Give Your Manuscript Time to Simmer

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Good writing is like good pasta sauce. The ingredients in a good sauce are simple enough — tomatoes, garlic, onion, basil, oregano, salt, pepper — yet the range and breadth of flavors that can be created with these seven ingredients are enough to fill an entire section of the grocery store.

What all good sauces have in common, and good books too, is that they were allowed to simmer so that the flavors could meld. If you are hoping for a positive end result, one thing you can’t do, whether in writing or in cooking, is hurry.

Generally speaking, both fiction and nonfiction require some level of research. Although the demands for these two genres are different, good research is nonetheless important for the satisfaction of your readers.

During the writing process, you may be tempted to insert your newfound knowledge without much synthesis. This can become a major stumbling block for your readers. Why? When you don’t allow yourself time to process the information you have gathered, you are likely to abruptly switch between the technical aspects of the research and your natural writing style.

Further, readers may find themselves distracted by the digressions into historical or technical background. Whereas you, the author, may have intended to create a richer description of a person, place, or thing, the result may leave readers wondering what this detail has to do with the rest of the story.

This problem occurs in every kind of writing. As the author, you have to make sure your thoughts are flowing clearly from one to the next and that your inclusion of research improves the reading experience rather than hurting it. With multiple revisions over several weeks, there will be no obvious patchwork, no raw spices.

Researching while you write is a contributing factor to this problem, and it can easily lead to the worst gaffe that can come from hurrying your writing: plagiarism. With so much material online, it is too easy to simply copy and paste someone else’s words and pass them off as your own. Avoid the temptation by allowing yourself time to fully understand what you have learned before you attempt to use it.

But it’s not just research that needs this simmering time. The manuscript as a whole needs a chance to meld. If it took you a long time to get all of the pieces together — many writers report spending five years or more writing their books — once you type “The End” you may want to jump into editing. Hold on! Give that work of yours some room, come back to it when you can read it from beginning to end, and fix any glitches.

Now, it has been suggested to me that setting a project aside for a time to give yourself a fresh perspective may be a luxury that some writers don’t have. Publishers have schedules and they expect their authors to adhere to them. Others might look to some of the prolific best-selling authors, the ones who put out multiple books a year, for examples of when this rule does not apply. Here are my thoughts on those caveats.

First, if your publisher is asking for a book in a faster timeline than you can manage and still write a good book, you need to:

1. take that into consideration the next time you negotiate a contract, and
2. ask for an extension.

Although I always encourage my authors to meet their deadlines, I have to also admit that a good 50% of the books I have edited over the past 17 years have been behind schedule at some point. So, if you need more time in order to make a great product, ask for it. You won’t be the first author to miss a deadline.

And second, if you aren’t James Patterson, then you shouldn’t expect to produce books the way he does. Many of the top-producing best-selling authors have ghostwriters. You will also notice that the quality of the books tends to suffer over time. Plots are formulaic, story lines digress, and you wonder if the editor was sleeping on the job. It’s clear the author’s name recognition is what sells these books.

Although you have a slim chance of reaching fame and fortune churning out book after book, if you have to sacrifice the quality of your writing in order to do it, and thereby risk your reputation, I’m not sure it’s worth it.

I offer you one more reason to take your time while you write. Traditional publishing houses do not spend as much time or money on editing as they used to. The large presses only accept books that are in tip-top shape (unless you’re James Patterson). Smaller presses may accept your work but offer little in the way of editing assistance. In both cases, that means it’s up to you to deliver a manuscript that is very nearly publication ready. That only happens when you take your time. (Self-publishers keep their own schedules; no excuses for rushing when you’re the publisher!)

Of course, this is all coming from a woman who quit her job as an in-house editor because, as a member of the quality control team, she was unhappy with the quality of books the house was producing. I work for myself now. That means I control the quality of my writing and editing and I can take pride in whatever comes out of my office. It’s a good feeling, one that I believe every author should aspire to.

Like this blog? Find more insights and advice in Perfect Bound: How to Navigate the Book Publishing Process Like a Pro, available from POP Editorial Services LLC, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and other fine retailers.

