I've spent the last six weeks inputting line-edit changes and addressing 44 different editorial issues and suggestions from my editor. It was a time-consuming, arduous process but also very rewarding. I believe that my most recent changes have tightened and deepened the story and characters. I'm filled with confidence that this manuscript is as good as I can make it...and certainly good enough to do battle in the current publishing market.
So, next steps. This will be a busy week. I will contact my editor and summarize the changes I've made to the manuscript to see if she has any further suggestions. I will also make minor revisions to my query letter based on her suggestions in terms of positioning the book in the market. Finally, I will resume the query process, which I suspended in January to pass the manuscript through another professional edit.
Based on suggestions from the principals at Book Doctors, I will be more aggressive in my query process. For example, when I receive rejections or don't hear from an agent in more than four weeks, I will follow up with an email asking what they saw lacking in my sample. Chances are the agent never even reviewed my sample and just ignored it or rejected it to get it out of their inbox. The purpose of my follow-up email is to potentially get the recipient to actually read the damn thing! At this point, I'm so brainwashed by the quality of my book that I believe any sensible agent will find it hard to resist.
Hell, it's worth a try!
The Book Doctors also have other strategies to attract an agent's attention--I suggest you get their book if you have serious designs on publishing.
In addition to querying agents, I'm going to solicit a couple of small publishers each month who don't require agency representation.
My new motto: Leave no stone unturned.
Am I Being...Insensitive?
While the world is being terrorized by the worst pandemic since the 1918 Spanish Flu, here I am sitting in my basement blogging away about my insignificant fiction project. As people are dying in scary numbers, I find myself preoccupied in my own little made-up world.
Is that wrong?
Shouldn't I at least acknowledge that we are living in frightening times, that not only are people dying, but the global economy is in free fall and the prospects on both accounts are grim? Shouldn't I at least find some way to contribute to the cause? Shouldn't I stand in front of a hospital and thank those brave souls who are busy saving lives while endangering their own? Run around and deliver meals to elderly shut-ins? Contribute to food banks? Give blood? Make phone calls for political candidates in hopes of getting rid of Trump?
Well, I do some of those things. Our charitable giving has gone way up and I will give blood. But mainly I'm doing what the experts recommend. I stay home and maintain social distancing, which is really important since I'm in a high risk category.
Still, under the circumstances, isn't this blog just a selfish indulgence?
I say not really. Sure, the pandemic is front and center in the news and has profoundly affected our lives. But the pandemic isn't 100 percent of our lives. People are still engaged in other things. Many people are working from home in jobs that are not especially significant when compared with the magnitude of the virus.
And many are using their extended time at home learning new skills. They're baking bread, fixing up the house, learning a new language, dusting off the old guitar, etc. It doesn't mean that they're ignoring the menace of Covid-19, they're just going on with their lives despite Covid-19.
So it's perfectly right that I keep writing, which means tweaking my current novel and working on my next...as well as writing these posts. So, if you don't mind, I'm going to stick with the premise of this blog and will avoid addressing that ugly pandemic in future posts.
Is that wrong?
Shouldn't I at least acknowledge that we are living in frightening times, that not only are people dying, but the global economy is in free fall and the prospects on both accounts are grim? Shouldn't I at least find some way to contribute to the cause? Shouldn't I stand in front of a hospital and thank those brave souls who are busy saving lives while endangering their own? Run around and deliver meals to elderly shut-ins? Contribute to food banks? Give blood? Make phone calls for political candidates in hopes of getting rid of Trump?
Well, I do some of those things. Our charitable giving has gone way up and I will give blood. But mainly I'm doing what the experts recommend. I stay home and maintain social distancing, which is really important since I'm in a high risk category.
Still, under the circumstances, isn't this blog just a selfish indulgence?
I say not really. Sure, the pandemic is front and center in the news and has profoundly affected our lives. But the pandemic isn't 100 percent of our lives. People are still engaged in other things. Many people are working from home in jobs that are not especially significant when compared with the magnitude of the virus.
And many are using their extended time at home learning new skills. They're baking bread, fixing up the house, learning a new language, dusting off the old guitar, etc. It doesn't mean that they're ignoring the menace of Covid-19, they're just going on with their lives despite Covid-19.
So it's perfectly right that I keep writing, which means tweaking my current novel and working on my next...as well as writing these posts. So, if you don't mind, I'm going to stick with the premise of this blog and will avoid addressing that ugly pandemic in future posts.
What an Editor CAN and CANNOT Do for Your Book
Since it seems more people are tuning into this blog, I'll try to post more often--it's just sometimes I don't feel I have anything worthwhile to say! 😐
As I forge my way through my manuscript and incorporate changes from my editor, I've come to a greater understanding of how to set expectations when enlisting the services of a professional editor. First and foremost, don't expect your editor to write your book for you. Seems obvious, but many writers expect that an editor can take their mess of a book and magically make it bloom and sparkle like the brightest stars in the sky.
Won't happen.
Editors aren't like Rumplestiltskin--they can't take your pile of hay and spin it into gold. Here's what an editor can do for you:
That's a broad range of issues that any good editor will tackle, which is why talented, experienced editors charge a lot and spend many hours on your book.
But here's what an editor won't, or can't, do for you:
As I forge my way through my manuscript and incorporate changes from my editor, I've come to a greater understanding of how to set expectations when enlisting the services of a professional editor. First and foremost, don't expect your editor to write your book for you. Seems obvious, but many writers expect that an editor can take their mess of a book and magically make it bloom and sparkle like the brightest stars in the sky.
Won't happen.
Editors aren't like Rumplestiltskin--they can't take your pile of hay and spin it into gold. Here's what an editor can do for you:
- Address issues such as plot, pacing, thematics, character development, narrative sequencing and chronology
- Special concerns you may have as an author, such as genre and marketing strategy
- Copyedit/line edit focusing on flow, punctuation, grammar, word choice, syntax, consistency of language
- Continuity of plot, setting, and character traits
- Rewrite your book--hire a ghost writer for that!
- Take what is essentially an unpublishable novel and turn it into a bestseller
- Take a poorly thought-out story idea and bland, two-dimensional characters and magically transform those deficiencies into compelling literature
- Most editors will not recommend specific agents or publishers for your manuscript, since publishing markets change constantly
As you can see, editors take on a great deal of responsibility when they agree to work on your book. I've found that when working with editors their main value lies in closely reading your work and helping you polish, tighten, and add depth to what is (hopefully) an already strong, well-written manuscript. In fact, the very best editors will reject jobs if they review a sample and find the writing too weak to warrant their time and effort!
So before you hire an editor, my advice is to go through your manuscript and rewrite as often as it takes until you deem it as close to perfection as you can get. If you can find some beta readers to read and comment on your work, that's even better. But your book must be as good as you can get it before you commit to the expense of hiring an editor. Otherwise you're wasting his/her time as well as your own time and money.
I'm convinced that by the time I'm through with my final edits in the next couple of weeks, I will have a super-strong manuscript ready to do battle in the publishing market free-for-all.
I welcome comments and suggestions on this or any other posts and will respond to all of them! Heck, I'm stuck at home just like you!
Writing Is Editing
One benefit of being shut in the house during the current pestilence is the chance to focus on my fiction project, COME THE HARPIES. Having enlisted the services of a seasoned professional editor, I spent the last two weeks inputting line-edit changes that have both tightened the manuscript through the elimination of over 3,000 words(!) and enhanced word selection in dozens of cases.
The next step is going through developmental suggestions, which include fixing plot inconsistencies, sharpening characterizations, leveraging situations for greater dramatic effect, adding telling details that provide color and impact, among other weighty matters. I boiled down my editor's notes to 44 issues that I will address over the next three to four weeks. I will then follow up with the editor and discuss how I approached her changes and suggestions.
This sounds like a lot of work, but it's really not too bad. Most of the changes are minor and some reflect stupid mistakes on my part with names, chronologies, and quirks that crop up over the course of writing a 100,000-word manuscript. Most of what I'll be doing is fixing those mistakes and adding polish and depth.
I know it's an effective story and my editor agrees. She wrote: "(The book) has a gripping premise coupled with a compelling voice--fast-paced, funny, timely, thought-provoking, and above all, entertaining. There's enough action and excitement...to keep readers satisfied, but it all ties into weightier issues of humanity, autonomy, politics and the environment; and it plays out in a setting that is close enough to our current society that readers will find it relatable, and exaggerated just enough that they'll find it unsettling."
Yeah, I was going for that! The thing is, I think the story is so timely that I want to somehow get this thing published ASAP to fully leverage the relevance of the story to things that are going on in the world today.
However, I still need to find some way to grab the interest of the almighty gatekeepers of the publishing industry!
The next step is going through developmental suggestions, which include fixing plot inconsistencies, sharpening characterizations, leveraging situations for greater dramatic effect, adding telling details that provide color and impact, among other weighty matters. I boiled down my editor's notes to 44 issues that I will address over the next three to four weeks. I will then follow up with the editor and discuss how I approached her changes and suggestions.
This sounds like a lot of work, but it's really not too bad. Most of the changes are minor and some reflect stupid mistakes on my part with names, chronologies, and quirks that crop up over the course of writing a 100,000-word manuscript. Most of what I'll be doing is fixing those mistakes and adding polish and depth.
I know it's an effective story and my editor agrees. She wrote: "(The book) has a gripping premise coupled with a compelling voice--fast-paced, funny, timely, thought-provoking, and above all, entertaining. There's enough action and excitement...to keep readers satisfied, but it all ties into weightier issues of humanity, autonomy, politics and the environment; and it plays out in a setting that is close enough to our current society that readers will find it relatable, and exaggerated just enough that they'll find it unsettling."
