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The Gabbers  JMC"JMC is fascinated by the politics of romance reading and writing, and by the genre’s position in the publishing and media worlds." read more...
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If you’ve got to write it, you’ve got know it
« The Times They Are A Changin’ | Home | 03/07/2010 Grab Bag Winner »  I originally planned an entire different topic for this month’s post. I even had my first line: I am an author’s dream reader. But something happened between then and now and I’ve had a 180° turnaround. Not that I’m still not an author’s dream reader. I expect that I’ll finish that post for next time and redeem myself with authors. But what happened to change the course of this post was I was reading along in a book I was quite enjoying and was abruptly and rudely jarred out of it by a (to me) huge error on the part of the author. And it pointed to the fact that the author didn’t really know the subject matter she had chosen to write about. I’ve read many a complaint in the past about historical inaccuracies and how they take the reader out of the story and this is a big bugaboo for many a reader. But for the most part I’ve been fairly immune to them myself. Unless it’s a real glaring error – like the hero/heroine doing the waltz in 1745, chances are I’m not going to pick up on it unless someone points it out to me. But the subject of the book that pulled me out is something I’m fairly well-versed in and after that first error, I started counting the blunders the author made and found myself getting more and more annoyed on a number of levels as there were a number of what I consider serious points on something the author failed to check out. You see, I was annoyed that the author didn’t really bother to do her homework. If you’re going to write about something, you better be sure to make it as accurate as you can because we readers have worlds of hidden knowledge and we will catch you. If you aren’t sure, don’t make it up!! Check with someone who knows the topic, even if they aren’t a romance fan. Be sure and be accurate, Another part of why I’m so annoyed with this book in particular is because I really enjoyed it. The hero and heroine were engaging, I liked the both quite a bit. The secondary characters were interesting. But the fact that I felt myself counting the factual errors prevented me from full enjoying the book. And that ticked me off. There is a lot I don’t know and a lot can slip by me, but when it is something I know about, and the author got it wrong, I feel cheated. A few years ago I read a book with such a huge error; I couldn’t read that author any more. It was the second book she wrote and I had quite enjoyed the first book. But the mistake the author made in the second book broke the trust I had with that author. And that is a big no no an author can make with her/his readers. Broken trust is hard to recover from. I’ve read enough books by the author that generated this particular topic and enjoyed them, that the trust isn’t broken, but it is damaged. And I will hesitate to try any more books in this particular series. Now come the questions – because there are books to be won for commenter’s *g* As a reader, does this bother you when you see inaccuracies, not just in historicals, but in other genres? Do you think this can be a trust breaker? Do you think there is trust between an author and a reader? Have you ever stopped reading an authors books because you get so annoyed that they haven’t done their research enough? I know it almost seems unfair to put this on authors – they can’t be knowledgeable in everything. But to me, it they are going to write a book about a certain thing, they need to know about what they are writing. This entry was posted by Kristie(J) on Thursday, March 4th, 2010 at 7:00 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. 27 Responses to “If you’ve got to write it, you’ve got know it”Leave a Comment |
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March 4th, 2010 at 8:34 am
I really cannot say that ever happened. I have seen a mistake on the back blur tho where the hero had a child and it was a boy and in the book he actually had a girl (or vice versa – so long ago I cannot remember) – I kept waiting for that child to die and the other baby – diff. sex to be born. Baaad!
March 4th, 2010 at 10:18 am
Often I see inaccuracies in historicals and contemporaries. Usually I let them slide because they are not integral to the story. But the more important the inaccuracy is to the storyline, the less forgiving I become. For example, if an author has a heroine just arriving in England after a sea voyage but the timing isn’t quite right, I’ll shrug that off because the voyage isn’t the focus of the plot. OTOH if s/he sets the book on the Cutty Sark and the action takes place during the voyage from Britain to Australia and purports to occur over a period of only 30 days? Well, then, I’m going to be jarred right out of the story.
Of course, the degree of my annoyance and ability to shrug off inaccuracies is also tied to how arcane the information is, and how easily it could have been fact-checked and corrected.
March 4th, 2010 at 11:04 am
Any inaccuracies I have seen havent bothered me that much – hair color wrong, cover not depicting the hairy chest that the author took time to describe, or other little things I cannot even remember – so obviously not a big thing to me.
March 4th, 2010 at 11:23 am
I don’t read a lot of historicals…but I think the inaccuracies would bother me. I would expect the author to know as much about the times he/she writes about as I would expect a contemporary author to write accurate descriptions of society today.
And if you are a history buff…I could understand wanting to put the book down…especially with glaring inaccuracies.
March 4th, 2010 at 11:30 am
I haven’t really encountered any massive inaccuracies as yet…I mean once in a while there might be errors that weren’t caught before it was published i.e. spelling, character descriptions. BUT thankfully, nothing that made me go *ugh* and frustrated and stop reading.
March 4th, 2010 at 11:33 am
I haven’t noticed any that jumped out at me. Usually I get so caught up in the story that I just glide right through any errors.
