Finding The Right Editor For You

I had a conversation recently with a writer who wasn’t confident about the prospect of acquiring an editor for her work-in-progress. It seems she’d been burnt before, ending up paying a substantial amount more than she’d initially planned, plus she felt that the service provided hadn’t met expectations.

This didn’t surprise me. Many writers, it seems, dive into this phase of the process with their eyes shut. They see a colourful, well-worded ad for editing services and dash through what is a one-way door, committing themselves to what can prove to be an expensive unknown.

We chatted over a cup of tea and it turned out she hadn’t shopped around – something I recommend all writers to do. It’s natural that we want the best of whatever we’re looking for. Why would we accept something that’s sub-standard or way out of our financial comfort zone? And why would you jump for the first option that comes along when there might be several others out there who provide a service that better suits your needs?

Inexperience, I think, comes to mind. Once bitten, twice shy, so all the more reason to play a little more carefully next time around. The internet is an amazing organism, with lots of good in its infinite depths, but that shouldn’t prevent you from taking a deep breath before diving into the fray. Shop around – make a list of prospective editors, freelance or otherwise, then dig deeper to see if their offered service comes close to what you’re looking for.

If your wip isn’t solid, maybe you’re in need of a developmental editor who will work with you to restructure your project, focusing on the bigger picture. If you’ve done your work and took the time to self-edit and polish the piece, bringing it to a point where you can do no more, then a substantive/line editor is the one for you. Copy-editing and proofreading are services that are really only useful when the deep work has been completed – remember, it’s no good having punctuation and grammar correct if the work is full of plot holes and cardboard characters.

Make a list of the editors who ring your bell – it goes without saying you should keep walking if they don’t provide a free sample edit. Seriously, why should you consider a professional if you can’t see for yourself what they can do for you? Choose a chapter – I’d suggest one from the middle of your wip, and send it off, including a brief note about yourself (as a writer) and what you’re looking for. Don’t be afraid at this stage to ask for rates and timeframes, etc. The editor, time permitting, will leap at this opportunity to exhibit their skills.

If you send your sample chapter off to six or seven editors, the returns should give you a good idea of who you’re better suited to. You’ve taken your time and are in control, which is so much better than being left with a sour taste due to haste borne of inexperience. My mother liked to say, ‘Decisions made in haste are regretted at leisure.’ Do your research – make a list of potentials – send your chapter to your chosen few, then take time to review and mull over their returns. Apply their edits, as you see fit, and see who works best for you. Once you’re happy with your choice, it’s time to move on to the next step – contacting the editor and developing a conversation that will provide you with a clearer picture of what lies ahead if you decide to commission them. The main thing is that you have a clear view of every step of the process. A good editor will ensure that this is the case.

I am always available to answer any questions about the editing process. I’m also here if you’d like a free sample edit. Contact me at clearviewediting@gmail.com and I’ll get back to you asap.

http://clearviewfictionediting.com/

Interviewed by Carol L. Ervin

Many thanks to my long-time writing friend, Carol L. Ervin, for giving me the opportunity to share my views on editing through being interviewed on her blog. I have to say it was a most-enjoyable experience and I'm grateful to Carol for her time and kind words.

Follow the link to read the interview...

https://carolervin.com/2016/04/12/no-book-sales-no-agent-consider-a-book-tune-up/

Carol is a prolific writer of historical fiction (The Woman On The Mountain series), science-fiction, and a contemporary thriller. The following link will take you to her Amazon page.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Carol+L.+Ervin

Visit my website to read about my editing services...

http://clearviewfictionediting.com/

Self-Editing Tips

 

 

A lesson in Awareness

How much do you know about the technical aspects of your writing? As a writer with serious intentions, you need to make time to learn the fundamental rules. We learn as we go, but we evolve so much more if we make a point of actively honing our writing skills through personal study. If you have the ability to create clean copy and a story with the minimum of structural issues, your trip to the editor will be a much cheaper one.

 

Invest!

Build a strong reference library that you can dip into at a moment’s notice. Actively read novels, noting elements that you struggle with, whether that be dialogue, description, punctuation, point of view, or conflict. The more you actively read, the more you learn.

Achieving Objectivity

How long is ‘long enough’? To gain necessary perspective we need to create distance between ourselves and the work we’ve been so tied to over the past year or two. Once you write The End, put it out of mind for as long as you can and start work on something else. If you can leave it for a month (or more), great – you’ll be able to view it with a level of objectivity that will allow you see and tackle issues that you were previously too close to.

