Writing and Publishing News

Did you write yesterday? Did you follow my advice and keep your audience in mind? Maybe you plan to sit down at your computer and do some serious writing this weekend and apply this concept to your writing project. Be sure to let me know how it goes.

A common habit I see in writing is the author doesn’t bring the reader along on the journey. She leaves him out in the cold while she moves to the next page of her story. In other words, she might drive home and fix herself a sandwich without allowing the reader to follow along through the process. You might not want to go into how the character pulls up to the curb, steps on the break, puts the car in park, removes the key, etc. We don’t need all of the mundane details unless they are relevant to the story, such as in establishing the character’s mood or demeanor:

“Marge felt a sharp pain in her knee as she stepped on the brake and a more piercing pain drove through her gut as she recalled Jay’s attempt to cripple her that night…”

Or

“Mike opened the kitchen cupboard and stared blankly at its contents. Peanut butter—that’s what I want, he thought, peanut butter. Where’s the damn peanut butter? The jar wasn’t sitting on the shelf where he was used to seeing it. He slammed the door shut so hard that it bounced back and slapped him in the head. That’s when he noticed them—cookies. Peanut butter cookies. My favorite, he thought.”

Some writers tell the story as they write. Others sketch a skeleton of the story (or outline) first and fill in the particulars later. However you choose to produce your masterpieces, make sure that it makes sense to your readers and that your readers are not left behind—wondering what happened.

If you need someone to double/triple check your manuscript before you send it off to a pay-to-publish company or publisher, contact me for a free evaluation. I will look over your first few chapters (20 pages or so) and let you know what I think you need—most often it is an editor. I will explain what I would do to improve your manuscript, how long it would take me and how much it would cost. (Expect a cost of anywhere from $250 to $2,500).

It is a wise author who budgets this fee for editing services. Hire a BOOK editor—someone who is accustomed to editing books using the Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition) and who knows something about the publishing industry.

Check out my credentials and client testimonials here:

http://www.patriciafry.com

Download a FREE copy of 50 Reasons Why You Should Publish Your Book.

Today I want to discuss a couple of editorial problems that I see in manuscripts and book proposals. I want you to avoid these things in your writing. I want you to become an astute self-editor. It will save you money for professional editing.

I’m not suggesting that you should cut the editor out completely—oh no. But the tighter your writing and the more editorially sound you can make it, the less time it will take your editor to go over it and the less cost to you!

Here are a couple of sentences I came across in manuscripts recently. I have changed them just enough so as to protect the identity and style of the writer:

“As a society, we have always depended on others, since the beginning of time.”

First, I advised this author to use either “always” or “since the beginning of time.” To use both is redundant. And I omitted the comma between “others” and “since.”

Here’s another example of redundancy:

“This is a new product that just came out.”

Some authors, in their book proposal synopsis refer to their project as, “my book” or “the book.” I typically suggest that they write “this book” or “the book I propose,” or the book title.

How about this one—the author writes, “Some writers forget to include an SASE with their manuscript. That is okay if they do not want a reply.”

I would opt for “this” in place of “that.” “This is okay…”

Here’s to Your Publishing Success
What does it take to succeed with your amazing book project? Learn the ropes by referencing Patricia Fry’s book The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book.

Here’s what others have said about this book:

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“I consider this book my publishing bible.”
“You have no idea how much your book has helped me.”
“I am on the second reading of your book. It is a great help and resource.”

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“What do you do as an editor?” This is a question I get fairly often. “What can you do for my manuscript?”

My typical response is, whatever your manuscript needs.

My main concern with your manuscript is readability, flow and consistency. I want to make sure it is organized logically and that we catch any typos, grammatical/punctuation errors and spacing problems. I look for cumbersome and/or muddy sentences, repeated words, misused words and more. As I wrote in a post earlier this week, I attempt to help you break any bad, annoying and/or obvious writing habits that tend to weaken your story or devalue your nonfiction book.

Authors ask what my fee is. Some disappear upon hearing that I charge $50/hour. I wonder what they end up doing about the editing they need. Actually, I know what many authors do. They either look around for someone they know who will “take a look” at their manuscript and maybe do a little light editing or they decide to publish (or seek a publisher) without editing. Such a shame. One author who thought I was too high (having no idea of the value I could offer her manuscript), chose to go with someone who claimed to be an editor. This individual advertised that he/she charged $150 an hour, as I recall, and that he/she could edit a 200 page manuscript in something like three hours. The author went for it. Later, she told me that she made a foolish decision. She said it was obvious that all this person did was run a spellcheck on her manuscript.

