Webnovel.Forum

Since when is it Qidian or the website's job to integrate Grammarly or software to help authors improve their stories? The onus should be on the writers themselves. Why can't the writers get Grammarly themselves? Hell, even Microsoft Word's spelling check should be more than adequate for the job. It is not my professor's job to ensure I do my readings, write my essays and get my degree.

Should Fictionpress or Royal Road install Grammarly or similar softwares in their websites as well?

Why are we pushing the responsibility of editing and mastering good grammar and vocabulary onto the website rather than the authors themselves? This makes no sense whatsoever. It's not Qidian's job to improve the writers' language and skills. Nor should the website be babying and doing everything for the authors. That responsibility should fall to the writers themselves. Why can't the authors buy and make use of Grammarly or their preferred writing software on their own, and instead rely on Qidian to provide it? That's just irresponsibility on the authors' part (and a little bit of self-entitlement).

Cantiara Honestly? No. If you send an unpolished, amateur, poorly written and unedited work to a publishing company, they would outright reject your script. Hell, even polished, well-written and edited manuscripts are rejected by publishing companies because of the sheer volume of scripts they receive. What makes you think the company is obligated to provide a "package" from the house? That's just entitlement. Only professional writers whose manuscripts are accepted and recognized by editors are contacted and then they work with professional editors - and make no mistake, these professional editors' main role is not to proofread. Yes, they pick up grammar or spelling mistakes here and there, but that's the least important aspect of their job. Their real job is to work with the author on improving the plot, brainstorming the different directions the story can go (what, you think the editors are going to just say, yeah, write whatever you want?), discuss character development, spot inconsistencies and plot holes, etc. They are not perfect by any means, but they are still professionals. In any case, you are totally mistaken about the "publishing companies providing an editing package" thing. Most publishing companies don't even tell you that they reject your stories, which is why they include the caveat telling you that you're most likely not considered if you don't hear a reply from them in three months, and also that "because of the sheer number of manuscripts we receive, we will not be able to respond individually to each author to tell them the reasons for rejection." They literally receive hundreds, if not thousands of manuscripts a month, but have limited staff to go through all of them. Who's going to have the time to edit every single one of them? And it's not their job to provide the people who submit an editing software. You're the one applying to them and trying to appeal to them to "hire" you with your product. What makes you stand out from the others? For starters, if you don't even have the most basic grasp of grammar or have a very limited vocabulary, you're eliminated. You may think your ideas are brilliant or genius and you deserve a chance, but make no mistake, there are other authors who both have great ideas and can write very well. They're the ones who will catch the eye of the publishing company, not you. Quite frankly, the publishing companies would probably be looking for reasons to eliminate stories, not find one to publish. You want to talk about reality? That is reality.

You only receive those sort of services or "packages" when the publishing company deems you worthy enough of investment and recognizes you as a proper writer. If you're going to submit a sloppily written work that's incoherent and then expect them to provide an editing service or package, then...my friend, to put it bluntly, you are deluded.

If you go look for a job, you don't tell your interviewer and prospective employer that it's their job or obligation to train and help you. You'll get kicked out immediately. If you're applying for graduate school or a fellowship, you submit a polished and edited writing sample, not tell the professors or committee that it's their job to teach you to write one. Similarly, Qidian or writing websites merely host your stuff and provide you an opportunity to showcase your works and demonstrate why people should read your stories. If you can't write a proper story or if you don't have a good grasp of the language, then it's on you to learn how to write or master the language. Not Qidian to help you learn.

Now you might claim that my examples don't apply here because Qidian is "digital" or "online". That's nonsense. Obviously I don't go onto Syousetsuka ni Narou and demand that they provide some program that helps edit my horribly written Japanese. The users there would probably laugh and kick me out of the site for being so entitled. If I want to write a Japanese novel, I will have to learn Japanese, practice the language until I'm good at it, or get someone to teach me. Not expect Syousetsuka ni Narou or some Japanese writing website to provide me "services" - and for free too. Why should they waste their time, resources and money helping a nobody Gaijin like me with editing software when they have so many more local writers to worry about?