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Wednesday #Writetip: When to Spell Out Numbers

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Consistent use of numerals (1, 2, 3) versus spelled-out numbers (one, two, three) is one of the most common problems I see in my authors’ writing. Most just type whatever form their fingers choose at that moment, but ultimately a rule of some kind should be established.

There are at least four different numbers rules that a writer could follow. Which one you choose has to do with the type of publication you are writing for and the technical level of the material. Your options include the following:

1. Some publications prefer to spell out one through nine and use numerals for all other numbers. This is often called the informal numbers rule and is commonly employed in newspapers and magazines.
2. Others prefer to spell out numbers one through one hundred and all large, round numbers (e.g., ten thousand, fifty million). This rule dominates the nonfiction trade book market, which includes general interest, self-help, memoir — most books that are sold in bookstores but are not textbooks or fiction. It is commonly referred to as the formal numbers rule.
3. A small segment of publications use numerals in all instances except in general uses like “I for one” or “for one thing.” I have only seen this in corporate reports, where the press has decided numbers appear often enough that it isn’t worth the time to deal with exceptions.
4. And then there are those publications that spell out all numbers no matter what. This is most commonly seen in fiction, where numbers are used rarely, and when they are used, it is not for exact measurements.

I don’t know any cute names for these last two rules, but I do know they are the simplest to follow. That is because they have the fewest exceptions. Exceptions are what make numbers rules challenging even for trained editors.

In fact, I’ve found one of the quick ways to tell a book that hasn’t been edited very well is to look at the treatment of numbers. If I find a bunch of inconsistencies, I figure the editor didn’t know her numbers rules and has probably made other mistakes as well. (The numbers rule is an early lesson in editing training.)

As the author, you can help by choosing the numbers rule that suits your type of book and following it as best you can. It’s highly likely you will make a mistake somewhere — use words where there should be numerals or vice versa — but you can help yourself and your editor by working toward consistency.

Like this blog? Find more advice and insights in the award-winning book Perfect Bound: How to Navigate the Book Publishing Process Like a Pro, available through POP Editorial Services, Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, Novel Books, and other fine retailers.

Wednesday #Writetip: Ensuring Variety of Word Choice in Your Writing

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When I’m editing I often see writers relying on the same words and phrases throughout their manuscripts. Sometimes the repetition becomes noticeable and distracting, particularly when words are repeated in the same paragraph or sentence.

Some words and phrases are more memorable than others. Indefatigable, for example, or invariably, or in an alternate universe will stand out to readers and need to be used sparingly.

Now, some words are difficult to write around — work is one that causes me trouble — but others are not so difficult, and if the repetition is distracting your readers from your message, it is almost always worth the effort to find a new way to say something.

What can you do about it? First, determine if you are falling into this trap. Reading the passage aloud can help. Stepping away from the manuscript and then reading through from beginning to end is another way to detect the problem.

Once you know what some of your “crutch” words are, you can do a search to locate each instance. Then evaluate each use and decide (1) if you need the word at all, and (2) if there isn’t a more interesting way to convey your meaning. Revise as needed.

Like this blog? Find more advice and insights in the award-winning book Perfect Bound: How to Navigate the Book Publishing Process Like a Pro, available through Hop On Publishing, Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, Novel Books, and other fine retailers.

Wednesday #Writetip: Save Money When You Get Your Grammar Up to Snuff

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If you want to save money on editing, your first step is improving your writing. Get your grammar and punctuation up to snuff by picking up a couple of language guides.

The Elements of Style by Strunk and White continues to be a favorite of mine for its brevity, humor, and accessibility.

The Chicago Manual of Style offers the other extreme of long and slightly cumbersome but also authoritative.

The Elephants of Style by Bill Walsh is a slightly irreverent guide that covers topics many other books ignore.

Random House Webster’s Grammar, Usage, and Punctuation will answer almost any question you may have.

You can find more information online. Helpful websites include:

Grammar Girl, http:/www.quickanddirtytips.com/grammar-girl

Chicago Manual of Style Q&A, http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/latest.html

Grammar doesn’t have to be boring, and getting familiar with the rules can save you hundreds of dollars. What are your favorite grammar guides?

Like this blog? Find more advice and insights in the award-winning book Perfect Bound: How to Navigate the Book Publishing Process Like a Pro, available through Hop On Publishing, Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, Novel Books, and other fine retailers.