It seems to be human nature to take the shortcut to success. And we learn over and over again that this isn’t a very effective plan. If you were a pilot, you would not skimp on your plane’s maintenance and your preflight checklist. If you were a doctor, you would make sure to keep up on the latest treatments and remedies. If you were preparing for an audition, you would rehearse. Why would you decide to become an author and then skimp on the final edit of your book? Don’t you think your audience will notice—not to mention any publishers you might approach…

Some authors worry that an editor will steal their voice. I doubt that has happened to many authors. It would take a total rewrite to change the voice of a story. I’ve been accused of changing an author’s voice, when all I did was clean up some extremely muddy sentences. I don’t think this author ever understood how much clarity my edits afforded his story.

I have a lot of editorial stories. I guess an editor collects stories like a fisherman, psychologist, skydiving instructor, door-to-door salesman or anyone in any profession does.

I just finished an editing project yesterday. A few hours after I sent the cleaned up manuscript to the author, he called me to thank me for the wonderful job. Now that’s a happy ending for me. And I hope that my happy ending results in a happier ending for the author and his book.

For more about my editing services visit my newest website: http://www.patriciafry.com

Also check out this site: http://www.matilijapress.com

I do editing work and I don’t use Microsoft Word’s Markup system. I started out—way back when—using my own system. It works for me and it seems to work for my clients, so I have not changed.

I like to get personal with my clients’ work. In other words, I write messages throughout their text—telling them, “Good job. I like the way you handled this,” or “This is confusing, can you clarify?” or “Earlier in this section, you said it was noon and now you indicate that it is early morning. Please fix.” or “Is the horse brown or white? Be consistent.”

I put my messages and my suggested corrections/changes in red.

This morning, I wrote some text and demonstrated my editing techniques using red print. But when I copied it over into my blog, the red all turned to black. It appears that I am unable to give you a demonstration. Bummer.

Let me just say that this process works for most of my clients. However, I had one who is colorblind and can’t see red. After I used red throughout the entire manuscript, she told me this. I found a way to change the red to blue, which saved me a whole lot of time. Now, I sometimes ask clients if they have any problems with my using red as I edit. One client said, “Could you use blue or green. Red is so in your face, like it’s yelling at you.” Funny.

Learn more about Patricia Fry at her websites:
http://www.matilijapress.com
http://www.patriciafry.com

If you would like a demonstration of my editing style on something you wrote, send a few pages to me at PLFry620@yahoo.com and I’ll show you my technique.

I’ve been revising a new ebook this week. It’s called 50 Reasons Why You Should Write That Book. It’s a checklist for authors who are not sure if their book is a good idea and who wonder if they should actually take steps to publish it. This guide will serve one of three important purposes for authors.

Do you engage in short-cut editing? By this I mean, do you get volunteers to look over your manuscript instead of hiring a more qualified book editor? Do you do hire a professional editor, but talk her into editing just part of the manuscript—you’ll take it from there?

Better—much better—that you save up the money, get an extra job to earn another $500 or $1,000, or borrow from your brother-in-law and hire a qualified editor to edit your entire manuscript.

I’m afraid that I have engaged in short-cut book editing myself. I have attempted to help financially-strapped authors with their troubled manuscripts by editing only a portion of it and instructing them on how to proceed. I have to say, it rarely works out for them or for me.

First, the author with a manuscript in trouble doesn’t understand how to fix the problems or they would have done it already. Even when someone demonstrates where the problems are and how to fix them—even when the editor points out all of the errors in using apostrophes, the proper use of the em dash, what a run-on sentence is and how to repair them, etc., few new authors truly get it. They haven’t developed a good enough eye to catch the errors. If they’re accustomed to writing muddy sentences, they aren’t going to recognize anything wrong with it. In fact, I’ve had authors accuse me of changing their “voice” when I dared tamper with an error-riddled, run-on and/or muddy sentence.

