I recently received some promo from the editor of a magazine and was less than impressed by his (or her) presentation. Not only does this individual accept stories for publication, he or she reviews books. (For the sake of simplicity, let’s assume this is a man.) He asks that writers and authors send only well-written submissions. However, I would hesitate turning my work over to someone who has such a convoluted way of writing as he does.
He repeats words (he used one word four times in a 40-word paragraph and another word twice). As an example (which is changed so that this person cannot be identified through this blog), he wrote something like this: “I went out a couple of times this week. It has been a couple of weeks since I’ve gone out, but I saw a couple of movies this week. I’m not a big movie fan. I’m fussy about what movies I see.”
He uses words that are simply not needed. Instead of saying, “I don’t go to the movies much,” he said something like, “I will admit to anyone who will listen that I don’t get out to go to a movie very often anymore.”
He didn’t edit. One sentence in his message is missing a key word.
He invites you to contact him. But rather than saying this, he rambles on about how “if you want to tell us about your project, send us over an email and let us know.” He says “some more,” when “more” would be adequate. He uses “to,” in place of “too.”
He mixes singular and plural in the same sentence by saying, “We will add a new feature to our next issue, so be sure to check them out.”
I visited this person’s website and was both impressed and disappointed. The graphics are great and he seems to have a fairly straightforward site, clearly representing his mission. However, he’s one of those who likes to use colors that make small print almost impossible to read—you know like yellow print on a black background. The text on the website is also in serious need of editing.
Why am I telling you this? So that you will not make the same mistakes. So that you will learn to do a better job of self-editing. So that you will realize that people are paying attention to the way you write—good and bad. If you don’t recognize the problems in the examples above or you’re not sure about the quality of your writing, please hire an editor. Strive to become a better writer.
Read Chapter 9 in my book, “The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book.” I give a good lesson on self-editing. I recommend that you self-edit your manuscript before sending it to a professional editor. http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html (It’s discounted now.)
Contact me for an estimate: PLFry620@yahoo.com
http://www.patriciafry.com