Deal breakers in indie books

I will read pretty much anything if the premise is interesting, but I find it almost impossible to keep going with indie books that are badly proofed. I once paid for a non fiction e-book that still had the editing notes and marks on it! Where are your limits?

 

That is one thing that I just cannot stand. Whenever I come across a book that's been badly written or formatted I make a point of never reading anything from that author again.

 

That is the problem that comes with just anybody being able to publish a book these days. We now have to sift through tons of really bad writing in the hopes of maybe finding something worth reading in the pile.

 

My tolerance for bad novels is really quite high, I'll sit through all sorts of crap waiting to get to the end.

My only concession is that if they are bad I will skim them horribly fast, check the ending and then totally forget about it in half an hour or so.

 

I guess once you've started on the book sometimes no matter how bad it is written, you've just got to find out what happens in the end.

 

I will admit that I read all of the book I mentioned, but it still annoys me that what was essentially a decent piece of work was ruined by such a silly error. I have read paperback versions of indie published books that are full of terrible spelling and basic grammar errors too.

 

That is terrible. You should have asked for your money back! I know everyone wants to see their name in print and sometimes they don't even bother to edit their work properly but I think that if someone knows their work isn't really up to par then at least give it away for free and don't charge people for it.

 

Bad grammar and bad proofing are the most common fault I've found. I'm so glad that Kindle provides refunds for books because I have returned several simply because I was not prepapred to try and decypher what the author meant. Poor formatting is a close second. If there are no line, paragraph, or scene breaks, merely a single block of text that stretches on for five hundred pages, I shall not read it.

 

I am exactly like you, Tregaron. I will not put up with sloppy work especially when I know that all the errors in the book could have been avoided by just merely getting someone to proofread for them before they submitted their work.