Monday 9 September 2013

SUDDEN hits the Top Ten on Amazon UK


Great news to wake up to - finding that the September release of SUDDEN APACHE FIGHTER is #3, whilst SUDDEN AT BAY is #17 and SUDDEN STRIKES BACK is at #57.

When we first took on the series we spoke with Frederick Nolan (Frederick H Christian) on several things. Firstly, the cover: We wanted to get a modern take on the old classic style pulp western. Fred agreed: "I rather like the "Ranch Romances" feel of your Sudden covers -- they bring back memories of the original Newnes covers for the Oliver Strange titles, which were always 1930-ish, and remained unaltered even into the 1960s."

Secondly the language and about whether or not to "upgrade" the lingo for new readers, or to stick with Oliver Strange's archaic view of how they talked Out West. It was decided that we were going to leave it be - thinking of how many thousands of readers have gone before and not complained. That's the way OS wrote 'em.

Why am I bringing this up? Well, there have been a few comments in the feedback area ranging from 5 star:
"written in the original style of Oliver Strange, good story line and a moralistic outcome to the story."
to 1 star:
"Full of spelling and grammar mistakes. Very poorly edited. A five year old could have done better. Always loved sudden books but this one could have put off someone new to them."

Ouch.

We carefully go through each manuscript as if it was an original script. Part of the editing includes changing the UK spelling to American and keeping words such as "yu" rather than "you"; "shore" for "sure" etc. etc. So, perhaps it is the use of the vernacular, in the style of Oliver Strange, which looks somehow "mistaken" to today's modern readers?

Our aim is to do right by our authors and readers. We have no intention of knowingly publishing a book that is less than the best we are capable of.

1 comment:

  1. great top ten!!
    check out my top ten :)
    http://top10items2016.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete