Writing and Publishing News

Well, I had the opportunity to time myself doing a quick read-through yesterday. I read a client’s blue-line with proof-reading in mind at 37.6 pages per hour. Mind you, I’ve edited this manuscript already twice. The client just wanted me to do one last proof. I was reading, only stopping occasionally to go back over and double check something. In some cases, I made a few notes. I figured that if I was doing straight reading, my rate might have been 42 to 46 pages per hour.

Those of you who follow my (almost) daily blog posts know that I am referring here to the crazy claim of someone who calls himself an editor. He says that he can edit a 200 word manuscript (sight unseen) in 4 to 6 hours. I figured this is 33 to 50 pages per hour and I said this is impossible. Well, it’s impossible to line or content edit at this rate. It’s ridiculous. I’m still upset to know that there are scammers like this out there. I am particularly disheartened that I could not talk the hopeful author who told me about this “editor” out of using him to “edit” her book. Read my blog post for September 13, 2008.

Here’s another misleading practice that you should know about. There are well-known, highly respected publishing professionals who “recommend” editors and book doctors, not based on merit, but on money. No kidding! If you want to be one of the recommended editors or book doctors, all you have to do is pay a fee. How do I know? I asked one of my colleagues to recommend me and he said, “Sure, that’ll be, $$$$.”

Do you agree that this is deceptive? It will make you think twice before contacting an editor listed as recommended at any website, won’t it? I hope so. It’s in your best interest to conduct additional research, get legitimate referrals and to especially get a sample of the work this editor will do for you.

Did I pay the money to be included in the list of editors at this site? NO!!

I get a kick out of some of my clients, they say that they chose me to edit their books because they like my photo. They can tell I’m a nice person. Some of them say they were led to me&#8212guided. Some have even called me a “blessing.” Awwwwww.

I’ve worked with people for whom English is their second language. Two different women with two very different projects hired me to take the “accent” out of their writing&#8212an interesting challenge. Thankfully, in both recent cases, these were intelligent women and pretty good writers.

I’ve worked with authors who didn’t understand the difference between boys’ and boy’s or their and there and who didn’t know when to capitalize Mom. And I’ve worked with those who wrote a lot of long, complicated, cumbersome, run-on sentences that I had to decipher and tame.

There are as many editing challenges out there as there are writers. It keeps my job interesting. Of course, clients who come to me with their projects get more than just an edited manuscript out of the deal. If they want to tap into my 35 years of experience within the publishing industry and the fact that I still keep my finger on the pulse of the industry, I can coach them in other areas, as well. For example, I can help them to write a book proposal, choose an appropriate publishing option, approach publishers, write a query letter, build a platform, build promotion into their books, establish a publishing company, draw up a marketing plan and so forth.

For those of you who don’t know who Patricia Fry is, my book, The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book is an excellent introduction into my knowledge base and experience as well as the publishing industry in general.
http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html

This morning, I received an email from a young author I know. Yes, she is an author and she is also a college student. She is working on a project for one of her professors on changes in the publishing industry. She asked me for my insights with regard to the changes I’ve seen in the publishing industry during just the last 5 years. I’m afraid that her question sent me on a bit of a rant. I thought you’d be interested in some of my comments. Here’s the basis of what I told her:

I became involved in publishing when A.S. Barnes, with offices in New York and London, published my first book, Hints for the Backyard Rider. That was back in 1978. I established my own publishing company in 1983, before it was fashionable or even convenient. I have since published a total of 28 books, so my roots go deep in this industry and I can tell you that I have seen many changes.

I’m preparing a speech for a writers’ conference in Phoenix in a few weeks and I’m going to tell my audience that one of the biggest changes I’ve seen over this time is the increase in competition. There’s a long-standing statistic that says, “81 percent of the adult American public believe that they have a book in them.” Well, in 1978, when I landed a publisher on my first try, most of those wannabe authors kept their books inside. They weren’t sitting down at their manual typewriters like I was, pounding out the books of their dreams. Now, on the other hand&#8212in 2008&#8212everyone is writing a book.

RR Bowker reports that in 2007, there were 411,422 new books and reprints produced. That’s 3 times the number published 15 years earlier.

Unfortunately, another change I see is an increase in sharks swimming the publishing waters. Unqualified people with nothing more than a desire to make money are coming out of the woodwork and creating businesses and offering services to hopeful authors. They’re promising things that, in many cases, are impossible.

