POD-DY Mouth sponsored a contest this week: she posted excerpts from 24 novels. Some were from commercially published books; some were from POD books.
The object of the contest was to figure out which was which.
I tried it and got half of them right. Nobody scored more than 80 percent.
But here’s what’s most telling, from her post-contest post:
The statistics are interesting, though–far more on point that I would’ve imagined. Here are the average scores broken down by group:
Average Score, Editors: 63% (19 exams)
Average Score, Agents: 60% (26 exams)
Average Score, Authors: 53% (72 exams)
Average Score, Other: 46% (550 exams +/-)So it turns out editors and agents have a keener eye than I’d guessed. I suppose it makes sense that unpublished works go from author to agent to editor. Looks like we’re not turning the publishing industry on its ear anytime soon.
Yeah. And if you want someone’s advice on whether your WIP is publishable, you’re better off trusting an agent’s rejection letter than a lay person’s high praise.
But we already knew that, didn’t we ;-)
(Btw, POD-DY Mouth doesn’t support permalinks, so if you’ve come across this post after 7/28/06, you’ll need to scroll down to the entry from the 27th to find the post from which I’ve quoted.)
Agreed.
However, since some were from published books, perhaps the editors and agents recognized the passages more easily.
Yes, I thought about that, Bernita!
I wonder if it skewed the results at all?
Wow.
I am much too embarrassed by my low score to share it with you. Two thoughts, though (self defense?) The excerpts were very short. Some of them, based on what little was there, were horrible and thus I naively declared them POD. Were they interior monologue from a character who thought in ungrammatical, childish snippets? If so, hopefully the surrounding prose would support those excerpts and make them part of an otherwise readable work. I’d love to see the basis a high-scoring editor or agent used to get his/her above-average rank.
Or, perhaps, this is just one more step in my continuing wonder at some of the (IMHO) poorly written trash that actually does find its way through the maze to commercial publication. I’ve picked up from the “New Releases” shelf in my public library book after book (maybe 5% of the total) that I can’t get into much less finish.
Taste? Perhaps I have none.
Again, wow!
John
Enjoying your site and your blogging! One question, though? Why do you center all your type? I find it very hard to read. Why not left-justify it like everyone else does?
Yikes, center? It looks left justified to me! What browser are you using? I’ll look into this as far as I’m able but I’m afraid my technical savvy leaves a lot to be desired :-(
Doh! I just got what you meant, Michael — you mean the text doesn’t have a jagged right margin . . . that’s a relic of the WordPress default template that I used as the basis for my blog. I think I can change that if I tinker a bit. Thanks for the suggestion.
Your computer skills are ‘way ahead of mine, I’m sure.
Looks great today on a PC via IE! It looked centered last night on my home Mac’s Safari. Anyway: suddenly much easier to read, tks.
You’re welcome & thanks for commenting, I’m chuffed that you read my blog!
Enjoying exploring your blog and brain!