Testimonials

Reba is one of the best editors I have worked with. Her work is thorough, reliable and efficient. She is always a pleasure to work with. I would recommend her to even the pickiest of authors.

– Lora Gallagher, Production Manager Outskirts Press

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COMMA SPLICING AND RUN-ON SENTENCES

One of the most common errors I see in manuscripts is comma splicing (also called run-on sentences)—a grammatical no-no. Comma splicing is the use of a comma to join two independent, complete sentences that can stand on their own. (I wrote a sentence, I used a comma...

Dialogue Tags

One of the joys of reading short stories or novels is being transported into a different life, a different country, a different perspective. But when an author inadvertently makes his or her presence suddenly known, it’s jolting for the reader to be jerked back into...

Seven Bar Jokes Involving Grammar and Punctuation

Thanks to Eric K. Auld... 1. A comma splice walks into a bar, it has a drink and then leaves. 2. A dangling modifier walks into a bar. After finishing a drink, the bartender asks it to leave. 3. A question mark walks into a bar? 4. Two quotation marks “walk into” a...

The Realities Of Freelancing: Is It The “Free” Or The “Lance”?

Many people go into freelance work with wide-eyed optimism. Freelancing. Emphasis on the free. They imagine the freedom of setting their own hours, grabbing the laptop and jaunting off to work in a trendy coffee shop, being their own boss, enjoying more leisure time,...

MAKING TIME TO WRITE WHEN YOU HAVE KIDS

Making time to write is hard when you're a stay-home parent. My own kids are teenagers—busy, busy teenagers with jobs and social lives and cell phones and their own agendas. If I wanted to work on a novel, they’d probably be thrilled to have me out of their hair. But...

WHY WRITERS HIRE EDITORS

It’s clear why writers should use an editor if they’re planning to self-publish a book. If they don’t have their manuscripts edited, their work will be published as is—typos and all. Writers who plan to self-publish can either hire an independent editor, purchase the editing services of the publisher, or put their trust in friends, colleagues, or members of their writing group to review their work.

But writers who plan on publishing in the traditional way often wonder why they should consider the services of an independent editor.  After all, don’t publishing houses provide
this service?

The answer is yes, but things have changed over the last few years. Ten years ago, if a publisher saw a promising manuscript, they would invest in the potential of the project. The author would then benefit from hours and hours of valuable editing support and feedback from the publisher’s own editorial division until the book was polished to a high gloss.

Today, if a publisher receives a manuscript that has a certain marketability, despite flaws in plot or character, for example, it’s possible the book will go straight to print, with minimal editorial
intervention. If they receive a manuscript that shows promise but will require some work to make it marketable, chances are they’ll simply reject it. Many publishers don’t have the resources to support a huge editorial staff nor the time to invest in a project that might eventually pay off. For many of these publishers, it’s become a matter of staying afloat rather than building up an author’s success.

Note that this is a broad generalization. Most traditional publishing houses go through a multi-step editing process—from content editing to copyediting to a couple of proofreading passes—and put their authors through rigorous rewrites. These authors are rarely disappointed with the end result.

But the folks who have been disappointed in the minimal efforts of other publishers often turn to independent editors for their next projects. They look for objective professionals who can spot problems with dialogue, character, plot, point of view, scene, and sophistication. Whether they want a line-by-line edit or a more comprehensive critique, they’re looking for a fresh eye and an unbiased opinion. They’re looking for someone to fix the mechanical errors and spot the big-picture problems, things they may overlook as they’re too close to the work themselves.

The more successful authors have learned self-editing techniques and are able to review their final drafts with a fairly objective eye and a detailed checklist. This is a skill all serious writers should master, but not everyone has the time or the resources to develop it before their book goes to print. And that’s where independent editors come in. Unfortunately, it’s up to you, the writer, to determine whether an editor has the technical know-how, the experience, the sensitivity, and the compatibility to improve a manuscript. Don’t despair though. The right editor is out there for you. And your book will be all the better for their expertise.

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