Trust is a Fragile Thing

It surly is. I mean, if you were to ask your neighbor if they trust you, they might say yes thinking you probably weren't going to kill them in the near future - that's if you were already on talking terms with them. If you moved into your neighborhood yesterday and then asked your neighbor that question, the answer would be far more tentative, though what would come out might be the same word, meaning something far closer to, 'I trust you as far as I can see you.'

Think for a moment - what does it take to build good, average trust, enough trust to believe what a man says on face value? Heck, it might take half a lifetime of honest dealings to build such a foundation of trust. Between neighbors, I'd say a handful of years of familiar association to build that kind of trust.

Why do I bring this up? I read a book - A boy, early teens, was living and working with his teacher for an indeterminate number of years. The boy being young did his chores and he did his lessons. but he was also off doing his own thing, which the teacher of course didn't approve of much. Sounds pretty normal, doesn't it. So as the story progresses, the teacher has to blast off on some errand, and it's apparently time to send the boy to another teacher for further training - off they go.

This boy, being raised in a tiny, back-water community, is the epitome of naive, so it's not too surprising that the first person he runs into on his journey tries to rip him off. His sole source of currency is a pearl, and the innkeeper is willing to trade that for one night's stay and a meal. Thank goodness he's rescued by a traveling trader, who will pay him a life's wages for the pearl if he will just come with them to their home on the coast.

Trust - go? don't go? Who do you trust?

To sweeten the deal, the trader will pay his way and feed him as long as he travels with them to that end. Yeah, I think I'd take that deal too, but trust is still an issue. Just how much can you trust this merchant or his beautiful daughter, who is of course batting her eyes, haha.

So trust figured in quite strongly throughout this story, and most of the time it was handled well enough, but when you never question strangers, trust is being taken advantage of.

Because of an altercation a couple days later, the traders went through the boy's belongings and read a letter of introduction written from his old teacher to his new teacher. It had been sealed and the boy of course trusted his teacher and had never read it. The letter ended up being a death sentence to be carried out by the new teacher. Suddenly the boy was out for revenge. He would go to this teacher, but instead of going there to learn, he'd go there to be the one to kill first. There was absolutely no question that this letter might have been forged and the agenda sculpted to fit an agenda of his companions of whom he knew very little really. That was not the case, but still there was no question.

Okay so this is a YA book and such complications might be a little too much for young readers, but I think even young readers could have grasped this doubt. Who do you trust here? The teacher you'd known for some years, or traveling companions you've known for only about three days?

Later, much farther along the trail, there is a much more blatant mishandling of trust. They meet a man, another boy of like age, on the trail who then leads them to their destination. Upon a very first meeting, the new teacher, who thanks to a forged letter of introduction that said something quite different, wanted our trusting hero to kill the boy who'd led him here. There was no explanation of why he wanted this done, so maybe once again it was a means of establishing a form of trust. Our hero immediately goes to this boy and, after asking him if he trusted him (again why should he), he tells him what his teacher of however long wanted him to do. Of course he immediately believed him and they were allies in seeing to the demise of this teacher.

Trust - how do you manage it in your manuscript? Treat it as if it was a fine sample of blown glass, because it is. It is really quite fragile.

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Taking the Time to do it Right

Ever since I started on this road to publishing, I heard people lament how long it takes to get published. First there was the grueling effort to achieve an agent, and then there was another grueling wait, hoping they could squeak their baby in the door somewhere. The journey could take years, and there was no guarantee of ever succeeding. Many writers were impatient with this. I admit it, I was too. I'm no spring chicken and I had a dozen manuscripts to get out there. At an average of one book per year, provided that ball got rolling, that was 12 years. Add an unknown number of years just to get an agent (hoping that agent wanted all of my work, but possibly not), then add another unknown number of years to get into a publishing house. I would never see my last book published, if any of them.

With the advent of CreateSpace, SmashWords, and yes, Barns & Noble's NookBook, publishing became incredibly easy, even free, not counting the cost of a cover, and if you can do your own cover, the profits are all yours. I published one book through CreateSpace and B&N NookBook and have recouped my cover cost by 200%. One happy camper here.

However, those first indie books were a shining example of why the long, grueling route was the way to go. Fortunately, some indie authors were aware of this and acted accordingly. They went to the trouble of finding a good editor and multiple readers to help them iron out the issues in their baby. They also worked hard to spread the word that such action is vital to the success of their books. Me? I was very picky to begin with. I wanted my books to be the very best they could be. My first book, published through a seemingly reputable subsidy publisher, was error free, but certainly less than it could be, but what did I know?

Now, I've come up in the world. I have my own Kindle now and have read quite a few books so far. Not a lot yet, but I'd say maybe a dozen since getting it last Christmas. So far, by comparison, writers still need to slow down and take the time to ensure their book is the best it can be.

Reputation is still important. The reputation of the big publishing houses is still that they turn out great books, as as far as I can tell, they do. The indie publishing pool started out with a very bad reputation. Rife with errors and bad formatting to boot. Today, I think writers are slowly dragging the indie reputation up out of the mud, but we're not there yet.

Recently, I was asked to promote a book offered free, in an effort to spur interest in the rest of the series. Personally, if this had been my book, I might have made the mistakes at first (though seriously, less than I found), but I'd certainly have gone through the book again before trying such a promotion. Heck, even the reviews on Amazon should have been a clue to the writer that something needed to be done. I rated it 3 stars, but before I posted a review, I read a few of the other 3-star reviews. They too said the book was frustratingly full of errors. I didn't read all of those reviews, but when the top handful of 22 3-star reviews mention many errors, you'd think she'd have taken the hint. But no, she went ahead and pumped out another five books in that series, and has 18 others. Like I said, reputation matters and first impressions are paramount. I will not be reading any more of her books, and I actually liked the story, but if the writer doesn't care about the book, why should I?

So gee, people. Slow down. Even if you can't afford an editor, there are ways to ensure your baby is as polished as it can be. I have my computer read aloud to me. That nifty little trick is priceless. Even if you read aloud to yourself, you'll say the words your brain wants to be there; it's up to your eyes to catch the difference, and if they can't, the error slides by. However, your computer isn't so talented. It will read exactly what is on the page and even pause for commas or sound run on if a comma is needed. It also finds those pesky words that look almost the same but sound and mean something entirely different. As you can see, it is a very cool tool. I recommend you figure out how to use it ASAP. That aside, a good editor is still highly recommended, even if you think you can be your own editor, it's best to turn your baby over to another professional. You know, kings used to do that with their sons; it was too easy to overlook some kind of vital training or be to lenient with your own offspring. The same goes for your book.

Do you take time?