Tracking Your Story’s Timeline

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Keeping a consistent timeline in your story is crucial to earning your readers’ trust. Readers will become frustrated if your characters seem to be jumping through the seasons at will or if too much has happened for only one week to have passed.

Although this may seem like a problem only novelists would confront, memoirists, short-story writers, and anyone else writing about events that take place over time need to pay attention to their timelines also.

If you haven’t kept your outline up to date while you’re writing, do what your editor will do. Go through the manuscript and note all of the plot points that hinge on or mention timing. Write down the date and season, and if needed, count the days and weeks (and hours?) that would have passed between plot points. Ensure that time is adding up correctly.

Be sure your list includes subtle references to time, such as holidays or the changing colors of the trees. These are time indicators just as much as a date and year and should be treated with care. If you have the leaves turning from green to red a scant two weeks before Christmas, your readers may wonder just where in the world your story takes place. For most of us, that is not the kind of thought we hope to provoke.

Like this blog? Find more insights and advice in Perfect Bound: How to Navigate the Book Publishing Process Like a Pro, available from POP Editorial Services LLC, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and other fine retailers.

Is a Manuscript Assessment What You Need?

There comes a point in the life of every writing project when the writer has taken the piece as far as she can by herself. You have probably experienced this. It’s when you finish revising your manuscript for the fourth or fifth time and think, “I have no idea if this is even any good.” When you reach that stage, you have some options on how to proceed.

One option is to take your manuscript to a critique group. Or you might connect with beta readers online to get their input. Or perhaps you decide to share the manuscript with other writer friends to see what they think. Each of these options will give you more information about what you are writing and how you can improve it. Eventually, however, you will reach the point where you need a more in-depth, more professional review. That’s when it’s time to get a professional editor involved.

Here again you have some choices to make. Finding the right editor is a big one. (Read this blog post for guidance.) Selecting the right service is another.

When editors talk about editing services, we usually break them down into three big categories: developmental or substantive editing, copyediting or line editing, and proofreading. Given that you are still involved in the big-picture phase of the project — Is this any good and how can I make it better? — development would seem to be the right level of editing for your manuscript. And development might help. The trouble is, it can be expensive, and some writers don’t need everything a developmental edit can give. They need a different kind of input.

For that reason, many editors provide another service, one that doesn’t fit in with the three-tiered editing scheme. That’s because it isn’t editing. It’s a manuscript assessment or evaluation.

With a manuscript assessment, the editor does not make changes to your manuscript. That’s how you know it’s not editing. What you receive instead is a lengthy letter or document that highlights the manuscript’s strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for improvement. The form I use follows this outline:

General comments
Overview of topic, audience, and market position

Writing style
Specific comments on strengths and weaknesses of style — appropriate tone, word choice, complexity/simplicity of writing

Editing needs
Common or recurring errors, depth of editing required

Questions and concerns
Potential problems that may need to be taken care of before editing goes forward

Opportunities for improvement
Ideas for features to add and/or ways to address weaknesses to improve marketability

Other editors will use their own forms, but you can expect similar information to be included in their assessment. (Of course, before you hire someone for an assessment, you should confirm what is included in their feedback.)

Who will benefit most from a manuscript assessment? These tools are great for writers who aren’t looking for grammar and punctuation help but rather want more direction so that they can take their manuscript to the next level. These writers have the skill to implement the recommendations from the assessment without the hands-on guidance they would receive from a developmental editor. Further, they are willing to put in the time to make the revisions themselves in order to save money on editing.

Bottom line: A manuscript assessment can give you great insight and direction for your project while costing significantly less than development.

Like this blog? Find more insights and advice in Perfect Bound: How to Navigate the Book Publishing Process Like a Pro, available from POP Editorial Services LLC, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and other fine retailers.

The Ban on Adverbs

When I first got involved in the writing side of the publishing industry, in 2012, I soon heard a mantra of sorts: Never Use Adverbs. Having been an editor for a dozen years before that, it struck me as one of the most arbitrary and useless rules I’d heard. Today, I at least understand how the ban on adverbs got started, even if I don’t agree with it.

