With
the explosion of e-books and e-readers, free e-books are available
just about anywhere on the Internet. I have downloaded 30 to 35 free
e-books, some highly recommended, and have deleted almost all of
them. There are very few diamonds to be found in the avalanche
of free, easily downloaded e-books. Many had not even been
spell-checked.
From
spelling errors, bad grammar, blatant plagiarism, unsupported
assertions, and egotistical, self-indulgent mental wanderings, the
spectrum of bad writing is well covered by the free downloads! More
than a few self-proclaimed e-book authors and experts have spoiled
the resource of free downloads for me, it will be a while before I
bother downloading more of them.
Many supposedly non-fiction books are just plain nonsense, creations of someone's ability to simply type at a keyboard and hit the upload button without using any of the reference features of their word processor or the Internet. One non-fiction book I downloaded, and almost immediately erased, was supposedly chock full of hints about getting your e-book published. It was filled with assumptions and incorrect information, spelling errors that any word processor should have caught, and a naive assumption that everything the author wrote was cast in stone. I'm surprised the author actually had the e-book published especially if he followed his own recommendations.
On the fiction side of the free e-book world, every possible combination of unlikely, politically incorrect heroine or unwashed, distasteful, outcast hero has been exhausted. Fiction books seem to be in the same realm as comic books, which may actually be better written. If I read the phrases “special agent,” or “steal the formula” one more time, I'll put my Kindle on the shelf and go back to the classics.
Editors
and publishers must be wondering what the literary world is coming
to. In the free e-book world, mankind is always saved by some
maverick/outcast/sociopath who doesn't follow the
rules/laws/covenants of civilization, but is smarter/stronger/swifter
and more resourceful/clever/ingenious than any
government/religion/corporation on earth.
The
protagonist agency/commission/office is always
sinister/incompetent/inept in some way that the unlikely hero/heroine
always masters because his/her dad/mother was a
scientist/genius/prisoner who inspired his/her offspring to rise
above the elitist/plebeian masses, and in the process, endowed them
with the luck of a cat with nine lives. I like to strike out every
third word from the main character's dialog just to make the book
interesting. Sometimes, though, I find it really doesn't make much
difference.
Almost
all literary best-sellers are available from as e-books from
reputable on-line vendors for a fee, although sometimes at quite
exorbitant prices. One recent best-seller cost more for the e-book
than the print version! The often unrealistically high prices asked
by some authors or publishers for e-books may actually be the key to
the popularity of the free downloads.
There
are many old classics out there for those who want only free e-books.
Even Strunk and White's Elements of Style is available.
Well, obviously that one doesn't get downloaded often. At least,
not often enough by the most writers of the free e-books.