Some say, in so many words, “Pay us to publish your book, we’ll make it available to bookstores nationwide.” Hopeful authors sign up and then wonder why their book is not in their neighborhood bookstores. The company did not say that their book would be in bookstores, but only that they would make it available to booksellers. If a bookseller comes along and asks about a book of this type, they will certainly tell them about your book. And this is NOT going to happen.

A mega bookstore can only carry about 8 percent of all titles in print. And they are going to carry those that are selling.

Just recently, an author told me that she found someone to edit her 200 page manuscript (sight unseen) at a rate of $65/hour and the “editor” said it would take him only 4-6 hours. That’s 33 to 50 pages per hour. Who can even read that many pages in an hour let alone edit them?

Despite my strong warning to the author, she decided to go with this “editor.” She feels that she can afford the $260 to $390. But, realistically, what is she going to get for this money? A run through spellcheck?

I meet authors practically every week who have gambled with publishing and lost. The thing is, most authors enter into the publishing field from the perspective of a writer. They think that publishing is an extension of their writing&#8212that they can just shift easily from writing to publishing. What they don’t take the time to learn or understand is that writing is a creative activity and publishing is a business. My main message to hopeful authors is, “Even before you write your book, study the publishing industry. Understand something about this business. Know what your options are and the possible consequences of your choices. Understand what your responsibilities as a published author are and then commit to them.”

I believe that it is, in large part, the authors and hopeful authors who have caused the publishing industry to change as much as it has. Traditional publishing businesses are attempting to adjust to the changes, which include increased competition at all levels AND a decrease in readers. New publishing-related businesses and services are cropping up. And authors are allowing themselves to be thrown to the wolves. In some cases, they’re jumping right on in with the pack.

My mission, as I think you know, is to educate hopeful and struggling authors so that they have a greater understanding of the industry and their role within it. Authors must become knowledgeable and proactive, not ignorant and passive.

There’s a lot of failure in publishing today. In 2006, 76 percent of all titles sold fewer than 100 copies. I think it was another 16 percent that sold somewhere between 100 and 1,000 copies. The only one making money on many of these failed books is the fee-based POD “self-publishing” company who produces books indiscriminately for a fee. But also traditional publishing companies are failing. Authors are having to work MUCH harder to sell books. Freelance writers are also feeling the competition crunch and the failing magazine crunch. More and more magazines are NOT paying for freelance work.

Changes&#8212oh yes, I have certainly seen a lot of changes as I’ve journeyed through the publishing industry. And they aren’t all negative. You notice that I’m still involved and I’m still supporting myself through my writing, book sales and consulting. There is a place in this industry for those who will work for it&#8212who will become educated about the publishing industry and creatively carve out a niche for their publishing projects. And authors today must be promoters or have the money to hire one.

In a nutshell, it used to be that all you had to do was present a publisher or agent with a well-written book that was needed/wanted by a particular audience. Once it was published, you could go back to your writing. Today, authors must compete with hundreds of others who are writing excellent (and not so excellent) books. Today, we must jump through hoops to get noticed and then we have to keep jumping to sell our published books. Everything is harder, yet, unfortunately, the quality standards have not, on average, been raised. We’re actually producing more inferior products. But that’s another rant.

There are many ways to gain that publishing knowledge that I deem so important. The
one way that I don’t recommend is by trial and error. This can be costly and disheartening. Read my book, The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book
http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html

Visit my website and study the articles and resources:
http://www.matilijapress.com

Join SPAWN (Small Publishers, Artists and Writers Network)
http://www.spawn.org.
And participate&#8212read the newsletters, join in on the discussions, study the website and so forth. Yes, there are many additional methods and resources for learning about the publishing industry and these two methods will open the windows to all of them.

Question? Contact me at PLFry620@yahoo.com

Suzanne Fisher at Grit for the Oyster is featuring me as Author of the Week. Check it out at http://www.gritfortheoyster-book.blogspot.com

Not only is my picture and an image of my book front and center at this page, I also participated in an interview with Suzanne. Read it, you might find out something about me that you didn’t know.