So often, when I have tried to save an author money by instructing them how to rewrite a section or when I have suggested they add an explanation or remove too much explanation, or when I have attempted to help them break a bad writing habit, they can absolutely not handle the assignment. It is beyond them. My instruction does not compute or penetrate.

Obviously, the author who doesn’t write well—who doesn’t quite have a handle on the concept of clear, concise writing that flows; being consistent and telling a good story or appropriately organizing an effective nonfiction book—really shouldn’t be left on his or her own to complete the editing/proofing. This author (in fact pretty much all authors) need the assistance and expertise of a professional editor.

From the editor’s standpoint, short-cut editing can be the kiss of death. Currently, there are a few books out there that are an embarrassment to me. In most cases, the authors approached me. They didn’t like my fees—just couldn’t afford me so they would go without editing.

I couldn’t bear to see these authors produce these books as is—books of some merit, I might add, except for the lack of writing skill. Sooooo, I offered to work within their budget (in some cases ¼ of my fee if I were to edit the entire manuscript). So I’d go to work editing the first 30 or 40 pages or so, showing my suggested changes/corrections, leaving many notes of instruction, urging the importance of following through with this process. The author would be MOST happy to get some professional help at a bargain price. I was happy to be able to help—to point the author in a better direction—to teach him/her something of value to this and other book projects. Yes, we were both happy, until I saw the published book.

In most cases, the instructions were not followed. The inconsistencies raged throughout the pages, mistakes were everywhere. And there was my name proudly displayed as “editor.”

In one case, I did a full edit at full price for an author. His main problem was a habit of seriously muddy writing. It took quite a bit of time to untangle his attempts at communicating his story—a really good story, by the way. Well, after he paid me to edit his book, he went to work rewriting large portions of it, inserting his muddy style into it anew. Yes, there on his acknowledgements page is my name as “editor.”

I have two new policies this year

1. I will only edit complete manuscripts because I cannot trust authors to adopt and adapt my instructions and examples and apply them to the remainder of the manuscript.

2. If the author does any sort of extensive rewriting after my edit, I will insist upon the opportunity to do a final edit OR please do not list me as editor.

If you’ve wondered why your editor charges for the work he or she does and why they have strict rules such as these, perhaps this will help you to understand. We have reputations to uphold. And we don’t need unaware, unskilled authors unknowingly marring them.

If you have a manuscript ready for publication—your next step should NOT be seeking a publisher. Next, find a book editor and ask for a free evaluation and estimate. If you don’t have $500 to $3,000 to pay an editor, find a way to obtain it. Remember, publishing a book should not be a frivolous activity. I’m sure you expect that book to earn you some money. You’re looking at it as a viable business investment, right? Well then, don’t short-change your potential with this project. Do it up right and this means create the best product that you can. Hire a good book editor!

Learn more about my editorial and consultation services here:
http://www.patriciafry.com
http://www.matilijapress.com

(Note: I just discovered that I can’t use color in my blog. Knowing this, I realize that my editing demonstration may not be as clear as it would have been had I been able to use RED to show my editorial notes. If you can, just imagine everything in parenthesis showing in red. If you would like to receive this sample in living color, let me know. Or if you would like to see a sample of my editing style with a paragraph or two of your project, send it along: PLFry620@yahoo.com)

Few of us have ever hired an editor before. We don’t know what exactly to expect or how to proceed. And then every editor works a little differently. Many of them use the traditional editing marks, for example, and this can be rather confusing for some.

I choose to work this way: When I come across (omit a) something that I want to change or that I (omit to) suggest should (omit it) be changed, it would look something like this. (omit Author’s) Authors (no apostrophe) can choose to make the corrections/changes, or choose to ignore them. It’s (omit there) their choice to choose what they want to do. (Suggestion: change 1 or 2 instances of “choose,” in these two sentences. It’ll make your writing more interesting.)

I always, every time recommend that the author turn his manuscript over to the editor for a final proofing in order to maintain its integrity and purification, especially if you did a lot of revising and rewriting. (This sentence is cumbersome. Please rewrite. Simplify. It appears that your message here is, “let your editor see your manuscript before it goes to print.” Say it so that someone from Mars will understand it.)

This is a small sample of the type of work I do as an editor and it demonstrates my teaching style of editing. The author can choose to make the changes/corrections he/she wishes to make. When they have finished going over the manuscript, they just omit my notes and turn the changes they wish to keep to black.

