Breaking the Bad Surf News

One of my English-teaching colleagues has a cousin with a published work of surfing fiction, a book I agreed to read with an eye towards approving it for school use so that his cousin can come talk to our students.

But there’s a problem. The book’s, well….

As another author–I did some snooping–wrote in a critique of the publishing company, “When I read my first PublishAmerica book my feelings were a blend of embarrassment, anger and disbelief. The writer had obviously worked hard to put the story together and it had the makings of an entertaining read. It reminded me so much of my own first and only attempt at writing a novel – abundant clichés, suspect word selection, contrived scenes and wooden characters existing in a plot that lacked cohesion. It was in fact a story barely at the first draft stage, complete with spelling and grammatical errors. How could an ethical, self-respecting publishing house allow this to happen, I wondered?”

My colleague’s relative’s book really does have an interesting story line, but otherwise it’s a sinker (sorry, had to cast that out there) that I’d be ashamed to use for anything more than editing practice even in a classroom full of students who write summer memories essays about riding “fairest wheels” and “sudways” and going to “barbara shops.”

How do I break that to my colleague?