Have you been seeking interview opportunities at appropriate blog sites where you can talk about your book and get exposure for your business? It’s fun and it gets your name out there and helps to build your platform. Read pages 102-105 in my book, The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book to learn more about what a platform is, why you need one and how to establish one. See pages 169-173 of The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book to learn more about interview techniques.
If you don’t own a copy yet, order one at:
http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html

This book is also in libraries throughout California: Ventura, Kern County, Emeryville, Napa as well as in Tumwater, Washington; Dubois, Wyoming; Ft. Collins, CO; Chicago; Toledo; St. Louis and Ft. Lauderdale, for example. How do I know which libraries own my books? I used the amazing library database at WorldCat.

Go to http://www.worldcat.org
Type in your book title (or the title of any book you want to locate) and click. It’s fun and enlightening. I discovered that my first published book, Hints For the Backyard Rider, long out of print, is still in 68 libraries throughout the world including South Africa and Australia.

There has been a lot of interest in my September 13th blog about potentially unscrupulous editors. Be sure to read the comment posted there. He points out that even a college professor or English teacher may not be the best choice of editors for a book. I say this to audiences all the time. The thing is, book editing is a different animal than academic editing. Educators aren’t necessarily tuned into what’s going on in the publishing industry. They often aren’t aware of the changes in punctuation rules in the digital age or publisher’s requirements.

One of my clients emailed me in response to yesterday’s blog by saying, “That’s why I chose you!” Nice.

And the author who told me about the editor who claims he can edit as many as 50 pages per hour has decided to pay the price and see what she gets. This is despite my emails pleading with her to reconsider.

You know, if that old lady doesn’t want to cross the street, you might just as well give up trying to help her get to the other side.

Here is a comment from colleague, Victory Crayne, with regard to my September 13th blog post:

“Oh dear me. The old adage comes to mind of ‘If it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn’t.’

The editor’s claim of editing 200 pages within 4-6 hours is not believable. It would be hard for me to just copy edit for English errors, let alone tackle in that time the more demanding task of content editing (or developmental editing as it is sometimes called). Bear in mind that I edit only fiction and memoirs, which have different editing requirements than nonfiction.

Maybe this editor does only copy editing for English, but even then his speed is hard to believe. He simply cannot be providing deep analysis of the manuscript at the same time.

Maybe this guy comes from India or someplace where he can hire multiple sub-contractors to work at very low rates and he divides the work among them. Even so, he could only get copy editing that way, not any serious analysis of the whole manuscript. You can write an entire book with perfect English that still ends up being boring to read and nobody recommends buying it.

Writers who think their manuscripts are ‘almost perfect except for a few minor English errors’ are the ones who look for the cheapest editing they can find.

This client is risking a lot to trust her money with this guy. What she will get may not be worth the postage to send the check. I’ve learned a long time ago that if you make decisions only on cost, you often get very poor quality. Sometimes the quality is so poor that you throw it away and have to make another purchase of better quality anyway.

You have to have a quality product for sale if you hope to succeed in this business. Why risk your writing career on low quality editing? You invest thousands of hours and perhaps thousands of dollars on promoting your book. Why risk all that by trying to save a few hundred dollars on editing and end up with a book that is riddled with problems? Do you think a sport team owner who wants to win the biggest prize looks for the cheapest coach?

Victory Crayne
Independent Editor; Writing Coach/Mentor, Ghostwriter, Writer, Public Speaker
Email: victory@crayne.com
http://www.crayne.com

I help those who write novels and memoirs get closer to achieving their dreams.”

This is an important topic. I welcome your comments. Either press the comments button and write your comment or email me at PLFry620@yahoo.com. Have you had a bad or good editing experience? We’d like to hear your stories.

Well, I can’t save them all, nor can my ethical colleagues, but we keep trying.

This week, an author contacted me about consulting with her on a book project. We had several email conversations. I evaluated a section of her manuscript and presented her with an estimate to edit it. When she graciously thanked me for the estimate, but said it was more than she could afford, I offered to drop my hourly rate to what I charged in 2000-2006. I do that occasionally to give an author a leg up.

FYI, my original estimate for her particular manuscript (devised after reviewing 50 pages) was roughly $1,500 for 200 pages at an editing speed of approximately 6.5 pages per hour. That’s around 30 hours at $50/hour. If I complete the job ahead of schedule, I drop my fee accordingly. If I go over, I charge only the $1,500.

When the author explained that she couldn’t afford this, I dropped my hourly rate AND suggested that I edit only to a point (say the first 100 pages), including my usual notes and explanations designed to teach as I edit. She could take it from there.