What I hate is when there is no transition between scenes. I’m reading along and all of a sudden the next paragraph is about somebody else in the book and what they are doing. It stops the flow of my reading and I hate that!
March 4th, 2010 at 11:37 am
I read mainly historical romances, most of which are set in the Regency Era. A few (1 or 2) minor mistakes or discrepancies don’t bother me and don’t throw me off the story. But if they start to stack up, then I’m inclined to think it is an editing problem. If it happens in more than one book, I would probably send FYI email to the author. She might want to look into getting a new editor. It probably won’t make me lose trust with the author if I have enjoyed her work.
I’ve read some books where the author wrote a disclaimer at the end talking about the historical event(s) mentioned in the book and the liberties she took to fit her characters into the event which may have meant changing a few details of the actual event. That is not a problem to me and just tells me the author did her research, took a subject and twisted it slightly to fit her story. It’s sort of ‘ripped from the headlines of 1813′.
That said, I have stopped reading a book because of glaring errors in historical facts or the using of language or actions not fitting for the time period. It has been my reading experience that things like this happen when an author is well-known in the contemporary genre and decides to write historical romance. The research isn’t done well and looks like she just transplanted a contemporary character in a historical time period. To me, that is just wrong and I will not read that author again.
March 4th, 2010 at 12:11 pm
Yes. Yes, yes, yes, and more yes. This is a topic near and dear to my heart, Kristi, and I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of talking about it. (Well, other than I’m tired of talking about it because it makes me sad and I wish I didn’t have to.)
Inaccuracies bother me. As you said, some things, I don’t know – and that’s fine. I’m not about to go and fact check a book. I don’t even mind if some major historical event was [slightly] wrong as long as it’s not obvious. Like, if we have Americans during the Exodus. That would likely make me stop reading. Otherwise I like to think I’m pretty forgiving.
However, I did stop reading a book that everyone else loved, because there was a glaring error to me. It’s because the characters (and in fact the author) were professionals in a field, and yet got something that is very basic, wrong. Other readers not in that profession had no idea what I was talking about, but I put the book down and haven’t tried to read it since. (Granted I’ve had to try to tackle my monstrous TBR pile too.)
I do plan on trying the author again… but it’s still taken over a year.
I think it’s interesting the way you put it – trust. Maybe, I think trust is even deeper than respect, which is how I think of it. An author ought to show enough respect to the reader, to get facts right. And even more importantly, an author ought to respect him/herself. The author is getting paid to write- it’s his/her job. We expect other people to get things right in their jobs. So. (Heh. And I’ll stop rambling/ranting now.)
March 4th, 2010 at 12:57 pm
We’re of similar minds on this topic Kristie
Historical inaccuracies tend to fly right over my head unless they’re really glaring. Like it’s May 1865 and Abraham Lincoln is still alive.
I’m at the point where I’ve stopped reading books that feature professional athlete heroes because I’ve been burned so many times, and by more than one author. Football and baseball errors drive me INSANE. Note to authors: Offensive lineman CAN score touchdowns, but only in VERY limited circumstances otherwise it’s a PENALTY! Frankly, it’s very, very rare. ARGH! An NFC and an AFC team do NOT meet in the playoffs UNTIL the Super Bowl! ARGH! And before you write about a baseball hero falling in love during the REGULAR season – look at a flippin’ MLB schedule. Darn near impossible. Their travel schedules are brutal. Heck, some of the guys even play baseball during the off-season. There’s the Arizona Fall League and a handful of other leagues in Latin America.
I also have been known to get annoyed by medical scenarios that don’t ring true (what can I say? Mom’s been a RN for 35+ years) and anything wrong about the Beatles. Like the chick lit book I once read where the author tried to tell me that “Something” was sung by John Lennon and he wrote it about Yoko Ono. ::headdesk:: Seriously? S-E-R-I-O-U-S-L-Y?!?!?! How the heck do you get THAT wrong?
I certainly don’t think authors should be limited to write what they know – but they should do their research. If you don’t know about something, but want to write about it? Talk to somebody who does know it. Hit the Internet. Read a book. Something. Anything. Please.
March 4th, 2010 at 3:53 pm
The inaccuracies definitely would bother me if I notice them. I do think there is a trust between the reader and the author where you expect certain things in their books.
March 4th, 2010 at 4:05 pm
Kristi–It does bother me to see inaccuracies. I’m very familiar with southern Louisiana. When authors (like James Lee Burke)get it right, it’s a wonderful reading experience. One of my pet peeves in reading is authors who drop in stereotypic references to Cajuns, Louisiana food, alligators, Mardi Gras, New Orleans and a lot of other Louisiana-specific things. It happens too frequently. To me, that lack of accuracy shows an awful lack of respect.
P.S. to Wendy–loved your Comment!
March 4th, 2010 at 6:01 pm
I hate it when authors make mistakes. Nothing pulls me out of the story faster than a glaring error. (I hate grammar errors, too. Isn’t that what an editor is for?) For me, it shows the author has not researched a topic properly.