Now I’d better get back to my current editing project.

Thanks for tuning in. If you want more information on a particular topic related to writing/publishing/book promotion, simply look through the extensive archives. And let me know what you’d like to know more about. PLFry620@yahoo.com.

Authors often contact me asking my opinion about their editors’ advice. “Do I have to follow her suggestions?” “She’s trying to change my voice, what shall I do?”

Some of my own clients question my recommendations. And that’s okay. I always tell them, “It’s your manuscript. You make the final decision.” Of course, I explain the reasons for my suggestions as I am a teaching editor. And I can only hope that they will do what is truly best for their book projects. I encourage them to lead with their heads, not their emotions.

I urge clients and other authors who resist an important editorial suggestion, to do some research. And I would say the same to you: Read other books similar to yours to discover whether or not the suggestion makes sense. Just because a seasoned author uses a unique technique in his writing or the organization of the book, doesn’t mean that you can pull it off. I advise authors who want to try something clever, to study the masters and make sure that what they are attempting really works in their manuscripts.

Authors of fiction sometimes become jealously attached to what they consider their voice. I hear from authors, and work with some, who constantly complain that I (or their editor) am changing their voice. It is obvious that many of these people don’t know what their voice is. Most of them haven’t been consistent in presenting their voice and when the editor attempts to repair the damage, the author hollers, “You’ve changed my voice!”

I was once told, after a session of editing, that I didn’t understand a particular culture. Well, my editorial suggestions actually served to validate and strengthen the author’s attempt at representing the culture as she had wandered far off of the path. She had inadvertently inserted some dialog and phrases that were inappropriate to the ethnic group in that time period.

It’s easy to get out of character or to flub up on the integrity of your story. That’s one reason why you hire an editor. Her eyes are trained to notice these things. I also recommend, in some cases, that the author ask friends to read the story or the nonfiction book. While friends may not be able to help you with the intricacies of editorial work, they can:

• Give you their impression of your story or nonfiction book.
• Point out areas of confusion.
• Note where the story drags.
• Tell you where you’ve contradicted yourself.
• Find a mistake or two in spelling, etc.

Your job, then, is to embrace their comments and those editorial suggestions by your professional. Make the changes you agree with. And where you do not agree, step outside of yourself long enough to do some research on your own.

• Read similar books by other authors and honestly compare yours with these. Have you actually achieved your goal in your book? Or is your editor right, your writing isn’t advanced enough to attempt something too creative and unique?

• Get other opinions. Your editor could have a bias or isn’t qualified to edit a manuscript of this type. I always recommend hiring an editor who is knowledgeable about publishing and who is familiar with your genre/topic.

As you can see, there’s more to working with an editor than is obvious at first glance.

If you have a manuscript ready to go, contact me for a free editorial evaluation. I will look at 20 pages and report the types of errors and problems I see (if any). If you want me to evaluate whether I believe it is publishable or not, I charge $100 for 150-175 pages. My editing service is $50/hour. I can provide an estimate upon seeing your manuscript. PLFry620@yahoo.com.

I am also offering an online self-editing course that could save you lots of money for your final edit with a professional.
http://www.matilijapress.com/course_self-editing.htm

Also visit my new website: http://www.patriciafry.com

Note: If this post looks familiar, it is a repeat of one I posted over a year ago. This might remind you to spend some time re-reading some of my nearly 850 posts. Choose your category, read and learn.

We’re ready to go—my two newest courses are now posted at
http://www.matilijapress.com/courses.htm

In case you didn’t get the memo, I’m offering two new online courses: One for authors who want to learn more about self-editing and who want to save money on their final editing bill. And one for folks who want to write their memoirs whether this is for publication or just for posterity.

Here is the course description for the Self-Editing course:

“Learn self-editing techniques. This is an intensive, hands-on course for authors who want to publish their best efforts, which should be the goal of every serious author. Patricia gives you the instructions and tools needed to perform specific editorial processes during each of the four (or five) weeks and works alongside you to help you perfect your book manuscript.

Yes, students will have the opportunity to work with an experienced editor on their manuscripts as they learn the process of self-editing. Think about it, you are no longer struggling on your own trying to make your story sing or your nonfiction text work.