Self-editing needs to be so much more than a simple sweep through your manuscript (ms) to correct grammar and punctuation errors. Also, if you try to tackle everything in one go, you’ll succumb to the dreaded word-blindness affliction, missing some of the most important elements while focused elsewhere. The process should be slow and steady, taking one aspect of the whole at a time.

First Read

Read the manuscript without changing anything. Have a notebook to hand and jot down whatever impressions hit you as you read. Don’t allow distractions – this is simply to reacquaint yourself with the ms.

Structure

Focus on structural editing first. If the story’s not right, no amount of polishing will fix it. Is the plot solid? Are scenes complete? Are transitions lacking? Are characters fully developed and consistent? Are their actions/reactions justified? Are they meeting their objectives?

Line-edit

Time to iron out the wrinkles with a serious line-edit. This is where you wade in deep – one word at a time - anything confusing, convoluted, or wordy needs fixing. Every word, phrase, sentence must pass the hard-edit test. If it doesn’t hit the mark then it needs reviewing. You can’t be soft here, even if it’s one of your favourite pieces. If it doesn’t read right, chop, chop, chop. This phase is also ideal for searching out ‘weasel’ words – repetitive personal phrases/words of habit that stand out because they are yours, not the character’s.

Less-is-More

Pull sentences back to their bones without changing original meaning. Hit unnecessary repetition, redundant words and phrases, and negative patterns such as sequential sentences/paragraphs beginning with the likes of He/She/I. If you have three in a line, change the second to break the pattern. Patterns can be a result of lazy writing, but here we’ll just blame it on first-draft fever. Considered rewriting will rectify and improve any such issues.

Activate Your Writing

Target telling adverbs and replace with strong verbs and considered descriptive narrative that pulls the reader tighter to the character’s experience. Same goes for adjectives - test as you go to see if a particular noun can stand on its own without the so-called supportive adjective. Have confidence in your writing and allow the power of context carry your story to the reader.

Cut Filters

Another way to activate your writing is by cutting filters. The likes of ‘she felt the rain on her face’ distances the reader from the action by placing the character in the way. Using filters does no justice to your writing when something as simple as – ‘cold rain spattered her face’ pulls the reader into the moment, activates their imagination, and creates a stronger reader/character connection. Other filter examples are: thought – wondered – knew – realised – saw - touched -watched - heard.

Dialogue

Get your dialogue structure and punctuation right. You can google the fundamental rules anytime, but the important thing is to absorb them so you’ll not have to think about them when writing. I’m a dialogue man and my clients feel it when they send me dialogue that falls below my quality bar. Important, too, to cut excessive tags and said-bookisms – if the tag isn’t a manner of speaking, cut it down and replace with a simple but effective ‘said’. Vary up dialogue/action tags, too, to break patterns and enhance variety. Dialogue tags can easily be replaced with the likes of action or observation tags before, during, or after the spoken word, ensuring there is as little structural repetition as possible. Such variety enhances the reading experience, which is always a good thing where the reader is concerned.

Point-of-View

Point-of-view and tense slippages stand out better when read aloud. Don’t jump heads from one character to another within the one scene. It simply doesn’t work, confusing and irritating your reader, often to the extent that they’ll abandon all hope and spread the word for others to approach with caution. One character’s perspective per scene, even if it’s a short one – slip a divider/asterisk in and carry on with pov integrity. It’ll be appreciated by your reader. If your pov character can’t see or hear what’s going on, then it can’t be included in the scene. Have another character speak or act so we know what’s going on with them, or have your pov character act/react verbally/physically to create necessary context.

Be careful to catch any tense blips, slipping into present from past, or visa-versa.

Proofreading

As a writer, it’s your responsibility to at least thoroughly proofread your ms before subbing it to your editor or publisher. It takes work, but you should be up for the challenge, especially if you’re serious about your craft. As mentioned above, the cleaner the copy, the cheaper the edit. I base my fee on impressions from sample edits – if it’s lagging behind where it should be, I know I’ve my work cut out and charge to suit. Take it slow and read each word aloud without jumping ahead because you 'know' the phrase or have read it a zillion times. This phase is about one letter and space at a time.

