I am an avid reader. I also have a great deal of experience in several fields. In reading fiction, I often find glaring "technical" errors that, for me, detract from the story. After all, I want to be transported into the story and those errors usually jar me right back to the reality I was trying to escape. Would it be reasonable to offer technical review services to publishers and authors? Or am I just too darn sensitive to that type of discrepancy? Is technical accuracy really all that important? I mean even Clive Cussler doesn't seem to understand that a full sized ship has a bridge but never a "wheel house" and he is a nautical fiction writer! You kind input is greatly appreciated in advance.
I take it you mean on the site? If so, go for it. I tend to point out technical errors myself, as they're annoying like you said. But also try to add other input when you review as well. Let the writer know what you liked about the story, or how well you could connect with the characters, etc.
If you are talking about offering a paid service, you would have to clear it in advance with the site owner, Lpspider. I would strongly recommend checking with him even if you would be offering it as a free service.
On this site as with any other forum, I would be seeking advice and guidance and offering the same where I am able. Nothing at all in my posts here, signature lines excepted, would be a "paid service" or an advertisement for anything. I don't spam forums. What I am trying to explore, with my post, is the demand for technical review services and if such a review service is something that would be viable for a freelance reviewer or even if it matters. If I read something a user has posted here for review, I'll try to do my part here and give constructive suggestions as I hope others would do for me.
Sounds good! I'm a firm believer in exercising one's reviewing skills as a means to become a better writer. I just needed to ask, because it wasn't totally clear whether your question was in regards to offering an outside service. Thank you for setting my mind at ease. You can't imagine all the ploys people employ to try to sneak ads into the forums!
No problem. Yes I certainly can imagine those ploys! I have run a forum or two in the past and participate on a lot of other forums and see it daily. I recently quit a forum that had shown promise but the moderators and owner have allowed it to become so spam filled that I could not remain. It is a constant problem for all public forums and requires a lot of work.
I for one, would be quite grateful for this kind of reviewing. I try to research what I can when I'm writing my fiction but sometimes, when I can't find the information I skit over the technical details.
Its an interesting idea - getting paid to review. At times I am sure we all read something that makes the red flags go up - and its irritating to say the least, having said that I would assume that you would have to have vast experience to be well paid in this area -with a publishing firm or something of that sort. However, on a forum I think your experience as a reader would be invaluable and you should share it as much as possible - afterall, how will any of us learn if no one will teach?
I think it's probably worthwhile pointing out technical errors, so long as you're not TOO petty with it. Because lets face it, if you don't point it out, someone else is probably gonna point it out further down the line, when it might be too late. And if you do it, you can make sure you do it in a friendly, non-offensive way.