Through this course, you will learn how to:

• detect and correct the most common editorial errors.
• identify inconsistencies in your manuscript.
• write with a more active (thus more interesting/powerful) voice.
• use transitions more effectively.
• write with more clarity (eliminate muddy writing).
• recognize and correct run-on sentences for much greater readability.
• catch those sneaky hidden mistakes.
• exchange tired clichés for fresh writing.
• tighten your writing by omitting filler words and qualifiers.
• use “person” and “tense” appropriately.
• and more!

If you feel you’ve gone just about as far as you can with your manuscript, stop the merry-go-round and get off. Let Patricia help you to turn your mediocre manuscript into one that shines.”

Catscapades Update
Oh my, are we busy in the Matilija Press offices as we delve headlong into the promotion for Catscapades, True Cat Tales. The thing is, people will not have the opportunity to read this delightful book if they don’t know about it. So, this week, I’ve researched cat sites and cat newsletters/magazines, and I’ve already sent out half dozen review copies with another half dozen or so ready to go out to reviewers on Monday.

I’m keeping my Catscapades blog updated—hey did you read the story from the book, which I posted yesterday? It’s my story of “Gus the Babysitting Cat.” True story—as they all are. And there is no “cat talk.” Some reviewers are specifying that they do not want to see a book where the cats speak. Interesting.

Through the stories and commentary, I do attempt to share, teach and even educate readers. One of my daughters told me, after reading the book, “I learned a lot about you and about cats.”

Order your copy here: http://www.matilijapress.com/catscapades.html or through amazon.com. Visit the Catscapades blog here: http://www.matilijapress.com/catscapades

Today I want to talk about three fairly common problems that I see when editing manuscripts for authors. And these are also three of the problems we will work on in my new online Self-Editing Course. Email me for the course description as my webmaster doesn’t have it posted at my site, yet. PLFry620@yahoo.com.

Here are some chronic errors that I find in otherwise pretty good manuscripts;

1: List sentences that contain incorrect elements. I consider a sentence where you list several items, ideas, places or individuals, a list sentence. In fact, the sentence you just read is an example of a list sentence. Some authors, however, present items in their lists that do not fit properly within that particular sentence. Here’s an example: “While in this area, you can fish in the lakes, swim in the water holes, wade in the streams, the sun will warm you, hike on the trails and go skiing. Can you identify the “item” that doesn’t belong? Yes, it is “The sun will warm you.” You can change it to read, “Bask in the sun.” Now it works.

Here’s another example, “Jane purchased a home last August and then, after watering the gardens, coloring her hair, the cat went to the boarder and she filled her car with gas, she drove to her daughter’s house for the rest of the summer.”

You would never knowingly write a sentence like either of these. But I can tell you that they can appear in your perfect manuscript without you noticing.

2: Passive sentences. A passive sentence is usually one that is written, in my opinion, backwards. Passive sentences weaken your message or story. Here are a couple of examples of passive sentences. “In 90 miles, Palm Springs is reached.” I would recommend, instead, “Drive 90 miles to Palm Springs.” Here’s another one: “The ice cream cone was eaten by Clementine.” And how about this: “A nice, relaxing garden is found outside in the back.”

Instead, I would recommend, “Clementine ate the ice cream cone.” And “Relax in the lovely garden just outside the French doors of the luxury hotel.”

Of course, there are instances where a passive sentence works. But authors sometimes try to get so creative in the way they present a concept that they turn a sentence everyway but right and it becomes everything but clear.

3: Using words that don’t work. Does a lake have an “end?” Can a hillside “decline?” Will a kitten “crotch under a bush?” Is a dog apt to “bear his teeth,” “walk rather then run” or “peruse it’s own trial?”

We all make mistakes as we write, weather (er, I mean, “whether”) we are writing a book or an email to a fiend (oops, that’s “friend.”) But we don’t always catch our arrows—I meant to say, “errors.” And that’s why we must hire an experienced editor before we publish.

Let me save you money on your editing bill by teaching you how to do a more thorough job of self-editing. Sign up today for my self-editing course. Not only do you get the course, but you get me! I’ll work alongside you while you apply the lessons presented and that could be worth way more than the $200 course fee.

Contact me for a course description: PLFry620@yahoo.com. Learn more about Patricia Fry at http://www.matilijapress.com