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.