Style

Keep a style guide handy. I use The Elements of Style, but there are others out there. It’s good to have to hand for the more obscure rules. A style sheet, consisting of character/setting details, will prove invaluable when rewriting. It’s a simple list to add to as you write your first draft. Character details, place names, and setting are examples where you need consistency throughout. Readers are expert at finding consistency/continuity errors and your style sheet will save you post-release blushes.

Last thing to do is the idiot-check run-through. Just read through the ms to ensure nothing gets left behind. Believe me, it’ll be worth it. Once you’ve that accomplished, it’s time to send it off to your editor. My email address is: clearviewediting@gmail.com

Stand Up For Indies

 

Stand Up For Indies

I’ve read a couple of blog posts recently from traditionally published authors venting against Indie publishing, basically viewing it as inferior and too much work for the minimal return. As far as they’re concerned, writers should focus on writing, not on marketing, or anything else that takes time away from producing the goods. They ask why should writers pay through the nose for services provided ‘free of charge’ to prospective authors on the trad’ path?

I’m afraid their argument is ill-informed. For a start, beyond their advance and low-percentage returns, where do they think the money from their sales goes? Their book pays the agent and editors, the designers and marketers, and then there’s the sizable chunk taken by bookshops. Indie authors are well aware of how much stores ask in return for shelf space – up to half for what can be a rarely viewed slot in a distant corner.

 

Where trad’ published authors may be guaranteed access to the best of bookshops, the balloon often bursts after one month when the book is taken off the ‘Just Published’ shelf and sidelined to the back shelves or, worse, to the discount pile. In the indie world, the author’s novel is always reachable - and not just the most recent work, but all previous publications are there to be accessed at the touch of a button.

And what’s the problem with doing your own marketing? I know many indie authors who are now masters at it, managing to portion off their marketing time without detrimentally affecting their writing time. All right, they may not have the resources for major poster or radio campaigns, but the broad world of social media provides a network that can be far-reaching with the minimum of financing.

They also blathered on about the inferior quality of writing in the Indie world – that there’s a solid reason they’re not traditionally published. I accept that I’ve encountered badly written and badly edited (if at all) indie novels along the way, but such occurrences are in the minority, especially now where authors know that word of mouth dictates that quality wins the day. Which is why indie authors go to so much trouble to exploit the services of beta-readers, professional designers, formatters, and editors, ensuring their product is the best it can be.

As far as I’m concerned, it’s wonderful that we no longer have to suffer the long wait to be accepted by an agent or publisher, and that our stories are making their way to the world at large. We’ve cut out the middle elites and are making our way independently, collaborating to provide so many readers with quality writing they might otherwise not have seen. We write, we edit, we market – constantly pushing against the boundaries, knocking down walls, bringing our work to the people. Long may it continue – it’s high time Indies got the support they deserve.

http://clearviewfictionediting.com/

Getting Out and About - The Healthier Option

I wrote before about the importance of taking time away from the keyboard. When you’re working for yourself as a writer or editor, doing something that you love, the tendency is to lose yourself in the world of story and character, or structure and style. Nobody’s there to ring the bell for lunch, or to let you know that it’s time to go home, especially when your workplace happens to be in your home. But while you may be working hard to meet objectives, hours of isolation and lack of physical activity only serves to draw darkness into your head and sludge into your veins. Getting out into the light and air will not only give your brain a well-deserved break, a nature-heavy walk will help invigorate you holistically.

The important thing for me when I’m out and about is to include water and trees. Nothing placates and stimulates me in equal measure than walking along the river or lakeshore and through ever-changing woodland. I get to witness beautiful swans flirting as they search for a suitable nest site, or I can pause and admire the awe-inspiring vista of the Dartry mountain range to the north of Sligo town.

My powerwalking workout burns the fat while the combined energy of light, trees, and water eradicates stress and leaves me refreshed physically and mentally, more than ready to dive back into whatever project I’m working on. A healthier heart and mind not only gets more work done, but the quality of the work experience is radically enhanced just by that post-walk buzz.

If you’ve read this, I entreat you to make a little plan to take yourself out each day for a nature-heavy walk. Even if you live in a town or city, there are still parks and rivers that you can avail of to lighten your heart and soul. With the exercise you’ll eat and sleep better, but best of all – your work will benefit beyond your expectations. Go on, give it a try and see how right I am.