I think it does break the trust, although I would give the author another chance. But if errors are repeated, then I wouldn’t read them again.
March 4th, 2010 at 6:53 pm
No to all. The worse thing that I ever picked up on was the description of a character not matching the cover or the scene not appearing in the book. No deal breakers for me.
March 4th, 2010 at 9:13 pm
I have stopped reading some police based books for that reason. My husband retired fromt eh state police and some of the procedures are so heavily violated I can’t read them any more.
March 4th, 2010 at 9:32 pm
I don’t think I’ve stopped reading a book because of inaccuracies. I am more likely to stop reading a book because the characters annoyed me so much that I stopped caring what happened to them.
March 5th, 2010 at 3:37 am
I’m usually very bad at picking up historical inaccuracies. Most detail actually. Unless the book isn’t engaging me.
What I hate is foreshadowing that goes nowhere. Drives me batty!
Great post Kristie!
March 5th, 2010 at 9:30 am
It has happened, but very rarely. Then again, I know next to nothing about sports…
What drives me up the wall is the use of bad English and worse Spanish to try and make a character exotic. Yes, I know there are people of Latin American extraction who, after twenty years of living in the US, still have thick accents–but when you tell me this is a successful, cosmopolitan, polished CEO or millionaire, or what have you, I would rather s/he spoke like Ricardo Montalban than in broken pocho, okay?
March 5th, 2010 at 11:18 am
I should point out that the book in question that caused this mini rant was NOT a historical. I could miss all kinds of things in a historical. Rather the subject matter was something that I’m fairly well versed in. And there were so many ‘errors’ I don’t think the author did much homework on it at all!! THAT’S what annoyed me so much. It wouldn’t have taken much time at all to check her facts – she just didn’t bother.
March 5th, 2010 at 2:56 pm
I really havent come across any horrible mistakes and if I do find an error, I figure oh well, it doesnt turn me off.
March 5th, 2010 at 4:16 pm
I had a similar problem with an author that I had really enjoyed. Her problems were with grammar, spelling and occasionally a sentence that was left dangling! After she changed publishers the problems disappeared. Note to writers: find out who will be proofing reading your work when it is being published! I have a feeling that sometimes when we look to the author there may be other issues going on. I read one book that I really enjoyed and the occurances that normally should not have occured at the time were explained in the front acknowledgement and an explaination of why they had been included. I think this was a really smart way to deal with keeping the integrity of the story.
March 5th, 2010 at 8:12 pm
I don’t remember reading a story that had glaring errors, but I don’t know if it would bother me to the point of not reading the author again.
March 5th, 2010 at 11:54 pm
Unless it is tooted as being an historically accurate story, I don’t expect it to be, so no it is not a deal breaker. The only mistakes that might give me a problem are inconsistencies in the characterization.
March 6th, 2010 at 4:27 pm
I love historical fiction romance novels. I know that many of them are made up and quite a few are inaccurate but it hasn’t stopped me from reading the book.
I have, however, read a book before about my people written by someone who was doing some sort of case study. The book is supposed to be great. Many people love it. I didn’t. There are many words in my native language that can’t be translated into English. Yet the author tried to do it in the book and to me it was all just wrong. I quit reading the book after a few chapters.
March 7th, 2010 at 11:13 am
My feeling is that if you’re placing your name (or pseudonym) on it, you’re responsible for the content. An author that takes on the challenge of a historical novel, or a novel based around an unusual career or location, IS obligated to do her research. It invalidates all the good work that she has done if she alienates the reader with a smack-in-the-face factual error.
March 10th, 2010 at 10:51 am
I hate sloppy workmanship. But that said, I’m sure that I’ve missed author errors any number of times. I’m more likely to quit a book because it ‘just doesn’t grab my attention’. I became bored with some just because the plot lines were always similar and didn’t seem to have any difference from book to book. I enjoy everything from science fiction, biography, general fiction, romance, etc. But I personally believe that errors are usually more glaring in historical fiction — we read that because we enjoy it & then you get more familiar with the history, fashions, etc. Then errors do begin to become more apparent. Especially if you hang out at some of the authors websites that have links to their research sites. But I sure wish some of you had mentioned specifics — but I guess that’s not permitted. There’s so much good stuff out there to read – I hate to think I’d buy something that would disappoint me due to this issue.
March 11th, 2010 at 12:06 pm
I dont think Ive really noticed the mistakes, just would keep on reading the book!
March 13th, 2010 at 2:29 am
I usually shrug off inaccuracies, even big ones. Yes, I admit it, I like wallpaper historicals.
That being said, it strikes a special note with me when an author so strongly identifies with a location (such as SEP’s Chicago series) or other topic (Deidre Martin’s hockey sereis.) I think this applies more to contempories as readers could possibly be living in a town that’s featured in a book. I always thought that was one of Nora Roberts strengths; the strong sense of location.