The Glorious World of Editing

My own edits but you get the point.

Okay, it’s not glorious sometimes but it’s a necessary step to getting your manuscript the best it can be. This goes for whether you’re publishing by your lonesome or have a publisher to do it for you. I’ve had many different aspects in my short time and, while I’m not an expert, I do have some methods that help me.

Working in the fantasy realm, sometimes I come up with odd names. Either they’re researched (fuck yeah! research!) by country origin or I’ve totally whipped out the Ouija board in my head and picked random letters. Either way, they’re not always going to be in the dictionary. Oh I could add them but do I really want to have a name like Guisdohi hanging around forever? Probably not. So, I tell the dictionary to ignore that name. This way, if I misspell it somewhere else in the manuscript, I know by the squiggly red line of fuckdom. Oh yes, I’ve screwed them up before.

While it’s best to give your publisher the cleanest manuscript ever, things are missed. The eyes to brain ratio just goes on holiday sometimes. So, in going through your first round of edits, concentrate on what the editor has noted or changed. Accept it no matter what, then change it back if it doesn’t mesh. Remember to explain, in a comment, why it absolutely needs to be the original way. Most often than not, my editors make some good suggestions. Ultimately, it is my manuscript and my final say. Or, at least, that’s how it should work. It all depends on your contract. I’ll often reopen the document and put it side by side to make sure I don’t reintroduce any derp moments at my editor fixed.

The next part is more tedious, depending on the size of the document. It’s best to do it when you’re not half-asleep as well. Read through the manuscript, taking your time. Read it out loud or, if you’re like me and loathe the sound of your voice, mouth it and have a sexy sultry voice going off in your head. This is where you might catch what an editor missed. They’re only human and can’t catch everything. The author’s got to be just as vigilant. Again, it pays to have a clean manuscript. The author is always the one who’s going to get blamed in reviews that attack grammar and spelling.

In working with different publishers, only one had me do what was referred to as a pre-edit. Meaning, my editor wouldn’t touch it until I scrubbed it one last time. This was a novel and, while daunting, I found some errors. I even changed up the ending when I got the cover art before the edits started. First time ever I changed the story to add an element of the cover into it.

The best advice I can give is to have a good relationship with your editor. While their changes aren’t final, don’t dismiss their thoughts out of spite or ‘killing my baby’ syndrome. Be prepared to state your case. Of course, as I’ve said, some contracts might read that the publisher has the final say. That’s something to keep in mind when signing a contract but that’s a topic for another day.

Love your editor and the task they’ve been presented. Most publishers offer editing for free to their authors, others chagre. Some offer none. Choose wisely.

 

Birthday Bash

Cupcakes made by me!

Today I celebrate my *cough cough* birthday. My mini Nano challenge is looking awfully anemic. However, I have no one to blame but myself. It is what is I and I will still continue on. If it means the first half of the month is bleeding red, I’ll take it. What’s a manuscript with raging hormones anyways? In the end, I tried to get a few words out each day and that is better than the stalemate I’ve had.

The cupcakes? Yeah, they’re apple hazelnut liqueur ones with a buttercream frosting topped with chocolate chips. All homemade and nothing from the box. That’s how I roll. Enjoy the weekend folks! I’ve got a hockey game to watch and rack full of wine to console me if the Penguins don’t pull one out of their asses.

The Nine Writing Circles of Hell: Part III

Here is the last and final installment. Have you read Part I and Part II yet? I’m sure at this point, it might not have been what you thought it might be. I really had to think about which plateaus I thought would fit in my experience. Ultimately, it came down to the most scary for me. Over the past couple of years, I can’t say it’s gotten easier.

Another one of my older pieces.

The Seventh Circle: Promotion

You’ve got that great cover, a release date, and now it’s time to put something together. Some companies give you your cover six months before release to pimp it like mad. I can say I’ve only had that experience once. It’s…odd. My ADD brain can’t wrap around the concept but it is something the industry does. So you can go the prerelease route, asking fellow authors for a little bit of space on their blogs. One thing you should try to avoid is oversaturation. It’s a fine line between diving off the deep end and losing yourself in the shuffle of a thousand Tweets. I try and limit it to about once a day, if that, on one book. I post on my Facebook page which gets transferred to my Twitter account. Seamless. The reason I say to watch yourself is I see many friends drop pages they’d liked and friends because of selfish promotional posts. Trust me when I say people don’t really want to hear about your latest novel a billion times in a week.

I usually give away a PDF copy of my book during promotion but the more I do that, the more I find that the reach isn’t there. Blog Hops are a great way to gain followers. However, make sure the prize at the end of the rainbow is worth it. I’ve recently started giving away Amazon giftcards. My hope is they use it to buy my book. Either way, I’m hoping they use it to buy books–any kind. Make it worth your reader’s wild and keep the receipts for tax time.

The Eighth Circle: Is it Good Enough?

This is always my worry. Sure, I love my story but what if I missed putting something in and it confuses the reader. What if they think it was too short or the characters aren’t likeable? It’s an endless cycle. Getting those one star drive by ratings on Goodreads also is a bummer but I figure if they don’t have the time to say why–and they’re certainly not obligated–it’s not worth my time to fret over. I am only as good as I force myself to be. I have to remember not to cheat and use the formula I’ve seen books that sky rocket to the bestsellers list and the latest fetish craze. That’s not me. I didn’t go in this for a big payoff. Yeah, I’d love to make a career of it but I’m a realist. If I crank out cookie cutter books, I’ve just become something I never wanted to be and my ‘is it good enough’ mantra is going to be a serenade from the butt trumpeter of every intelligent reader that picks up on my sloppy style.

Keep telling yourself that the publisher thought it was good enough to offer a contract. It’s the best thing to remember.

The Ninth Circle: Stalking Sites

Admit it now, writers. You do it. Your book’s released and you’re stalking Amazon to check how far up you are in the standings and if you’ve made a top 100 list. Or how about All Romance eBooks and that coveted silver star? I freely admit I do it and it makes me realize I’m wasting precious time that I could be using to write. All it does is bum me out and then I lose my mojo. I’ve given up looking for that big bang. It’s just not happening and I can’t fret about it. All I can do is go back to the beginning of the Nine Writing Circles of Hell and start anew.

I am a glutton for punishment.

So that’s the crux of how my endless Hell goes. Every writer might have a different stage for their trip into the insane. In the end, so long as the book is the best we can make it, there’s nothing more in our control we can do. It’s up to the masses out there and that’s not going to change.