Norah_Koch Grammarly isn't the only editing software. That's why I said "preferred writing software" - if you can't afford it, there are alternatives. Hell, I even said that Microsoft Word's spelling check should be more than adequate for the job. You're not honestly telling me you don't have Microsoft Word, are you? Then what word processor are you using? Even the most basic or cheapest word processors have spelling check. Google Documents, which is entirely free and uses a cloud-based server, has spelling check.

Tomoyuki

So, are you saying contracted authors here are not professional authors? Isn't Qidian/WN paying them money for their works? If WN/Qidian offered them a contract, doesn't that mean WN/Qidian already deemed these authors worthy enough for investment? If they do, then why is it wrong to provide these sort of packages for them? I know that WN/Qidian provides a content editor for their contracted authors, whom these authors can make use of to discuss plot development, and the likes. So why can't they assist their authors further with editing software that will help improve their work? It's not entitlement. It's a win-win situation.

Ok, let's forget about the authors for a second, and let's look at this from the readers' perspective. Readers spend money to read premium novels, only to see there are still grammatical/spelling errors in it. Isn't it WN/Qidian's responsibility to at least assure the quality of the novels they're publishing? If not for their authors, then for their readers (You know, the ones they're earning money from? Or would you call that entitlement as well?).

And it's not true that employers don't train their prospective employees. I train interns at my work, who are potential employees for the company.

Cantiara We're not talking about premium authors but novice authors...GoldcladChimera said many, including premium authors at first, but then he/she said " I think Qidian should get Grammarly or similar software integrated into Inkstone to help novice authors with their English and improve readability." Not premium writers.

And you only receive training after you've proven yourself, not just waltz into the room and tell them, "I don't know how to do this, but you're going to train me anyway." I'm pretty sure there's a selection process for the interns, you don't just accept every Tom, Dick and Harry, and those interns who are lazy or incompetent aren't likely to be potential employees, are they?

Norah_Koch Yeah, any help is better than nothing. Even professional editors aren't 100% free of mistakes anyway.

Okay, so, here comes my salty old man rant.

1. No, it does not need Grammarly integration. Grammarly can be used, for free, as a web plugin on any site by a user. This site and app are already janky as it is, and they haven't even fixed the current problems they've had for a while. The last thing they need to do is do some 3rd party API integration into the writing platform, especially when said writing platform doesn't even have easily accessible Bold or Italic options.

2. Bad grammar and bad formatting are the sign of a lazy writer, or a bad writer. If you write and your grammar or word usage is shite, its your own fault. Good grammar is quite literally the most fundamental part of being a writer, and if you can't fix it on your own, a fancy-dancy app that alerts you to fundamental errors that you're too unskilled or too lazy to recognize on your own will not make you a better writer.

3. If you think any real publisher provides copy-editing and proofreading for fundamental grammar errors, you have absolutely no idea how actual publishing works. In the real-world publishing game, writers have to submit fully proofread, highly edited drafts to even make it to some junior editors desk for initial consideration. Anything that is less than 99% correct grammatically will be thrown away without a second thought. Why? Because grammar is as fundamental to writing as setting one foot in front of the other is to running. And anyone who submits a trainwreck of grammar errors is both demonstrating a lack of fundamental skill, as well as a lack of respect for the reader's time.

4. WN/Qidian don't care about quality, or creativity, or basic readability. They care about extracting as much money from a story as possible with the least amount of effort or author pay-out as possible. I would know- I've read their contract first-hand. They don't edit because it literally doesn't affect their bottom line if they don't. The vast majority of readers on here are either ESL members who don't know better, sugar-addled kids who don't care (or maybe even prefer bad writing), or people willing to disregard/tolerate the glaring issues because they like a story's plot or characters.

5. I'm sorry, but if you as a writer are getting paid to put out shit drafts by a company that doesn't care about minimum quality standards, that doesn't make you a "professional". That makes you an amateur with monetization. Professionals have standards.