Grammar
mistakes are one reason readers become frustrated and stop reading
your book somewhere
before the middle. I review a lot of books and read other people's
reviews. Poor grammar is so annoying to many readers that they
actually start marking up the book before giving up in disgust.
Running
a thorough grammar check on your book can pay big dividends in reader
satisfaction.
Grammar
isn't the only reason readers stop reading. You have to play fair
with your readers. I recently read a book in
which
the author set up the first three chapters as a murder mystery. I
love murder mysteries, so I was ready to keep
reading,
but in the fourth chapter the author included about fifty pages of
backstory. Too
much backstory is frustrating because is slows the action, but worse
it can change the character of the book. This
book turned into a character study rather than a mystery.
Readers
will also put your book down if you are
inconsistent in your presentation. A romantic novel can have elements
of fantasy, but if your sizzler slides too far into fantasy your
readers may give up. They bought the book for the sizzle. Conversely,
a fantasy should stay a fantasy and not become a modern romance.
I
recently read an article in the New York Times, December 25, 2013,
about new services like
Scribd
that track how
readers are treating your book. This can be valuable information for
authors, but you don't have to wait to subscribe to a service. Read
reviews on Amazon or Goodreads, not only for your books, but for
books
you've read. You'll find plenty of reviewers willing to tell you
exactly why the stopped reading and where.
