Finished book but gammar used is bad

chalky

I am 62 years old and could not read or write to any extent until I was almost 18, I have completed a book about my very interesting life..but the grammar is terrible how would I find anyone to re write the book?

Jay Mandal

Hi, Chalky. Welcome to Talkback. You may find someone in The Writers' and Artist' Yearbook. Your local library may have a copy. Well done on writing a book!

chalky

Thank you Jay, it was very kind of you to take the time to reply.

Jay Mandal

The others'll be along later! Why not say 'hello' on the Welcome Writers discussion/thread?

Stan2

Hello Chalky, it's a big achievement to complete your book. A 'ghost writer' could work with you to sort out the grammar and style. But of course they cost money. As Jay says consult the Writer's Handbook. Look also at the adverts in the Writing Magazine and Writers' News. It could be tricky finding someone who you could happily work with. All the best and I hope that you can find a publisher. Getting published is another 'ball game'.

chalky

Thank you Stan,I am taking all this in, yes it's complicated but then I have never let anything stand in my way, the only person stopping you being what you want to be is you!Ghost writing is expensive and that may be the number one hurdle I have to get over.

Stan2

Are you still in paid employment?

dorothyd

Hi Chalky, just catching up on TB and found you here. A ghost writer will be expensive and it might be better to find out, before you invest any money, whether a publisher will show any interest in the work. Autobiographies don't sell very well unless you are a celebrity, so, you might want to consider a self publishing route when it is sorted out. The best way to find out wherther anyone will be interested is to check book stores for similar books, similar lives if you like, the 'ordinary' person with an interesting life. If you find some, write to those publishers and ask if they are interested in taking on another book like it, then go all out to find your collaborator. Why not look in the local library or ask around for a local writer's group? There might be someone there who you can work with. Does that make sense?

Stan2

There's apparently a market for the 'I was abused by daddy as a little girl' type book at present. But generally autobiographies don't sell unless you are a celebrity or have done something very unusual.

chalky

Hi dorothyd, two people that are in my book have already had books published, John McVicar and Wilf Pine I knew both of these charactors Wilf Pine as a boy, he attended the same Nautical school I had run ins with him, later on in my early adult life John McVicar. A book about Pine was published called One of the family, Wilf was the only English man ever to be acepted into one of the five Mafia families in New York. My book may shock some readers, but I feel It's a story worth telling.

chalky

Stan, I have been a single male parent bringing up my two girls for the last nine years, I am on what they call a pension credit.

Stan2

One of my brothers was a single male parent. His daughters are now grown up.

Isabella King

Are you a criminal, Chalky? ;)

chalky

Am I a criminal now? No and have not mixed with villans for thirty for years, Was I a criminal in reality or just someone on the fringe of organised crime? the reader would have to judge.

Stan2

You have our interest Chalky.

chalky

Is that good or bad Stan?

Stan2

Good, I would say from your point of view as a writer. Maybe, you can catch a publisher's interest too.

Tash

I think you're going to be very interesting to have around, Chalky!

chalky

This is the link to the book relating to Wilf Chunky Pine, you may like to take a look, he's in hospital this weekend waiting for a heart op at undisclosed location.Even with the gammar corrected I'm not sure as a first time writer the books good enough to publish.It's not rearly a complete autobiographie more like portions of my life. I wrote it how I remembered things, problem with research was that anything to do with the Home Office or in fact any other institutions doors closed.

http://www.carlwayne.co.uk/Main%20Pages/News/mafia.htm

chalky

Your a dog Tash, my it's unbelievable what tricks can be taught to animals these days!

Carol

Hello Chalky welcome to Talkback.

flyingtart

Hi Chalky, and welcome :-)

chalky

Hello, thank you both for the welcome.

Celtic C

Hi chalky- welcome to talkback. Well done on actually getting the book written - it may not be perfect but at least you have something to work with. Good luck.

Highland Midge

Hi Chalky, welcome. It's a great achievement to finish a book. My dad wrote one in his 60s too. He left school at 14 and the whole thing was written in capital letters with no grammar at all - but it was a great story. He never did anything with it, but now he's gone I really wish I had it and could read it again.
What you've said here about yours definitely hooks my attention.

chalky

Thank you all, I have had two bits of luck, the first a local writer to my home has offered his help with editing and possibly ghost writing the book and a very low cost if any, next I contacted a publishing company called Publish America gave them a brief outline of the book and within less than two hours they asked me to send my book to them, I explaind regarding my grammar and spelling but that did not put them off, so fingers crossed.

Carol

Chalky please DON'T have anything to do with Publish America, they are on the list of those not to touch in Preditors and Editors.
This is the page link to read, just copy and paste the link into the address bar: http://www.invirtuo.cc/prededitors/pebp.htm
There is a long list of incidents even coming up to last month.

chalky

Thank you Carol you saved me, if they come back offering me a contract you can be sure I will decline. Will keep you posted.

Carol

Good luck Chalky.

dorothyd

Chalky, don't do anything until you check against the Preditors page! Publish America is a vanity publisher. I bought a book printed by them, it was superbly done but I hate to think what it cost! (I sold it on, didn't find it as good a read as I hoped.) But if a book is any good, the publisher will pay you, not pay them. A good way of finding out if someone is bad is if they advertise, as in Writers News. If they say 'we are seeking manuscripts' you can be sure they are a paying job, not the real publisher, as it were, as real ones are so inundated with MS they don't ever have to advertise. In fact, they get so much sent in some demand submissions only through agents.

chalky

I had a long conversation whit a guy called Richard Tiff from Authors Online which is advertised from this very site, seamed like a real nice person, he asked me if he could see the book and I have sent him the file to view, he wasnt worried about the grammar, he said some people have the magic to tell a story although they are not well educated and that what I had told him about the book had captured his imagination. Do you think I could be going in the right direction?

dorothyd

Authors Online, check them out. Use the Preditors and Editors link on this thread before you commit to anything, anywhere, with anyone. In my experience, apart from the editor I am talking to at the moment, who I have known for years and years, (and who has published several of my books) publishers don't tend to work that way. My instinct is check it out first, as thoroughly as you can.

Daisy

Hello, Chalky. Good luck with your book.

chalky

Thank you dorothyd.

chalky

Thank you Daisy and nice to meet you.

dorothyd

You can just click on Thanks to send thanks to us. On the right hand side of the screen.

Jenny

We're a lazy lot!

Jay Mandal

I think you may find the member known as Author Online could give you more details about the company.

chalky

I have searched the prededitors web site, done a google search and cant find a bad word against the company, they are a self publishing house, not unlike publishamerica...but they seam above board.

dorothyd

that's good, if you're prepared to pay for the copies. Remember though, they usually want to print a lot and you will be responsible for selling them. Lulu is another self publishing company, if you want to go that route, and they will print copies as needed, but at a greater cost, of course. Remember you may well have a huge marketing job if you go with a self publisher. They don't market for you. Are you ready to visit bookshops, ask them to take the book on sale or return, generally market yourself? and can you afford to pay for the book to be printed? We are talking thousands here, anything from £1000 upwards. Don't get carried away with talks until you know the costs which you are going to have to meet. It's why I won't take that route. I had an offer from Greenleaf in the USA but turned it down. I will not pay to see my books in print. Not someone else, anyway. I am writing a book at the moment which is based on the Isle of Wight so my company, which is on the Isle of Wight, will print and distribute it but that is a different thing entirely.

Carol

Authors Online are legit -but from what I've heard in the past, expensive. As Dorothy said you would need to do a lot of promotion to ensure sales- and as our Talkback vet MW knows, extremely hard work and time consuming.
Do ask lots of questions before you sign anything.

chalky

You could tell me a lot about Wilf Pine then he lives on the Isle of Wight?

dorothyd

No I can tell you nothing about Wilf Pine - never heard of him! but then I don't read the local rag or attend writers meetings or any social group outside of spiritualist ones, my own, as it happens!

chalky

Yes the after life, funny but I believe certain people re-visit us, I felt my son,just for a moment as I stood by his grave as if he was waiting for me so that he could move on.Who knows what awaits us?

dorothyd

anyone who asks their spirit guides, that's who knows. I know when I am going home, more or less, who will be there and the work I will do when I get there. Sometimes I demand they take me home now, as I am tired of it all but the answer is no, there is still work to do.
Of course people revisit us, not 'certain people' but all people. I work with an earl and a duke from the 15th century, a Mayan priest-king, a cardinal, former kings, two rock stars, a medium friend from this lifetime and a lot of others. My days are full of spiritual and material work and the books I write are dictated by whoever wants to tell me their story.

chalky

I am glad you have full life and so many friends that visit you.

dorothyd

I also work full time as an editor, so life tends to be rather busy ... TB is my oasis in the madness that is my life!

Carol

Dorothy replaces one form of madness for a more enjoyable type of madness. :D

chalky

Yes I can see, not a bad formula to get through the day.

Hickey

Hello Chalky and welcome.
I think I'd have to agree with the idea that charm and voice can be lost by completely perfect grammar. If there were some memo, or forward in the book which breifly explained the grammar, then it would be acceptable to me (BUT, you'd still need it 'read' by someone else, just to ensure that it was still understandable, or the errors were consistent!)
Some poems by Robert Burns, copied out into perfect english grammar, just don't have the same rhyme or resonance.
I'd say keep the grammar as it is (mostly!)
Good luck with it & dinna give up laddie!

chalky

Its more likely to be the spelling I'm not to good at that and office 2000s spell check will only check perfect grammar or so it seams he he, but Hickey, I never give up.