What’s interesting to me is that many of the so-called rules that some novelists live by are not the same rules as those their editors profess. In fact, they are often at odds with each other. A writer might say, “Never start a sentence with a conjunction.” An editor will say, “That rule has gone by the wayside, and thank goodness. Clarity is more important.”

The uncompromising ban on adverbs is another such rule that editors are unlikely to support. It is famously summed up in a quote from the author of On Writing:

The road to hell is paved with adverbs. —Stephen King

He goes on to liken adverbs to dandelions, saying one is pretty but soon your lawn is taken over by them, so you must get rid of all of them.

And that right there is the problem. We cannot rid our writing of an entire category of words. We can use them sparingly, because one is pretty but a hundred are not; however, there is no reason to give them up entirely. It isn’t even possible to achieve. (Full disclosure: I once gave my mother a bouquet of dandelions. She loved it.)

Now that I have edited more new writers and seen just what a field of dandelions an author is able to grow, I understand the temptation to throw them all out and just say no, don’t use adverbs. Some writers sprinkle every sentence with two or three adverbs when the sentence would be stronger without even one.

Quickly rounding the bend and hurriedly entering the dining room, I found the decorator busily arranging the centerpiece on the beautifully laid table.

It’s easier to live by an all-or-nothing rule and cut all adverbs always. But easier isn’t always better. I have seen several manuscripts in which the author bent over backward to avoid an adverb and it left me scratching my head.

I rounded the bend at a fast pace and entered the dining room in a hurry to find the decorator arranging the centerpiece at a fast clip on the table laid with beautiful decorations.

To me, moderation is key to all things in life — even adverbs. Adverbs help writers to express how someone is feeling or the manner in which an action was done. They intensify adjectives and tell readers when and where an event took place. Yes, weak adverbs abound, but they aren’t all weak. Some are tantalizing. And even the weak ones can be useful at times.

I sped around the bend and entered the dining room to find the decorator hastily arranging the centerpieces. The decorations were lovely. Beautiful in fact.

So cut your adverbs freely, make sure that each one has earned its place in your writing, but please, do not weed them all out. Writing benefits from diversity and decoration. A ban on adverbs eliminates that.

Like this blog? Find more advice and insights in the award-winning book Perfect Bound: How to Navigate the Book Publishing Process Like a Pro, available through Hop On Publishing, Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, Left Bank Books, and other fine retailers

Beta Readers Aren’t Editors; Editors Aren’t Beta Readers

If you have spent any time in the writing community over the past five to ten years, you’ve probably heard about beta readers. These are unpaid people who read your manuscript and give you feedback. The type, quality, and extent of feedback you receive depends on the readers you have enlisted to help you. Editors, of course, are professionally trained and educated to correct a wide range of problems in a manuscript to get it ready for publication. Although beta readers can greatly enhance the revision process, they do not replace editors. Similarly, an editor should not be thought of as a paid beta reader.

Beta Readers Are Not Editors

The feedback you get from your beta readers can be hugely helpful for identifying and resolving problems with plot, characterization, pacing, or a weak argument. These readers give you the opportunity to share your work and find out how it strikes the average reader. They do not usually make the corrections the way an editor will, but rather offer suggestions for you to implement. When you choose your readers, I recommend finding a range of people with differing skills and backgrounds so that you get a well-rounded view of your manuscript.

There are a number of sources for finding beta readers — critique groups, colleagues, writing partners, people you connect with via Goodreads or a Facebook group, among other places. Each will have something different to offer, and you will need to assess and evaluate their critiques individually to determine what feedback to accept and what to reject. These people are not professionals; they are simply giving you their opinions as to how you can improve your writing.

Some authors think that if they get enough beta readers, they can skip editing. This is generally not true. In the case of really good readers and a talented writer, the beta-reading stage can lessen or eliminate the need for a developmental editor. As mentioned, beta readers may uncover big-picture issues such as an inconsistent timeline, poor pacing, poor organization, or unrelateable characters, and the author may be able to address and resolve these problems on their own.

However, unless one of your readers is a professional editor who has done a complete line edit on your manuscript, you will still need a copyeditor at some point. If you find a publisher, the publisher may take care of the copyediting; if you self-publish, you will need to arrange the editing yourself. (For guidance on how to do this without getting taken, see my series of posts How to Hire a Freelance Editor in 5 Easy Steps.)

