Serial Killers of the World Unite!

[Litopian]

The latest Debriefer has just been released:

Serial Killers of the World Unite!

Please feel free to discuss issues raised in the show below.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

I was surprised at a typo in a new novel lately, a war romance/drama/mystery by a big hitting writer, Barbara Erskine.

Instead of someone being 'doughty,' they were 'doubty.'

How did a slip like that, especially in the first few pages, get past the editing people at HARPER COLLINS?

The writing was not good, full stop. She has done/can do/is much better than that. I think Anya Seton was a better writer. Still, Barbara Erskine's 'Kingdom of Shadows' was a cracking read, Robert Bruce and reincarnation.

I wasn't grabbed, I was already in doubt and that 'doubty' did it for me. I put it down.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Say an author starts late, a debut aged 40, 50 or older (which happens) If they have, say, 3 or more novels 'in them,' with a fruitful decade in them, or more, with luck, how great a turn off is their late start for a potential publisher?

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Says wistful old crone-bat.

 

[Nicole Wilson]

As both an introvert and a writer, I'm actually excited to do book tours (having never done one--we'll see how excited I am after a bunch of those) and social media and the like. What I don't like is that there's so many social media outlets to keep up with! Facebook and Twitter seem to be the two biggies, but then there's LinkedIn, Tumblr, Google+, Pinterest, Reddit, and tons others. Keeping up with all that, plus actually writing is time consuming.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

What do you use Reddit for, Nicole? What is it? I don't geddit

 

[Nicole Wilson]

What do you use Reddit for, Nicole? What is it? I don't geddit

I don't It's one of the many I have yet to pick up. I use Facebook and Twitter regularly, Google+ semi-regularly, and LinkedIn every now and then, but that's all the social media have time for now.

 

[Meerkat]

Say an author starts late, a debut aged 40, 50 or older (which happens) If they have, say, 3 or more novels 'in them,' with a fruitful decade in them, or more, with luck, how great a turn off is their late start for a potential publisher?

I worry about that too. American culture, at least is SO youth-obsessed. The idea is that if you're not a prodigy, you won't make it. I am not even middle-aged yet, but I worry because I have only JUST started writing well. I think I may be published within two years, but that's just for short stories. I have novels planned, but they are a bit off yet.

I have always been a late bloomer, and it rankles me that one is expected to make a splash by 23.