being able to actually help correct typos in a real published book. It irks me when I see them. A couple of times, I've actually written in about particularly choice ones, so that they could maybe correct them in future editions. Unlikely that they'd bother to do so, in truth, but when you see something like a 1 in the middle of a word (where an l is supposed to be)... Well, maybe you don't feel a half-amused compulsion to tell the publisher about it, but I do. Here, though, we were talking about something that had yet to receive the final polish, and I had the privilege of reading through it. So when I wrote in, there was a real chance that at least one or two of the errors I found would be corrected solely because I'd pointed them out. (No matter how carefully you proofread, there's always something you miss.) Here was my chance to make an actual difference in a novel being published by a major company. That felt very cool.
But, of course, I didn't just take notes on typos and such. Really, I wasn't sure what they were expecting of me, what kind of feedback they were looking for. All I had was a handwritten note that said, "Let us know what you think." So... I wrote up a full review. About four pages, actually. (Plus two pages of notes about typos, giving a location for and explanation of each one.) I'm not allowed to show it to anyone yet because the book won't be out until May, but if you're interested I can post it here then.
It was much more than they were expecting, but they appreciated it enough to ask my permission to post an excerpt. I happily granted it, and today Random House published my advanced review on their blog. (Well, a few excerpted paragraphs of it, anyway.)
So:
1. Free book!
2. Free book from a good author!
3. Free book from a good author months before it's even published!
4. A chance to actually help fix errors in a soon-to-be-published book!
5. My review described as "particularly eloquent" by an industry professional!
6. My review posted on the blog of a major publishing company!
Epic nerdcore win.
That was was pretty cool. I like Meiville's work, and not only was I getting a free book, I was getting an ARC months before the official publishing date.
I read it through and took notes as I went. An ARC hasn't been fully proofread, so there were some little mistakes. I jotted those down. Being the grammar nerd that I am, I'm not ashamed to tell you that I got a little thrill just from the thought of being able to actually help correct typos in a real published book. It irks me when I see them. A couple of times, I've actually written in about particularly choice ones, so that they could maybe correct them in future editions. Unlikely that they'd bother to do so, in truth, but when you see something like a 1 in the middle of a word (where an l is supposed to be)... Well, maybe you don't feel a half-amused compulsion to tell the publisher about it, but I do. Here, though, we were talking about something that had yet to receive the final polish, and I had the privilege of reading through it. So when I wrote in, there was a real chance that at least one or two of the errors I found would be corrected solely because I'd pointed them out. (No matter how carefully you proofread, there's always something you miss.) Here was my chance to make an actual difference in a novel being published by a major company. That felt very cool.
But, of course, I didn't just take notes on typos and such. Really, I wasn't sure what they were expecting of me, what kind of feedback they were looking for. All I had was a handwritten note that said, "Let us know what you think." So... I wrote up a full review. About four pages, actually. (Plus two pages of notes about typos, giving a location for and explanation of each one.) I'm not allowed to show it to anyone yet because the book won't be out until May, but if you're interested I can post it here then.
It was much more than they were expecting, but they appreciated it enough to ask my permission to post an excerpt. I happily granted it, and today Random House published my advanced review on their blog. (Well, a few excerpted paragraphs of it, anyway.)
So:
1. Free book!
2. Free book from a good author!
3. Free book from a good author months before it's even published!
4. A chance to actually help fix errors in a soon-to-be-published book!
5. My review described as "particularly eloquent" by an industry professional!
6. My review posted on the blog of a major publishing company!
Epic nerdcore win.
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(Hi, Dad. :) )