Employing beta readers in your writing journey is an excellent idea that can save you time and money. It is essential, however, that you know the limits of what such readers can do for your manuscript.

Editors Are Not Beta Readers

One major benefit beta readers do offer is a fresh set of eyes when a  writer feels she has taken the manuscript as far as she can on her own. Perhaps this is why some authors seem to think of their editor as a paid beta reader. Again, that is incorrect and may lead to problems.

In most cases, an editor should not be the first person you share your work with. You can go that route, but you can likely save yourself some money — potentially, a lot of money — if you get the outside, free opinion of beta readers first. Find out what average readers think and get the manuscript nailed down as much as possible on your own before investing in editing. Editing is expensive, and the more refinement you do on your own, the less you will have to pay someone else to do. (Read this article for more thoughts on this topic.)

Beyond that, working with an editor is different from working with beta readers. For instance, editors need a certain level of understanding about what it is you are trying to achieve with your book so that they can help you achieve it. Whereas you may want your beta readers to approach the manuscript with no preconceived notions, editing is more efficient — and better — when there aren’t a lot of surprises. So if your book has a twist at the end and you aren’t sure it’s working, you will get to the solution faster if you tell your editor what you suspect. It means revealing the twist, but that’s OK. If you aren’t sure it’s working, your editor can keep that in mind while she reads. If she agrees, she can then let you know why it isn’t working and how to improve it.

In addition, the corrections and suggested changes you receive from your editor deserve more weight than those of a traditional beta reader.  With both editors and beta readers, you as the author have to decide whether the changes further your vision for the book. However, professional editors have years of experience and training in their field, and if they see a problem, it’s likely other readers will too. If they have changed your grammar, punctuation, and syntax, it likely was incorrect. If they have suggested ways to strengthen your argument, you likely need to address that problem.

That does not mean you need to take every suggested change from your editor, but you should make an educated decision. If you don’t know why a change was made, ask for an explanation before overriding your editor. Assuming you have vetted your editor (see step 2 of How to Hire a Freelance Editor in 5 Easy Steps), you know you have chosen someone with the credentials to help you make your book the best it can be. Avoid negating that expertise by ignoring your editor’s feedback.

Beta readers aren’t editors. They don’t have the training, the experience, or the expertise. And editors aren’t beta readers. They want to get to the solution as fast as possible, and that means revealing aspects of the manuscript you may be hesitant to reveal to a general reader. Beta readers offer opinions; editors offer a professional’s perspective. Each of these roles has something to offer writers on their journey. For best results, do not confuse the two.

 

Like this blog? Find more advice and insights in Perfect Bound: How to Navigate the Book Publishing Process Like a Pro, available through Hop On Publishing, Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Left Bank Books, and other retailers.

Road to Publication: Page Proofs

What do you do when you get page proofs for your book from your designer? Quite a bit, actually. Here’s the rundown on all that happens when you have page proofs in hand, as I experienced it:

• I received first page proofs for Perfect Bound: How to Navigate the Book Publishing Process Like a Pro April 15 via e-mail. I immediately printed four sets. My husband and I each had a copy, and two copies  were sent out for advance reviews. I e-mailed the PDF to three more people, one of them being the proofreader and the other two being more reviewers.

  

  The page proofs have arrived!

• While the proofreader was working away, my husband and I were each reviewing our sets of the pages. I read the book from beginning to end, then looked at some specific problem areas, such as the table of contents, the running heads, and page breaks. I followed my own advice, as set out in a previous blog post.
• Two and a half weeks passed while the pages were being proofread and reviewed. Then, a few days before the proofreading due date, the proofreader scanned and e-mailed to me the pages with her corrections. I then compiled her edits as well as my husband’s onto my master set. I looked through everything once again, resolved the discrepancies that crept up among the three of us, and sent the entire set of pages back to the designer.

Because my copyeditor and I had done so much work early on to get the manuscript in shape, the proofreader had limited changes and was therefore able to (1) finish faster and (2) avoid shipping the complete set of page proofs, saving me time and money on both counts.