 

Always Open to Sample Chapters

While I’m a busy editor, I always make time for sample chapters submitted by writers in the process of searching for a suitable editor for their novel. My sample edits are provided free of charge, which I believe is the way to go, but from what I’ve seen not all editors provide such a service. Maybe that’s because they’re so well established their calendar is more or less always full, most likely with regular clients. That’s a great place to find oneself, and fair play to them because I know from editor friends that it takes several years to reach such a heady height. May their calendars remain full.

In the meantime, I’ll continue to edit sample chapters free of charge. To be honest, it doesn’t take up a whole lot of time, and it goes such a long way to helping writers find the right editor. Personal testimonials help, but you can’t beat the experience of seeing at first hand solid and constructive feedback from a sample of your novel.

It works the other way, too, enabling me to see if the writer’s work is ready to be edited, as well as what level they’re at, which helps determine price. Anyway, I’ve written about that before so I’ll not hit you with it again. All I’ll say is that both sides benefit from the sample edit, so if you’re looking for a reputable freelance editor, submit a sample chapter from your work-in-progress to clearviewediting@gmail.com and I’ll send you back a comprehensive line-edit with no strings attached. All genres are catered for.

You should also visit my website to get a better flavour of my editing approach and background.

http://clearviewfictionediting.com/

Are You In This For The Money?

Are You In This For The Money?

 

As a freelance editor, I like to know what’s going on in the editing world – I’m a member of several editing groups – so I make it my business to keep up with news and with blogs pertinent to the trade. I happened upon one the other day owned by a person relatively new to the game. It’s great to see newcomers because there are always editors retiring, and there’s always work out there, especially if they have what it takes. What got me about this blog piece was the blogger’s promotion of their services at a rate that ‘couldn’t be matched by anyone else’. Not just that, but why should authors pay what could be seen as a high rate for an edit when their novel isn’t going to make all that much money anyway? This got me thinking about reasons for releasing novels in the first place, and why writers should be willing to pay for a quality service when having your novel edited.

Is the main objective of publishing your novel to make money out of it? It’s a serious question. Are you in it for the money? If that’s the case, what happens when your novel doesn’t sell more than a thousand or two, if that, even with a solid marketing campaign? What happens if you don’t see a return for the cash you forked out for professional editing, formatting, cover design, etc? Do you keep going and put another novel out there, or do you simply give up the ghost and return to the office, or shop, or cleaning windows for a living?

 

Or is it about having your novel read, irrespective of the financial side of things? Are you the kind of writer who slaves over your novel for a year or more before sending it out there to be read and appreciated, because that’s what deserves to happen to a novel that has been put through a comprehensive pre-publishing process? Yes, it’s wonderful when the book sells and royalties pad your account, and it’s an amazing feeling when you actually make a profit on your initial outlay, but it’s not why you’re in the game. You love writing – it’s something you simply cannot not do, even though you’ve tried because of the constant pressures involved in placing it before near-enough everything else. You might be lucky enough that your partner works full-time, or you might be able to hold down a part-time job, but you’re willing to live this life as a struggling writer because it makes your days worthwhile. It’s not about the money and, from my experience, you’re more than willing to save to enable you to have your novel professionally edited, formatted, and the cover designed to ensure that the work you release to the world is the very best it can be.

There’s also the reality that a writer’s reputation, and their sales, rises when they have several novels published over a number of years. Readers might like a novel, but if there’s nothing else belonging to the author out there they’ll simply go elsewhere, and you couldn’t blame them. So it’s not about caving in and going for a cheap-as-you-can-get editor because your novel might not pull in more than two or three thousand in royalties. The writing game is not a sprint to the finish. It’s about learning your craft and applying that as best you can to the work at hand before having it professionally edited and prepped for publication. It’s about building your author platform and networking across the breadth of the social-media world in order to pitch yourself and your product to the widest possible audience, always learning as you go and remembering to pay it forward by helping those who are coming up behind you.

I’m taking a deep breath here because ranting takes it out of me. What was this all about? I provide a solid service, taking into account the realities of living as a writer when determining my fee, but I don’t give my services away, either. Why should I? I work more hours than is healthy, and that’s definitely not going to change if I were to undercut the competition to the extent that my rates couldn’t be matched by anyone else. If you want quality, you pay for it – that’s how I see it. And if you care about your novel, you’ll ensure that your editor is the best you can get, not simply because he or she is the cheapest. Do your research and get the real deal.

http://clearviewfictionediting.com/