I read books as long as I remember. I love books. And it really bothers me when I search for a certain title and more than twenty books with similar title appear. Or when I remember the cover of the book I love and suddenly see the same cover on a different book. Just because I love books, I must tell about the five things that I hate when reading a book.
- Same (or almost same) titles
Do you know that there are more than 30 versions of the title „50 Shades of Grey“, and they are all different books? Do you know that there are more than 20 different books that include „The Girl...“ in the title? Authors, please. You are creative enough to write a story. Be creative enough to create a unique name for your baby. You don't want someone to copy your work. So why would you copy somebody else's, just because it is famous and sounds catchy? You don't want someone to buy some other book thinking it is yours, and this happens lots of times. It is not reader's fault.
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- Similar covers
How many times have you seen the very same cover on a different book? Or just a flipped image? Aren't there any copyrights or something? I have seen that many publishers use similar covers for the books they publish, that is fine if they are creating a brand for their titles. I know that many designers sell certain theme as a book cover. But it really bothers me when I see the very same cover on two and more different books.
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- Bad editing
It is ok if you miss a letter or two, but grammatic errors and misspelled words are big NO if you want your book to be taken seriously. Even I make some mistakes when writing posts because English is not my first language, but I check my posts at least three times before hitting the button „publish“. Bad editing can be really annoying for the reader, and miss the whole point of the story.
- Bad translation
It happens all the time in my country. A bad translation can really ruin the book. It happens when there is a rush just before the book fair, or it happens with the publishers that sell bargains. Using modern phrases for classics and slangs from other languages instead of the official language is quite annoying. That's why I prefer reading the book in the original language if I speak the language. Or I buy books from the publishers that I trust, whose books are well translated.
- Not enough research
Write about things you know, or if you don't know, learn. Don't write crap. Do your research. It happens a lot when authors from the western world write about Balkans. First, the names. You can't name a character with his or hers first name from one nation and the second name from another. There are names that are cosmopolitan, universal and are used everywhere, but there are also names that are specific and unique for certain nations. But there are minorities with a unique culture that do not mix with others from outside. When a character belongs to a certain nation and certain religion, please do check the most common names for that nation.
Second, the scenes. If you are writing about firing from a gun, learn how to fire from a gun. You don't have to kill someone just to write a murdering scene. But talk to an expert, someone who works with police procedurals.
Authors, do not kill me for writing this post. But as an avid reader and blogger, I consider books as artworks. And I hate bad art. I am not talking about creativity here, each artwork is one of a kind. That's why there are so many genres of books, there is something for everyone out here. But I really think that some basic rules need to be followed in order your piece of art to stay a piece of art, and not become „just a crap“.
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