• The designer had ten days to input the changes and get second proofs to me. While that was happening, even more exciting developments came my way, namely, I received reviews back from three of the five people I had approached. Two reviewers declined to review the pages, stating that the book was not appropriate for their audience. But that was OK. The three reviews I received were terrific, and I promptly added them to the front and back covers.

  

  The final front cover with endorsement

• The second round of page proofs arrived a day early, which was great because that gave the indexer an extra day to complete the index. Time was getting short and I was anxious to make sure something as routine as an index didn’t cause us to miss our desired pub date. The indexer had asked for a week to complete the index, and that gave us only a few days for final revisions. If any major problems arose, we would miss the files-to-printer date. Turned out my worry was for naught: the indexer completed the index in three days!
• While the index was being created, I checked corrections from first pages to second pages and then checked the table of contents and running heads again. I also spot-checked a few areas, reading all of the chapter-opening and -closing boxes and rereading the introduction and epilogue. As always, some small errors had slipped through. Good thing I took the time to review the pages again.

If you are self-publishing, be prepared to go through at least three rounds of page proofs. For whatever reason, it often takes until the third or fourth set of proofs for a person to notice an error in display text.

• Corrections to the revised proofs and the edited index were e-mailed back to the designer (yes, you have to edit an index), and, lickety-split, we had third pages. We were getting close now. One more round of corrections and, as of yesterday, the interior has been finalized!

The pace of book production, once you receive those first page proofs, is mind-boggling. Just when it looks like you will never finish on time, the stars align, designers and indexers beat their deadlines, and you start to wonder why you ever doubted the outcome.

Final files go to the printer on Monday. Next up will be printer proofs. The end is in sight! The end of production, anyway. As the author, you’re never really done with a book, are you?

Also in this series

MS2BK: The Road to Publication

MS2BK: Manuscript Development

MS2BK: How I Chose My Path to Publication

MS2BK: Copyediting

MS2BK: The Design Process

Like this blog? Check out Perfect Bound: How to Navigate the Book Publishing Process Like a Pro, available through Hop On Publishing, Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Left Bank Books, and other retailers.

Save Your Reputation: Edit Your Writing and Hire Pros When Needed

It might not be clear to all aspiring authors that their reputation is at stake with everything they put out into the world. A typo in a cover letter, a small factual error in a novel, a few misspelled words in a short story — who will notice? Who will care?

The truth is, although many people won’t be bothered by little errors here and there, enough people will be, and it is often these people who are the most vocal or are in a position of power.

The repercussions can include having your query to an agent dismissed, your short story rejected from a literary mag, or your novel blasted on Amazon and Goodreads. Unfortunately, you won’t get a second chance with an agent, and those online reviews never go away. Furthermore, once your reputation is tainted, it can be a major feat to get it back.

The ease with which a writer can become published via an e-book has magnified this problem. With an e-book, you can bypass every other kind of publishing professional, upload your first draft to Smashwords, KDP, or any number of other e-book sites, and — voila — in 24 hours you have an e-book. There are no gatekeepers and no one to save you from yourself. You can put out a low-quality product and ruin your reputation as a writer with the click of a button.

Don’t let this happen to you. Take matters into your own hands and shore up your reputation by producing the highest-quality writing you can. Here’s how:

1. Perform thorough self-editing. There are lots of tricks to this. You can read my take on it here.
2. Work with beta readers. Belinda Pollard has a nice article cleverly titled “How to Find a Beta Reader” with some helpful tips.
3. Hire a professional editor. Editors abound. Find a good one to help you with whatever kind of writing you do.
4. If you are self-publishing, hire a professional designer to help with layout or, at the very least, buy a template from Joel Friedlander.

While the professional design won’t help with textual errors, it will help your reputation. When you are self-publishing, anything you can do  to improve the appearance of your book will also improve your perceived professionalism and, therefore, your reputation.

Given how difficult it is to get noticed as a writer, the one thing you have to rely on is your reputation. Respect, integrity, professionalism, follow-through — no kidding, good editing can help you demonstrate all of these important characteristics through your writing. Mind your reputation from the beginning so that you do not have to fight to get it back.

Like this blog? Check out Perfect Bound: How to Navigate the Book Publishing Process Like a Pro, available through Hop On Publishing, Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Left Bank Books, and other retailers.