Repeat after me: "I don't remember much about the editing . . ."
Actually, I do. :-) Leslie Peterson was my excellent editor on this project, and she had several helpful suggestions, including the idea of placing a glossary in the book. I insisted that it go at the back, however, because I personally am put off by any book if I open it and see either a glossary or a chart of characters up front. I read primarily for entertainment, not to learn something (though I'm always delighted if I do!).
I do remember hearing one comment that filtered in from somewhere--someone suggested that I put in some scenes from Moses' point of view. I demurred, because that would have defeated my entire purpose--to tell Moses' story completely through the eyes of the women in his life.
Moses had lots of chances to tell his story in the Pentateuch. I figured it was time to give the women a chance to speak.
Tomorrow: results and reader reaction
~~Angie
4 comments:
I also don't like to open a book to a glossary, a list of characters or a family tree. I think it must be way too complicated if those are needed. The only thing I don't mind seeing is a map. I actually like that.
So, in your WIP are you gonna have someone wake up on the embalming table? LOL
I sometimes would like to know that there is a glossary,even if it is in the back. When I read Liz Curtis Higgs first scottish book,
"Thorn in My Heart" I was guessing
what the Scottish words and phrases meant. When I finished the book I then found the glossary in the back. I ended up rereading the book. Some books need the family trees in the front, especially ones in long series like Gilbert Morris writes.
I like having a glossary for words that aren't in common use in America now, family trees or maps to refer back to. Doesn't really matter to me where they are just tell me in the contents or somewhere near the front of the book that its there and where it is. I'm a very detailed person so all that nittygrtty stuff is fun to me.
It's not that I think a book IS too complicated if it has a glossary, etc. But that I THINK it is. My first impression of a book if I open it up to those things is that I am overwhelmed and intimidated. I just wanted to read a book, not learn a new language. So it isn't that I don't think books should have them, I just think they should be at the back so they don't scare me.
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