Yesterday, this author contacted me with an expression of her gratitude, but explained that she has decided to go with another editor. In fact, she suggested that maybe I should adjust my fees because, while this editor was charging more per hour, his website indicated that he could do the job in less time. Here’s the shocker. This guy charges $65/hour and he claimed he could edit the 200 page manuscript within 4-6 hours for a fee of $350. That’s 33 to 50 pages per hour, folks! That’s more pages per hour than some people can pleasure read.

It’s true, I did an internet survey and discovered that some people have actually timed themselves reading. The norm was around 25 pages per hour. One reader said he could get through 12 pages per hour when it’s a really gripping story. Others said they could read between 50 and 60 pages in an hour. A few claim they can read 75 to 100 pages per hour. But reading is certainly a very different activity than editing.

I thought about this editorial declaration all day. I contacted some of my editor colleagues to ask how many pages they can edit in an hour. No one even came close to the 33 to 50-page rate claimed by this super editor. Here are the average figures I gathered from colleagues and internet research.

• Proofreaders can often read between 12-15 pages per hour.
• Light copy editing, anywhere from 4-9 pages per hour
• Medium to heavy line editing, 3-6 pages per hour.
• Final edit (fine-tuning an already edited manuscript) 12-18 pages per hour.

My conclusion with regard to the editor who claims he can edit 33 to 50 pages of a manuscript (and folks, this claim was made without seeing the manuscript), is that he is using a software program or maybe even Microsoft Word Spellcheck and grammar check. Yikes!!! Or he uses this estimate as a come-on and, once into the project, asks for additional fees.

How in the heck can anyone edit for grammatical weaknesses, punctuation errors, the misuse and misspelling of words (“fiend” or “field” or “fried” instead of “friend,” for example) organization problems, the flow of the story, etc. when they are flipping through a page every 1.2 minutes.

Needless to say, I am appalled at the number of and the nature of what I consider out and out scammers oozing into the publishing arena. What’s bringing them in such number today? We are. There are thousands and thousands of newby authors entering into the shark infested publishing waters every year. Most are uninformed and unaware. These starry-eyed authors, who want nothing more than to hold their published books in their hands, are prime targets and easy pickings for scammers.

What authors need is the straight scoop. You don’t need the services or products of unskilled, unscrupulous Johnny-come-latelys who are just entering the publishing industry in order to see how much money they can make. You don’t need to do business with scammers who are following the money trail instead of their hearts. You don’t need to trust inexperienced people posing as professionals. I recall a few years ago, a woman proudly telling me, “I just published my first book and now I plan to establish a POD publishing company.” It’s not uncommon.

Some people advertising themselves as manuscript editors have never even written a book, nor do they have any experience in publishing. Some of these editors are skilled when it comes to thesis writing, ad copy or in-house copywriting for a large company. This experience does not generally transfer well into the realm of book editing.

Okay, I realize I’m on a rant. Sorry about that. But, as you can tell, it annoys and infuriates me when I see or suspect that someone is knowingly or ignorantly perpetuating a scam on authors. We’re ripe for the plucking, you know, when we don’t strive to educate ourselves about the industry we are entering.

Study the publishing industry. You’ve heard/read me say this before. Don’t put it off. Begin today! And continue the study because the industry keeps changing. Of course, the fact that you have visited my blog is a start.

Read my book, The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book. I devote over 60 pages to understanding the publishing industry. I spend one whole chapter on fee-based POD “self-publishing” companies. I tell you how to choose an editor for you manuscript and explain why it is so important. I guide you through the whole process of publishing no matter which publishing option you choose. This book also helps you to make better choices on behalf of your project. And that’s just a hint of what this book will teach you.
http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html

Read Mark Levine’s The Fine Print of Self-Publishing in which he rates and ranks 45 PODs. http://www.bascomhillpublishing.com

Join SPAWN and receive Levine’s book for FREE. As a SPAWN member, you’ll also be in a position to keep your finger on the pulse of the industry.
http://www.spawn.org

Read Jenna Glatzer’s book, Street Smart Writer: Self-Defense Against Sharks and Scams in the Writing World.
http://www.jennaglatzer.com

Study this article and learn about scams involving publishers, agents and contests and discover how to protect yourself.
http://www.sff.net/people/alicia/artscam.htm

Be proactive. Protect yourself. Become informed.