Yeah, I was going for that! The thing is, I think the story is so timely that I want to somehow get this thing published ASAP to fully leverage the relevance of the story to things that are going on in the world today.
However, I still need to find some way to grab the interest of the almighty gatekeepers of the publishing industry!
Do-It-Yourself Masks
As a public service, here's how to make your own mask. Has it really come to this?
Another Edit Down
When last we visited my travails regarding the publishing, or non-publishing, of my latest book, I was reassessing the viability of my manuscript. After all, I had sent out several dozen queries with only a couple of nibbles and lots of rejections from agents, even though I was and remain convinced that my book tells a powerful story with verve and humor.
Nevertheless, with the help of an outside consultant, we determined that it was time for another round with a professional editor. Since it's difficult to be objective about the quality of your work as a writer after slaving on draft after draft over a period of years, tapping the insights of a qualified source to evaluate your work makes sense. So through an online resource called Reedsy, I hired an editor with vast publishing house experience who had edited and written several books for audiences similar to my target audience.
She was expensive, but her input should prove invaluable. Her line edits really tightened my writing and she made several insightful suggestions to improve plot dynamics. Most important, to me at least, she reassured me that, with a few relatively minor tweaks, my book will be pretty much as good as I think it is. She did say there was a glut of books along the same thematic arc as mine, but that my use of humor and voice differentiated it from the others. She gave me some positioning suggestions to use in my query pitch that may yield more positive results than what I've seen.
As previously noted, this is my second comprehensive edit from a professional editor, which is not unlike getting a second opinion from a doctor. Since my first editor was very good, the changes recommended by this second editor are not nearly as extensive. Once I'm finished with the latest round of edits over the next few weeks, I think the manuscript will be in its best possible shape and I'll resume querying.
But publishing these days being such a crapshoot, there's no guarantee that my new, improved manuscript will have any better luck in the marketplace. It's all a matter of finding the right agent, at the right time, on the right date, in the right mood...
But at least I know that what I'm submitting is worthy.
Nevertheless, with the help of an outside consultant, we determined that it was time for another round with a professional editor. Since it's difficult to be objective about the quality of your work as a writer after slaving on draft after draft over a period of years, tapping the insights of a qualified source to evaluate your work makes sense. So through an online resource called Reedsy, I hired an editor with vast publishing house experience who had edited and written several books for audiences similar to my target audience.
She was expensive, but her input should prove invaluable. Her line edits really tightened my writing and she made several insightful suggestions to improve plot dynamics. Most important, to me at least, she reassured me that, with a few relatively minor tweaks, my book will be pretty much as good as I think it is. She did say there was a glut of books along the same thematic arc as mine, but that my use of humor and voice differentiated it from the others. She gave me some positioning suggestions to use in my query pitch that may yield more positive results than what I've seen.
As previously noted, this is my second comprehensive edit from a professional editor, which is not unlike getting a second opinion from a doctor. Since my first editor was very good, the changes recommended by this second editor are not nearly as extensive. Once I'm finished with the latest round of edits over the next few weeks, I think the manuscript will be in its best possible shape and I'll resume querying.
But publishing these days being such a crapshoot, there's no guarantee that my new, improved manuscript will have any better luck in the marketplace. It's all a matter of finding the right agent, at the right time, on the right date, in the right mood...
But at least I know that what I'm submitting is worthy.
Don't Sell!!!!!! Part 2
The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down about 33% since its high water mark in early February, putting us well within bear market territory for the first time in 12 years. Plus, we're probably in a recession already and things may get worse before they get better.
So were you stupid to listen to my advice about not selling stocks in my last post about a week ago, right? No, you were smart. You were smart because you didn't lock in a large loss. Sure, our stock portfolios are down a lot, but those are paper losses. Eventually the market most likely will make up for those losses.
Of course there are no guarantees--you know, the old saw about past performance isn't indicative of future returns, etc. But the past is all we have to go on, since none of us can predict the future. And stocks have always performed better over the long run compared with any other investment. But also keep in mind that stock investing should always be about the long run, which means holding them for at least five years, preferably longer, because stock markets can be extremely volatile over the short and intermediate term (like today and the next several months for sure).
Besides, now is not the time to invest in ANYTHING! Bonds are a crappy investments now because interest rates are so low (low interest rates mean expensive bond prices). Real estate is over-valued and also extremely volatile, commodities are for specialists and suckers.
So what if you suddenly come into a lot money through an inheritance or the lottery? How do you invest a windfall in today's financial mess? Stocks are iffy right now because you don't know how low the market will go when it's all said and done, so I'd go with safety. A bank account, money market, short-term bond funds. When things finally get squared away with Covid-19 and the economy starts recovering, then start investing s.l.o.w.l.y in a broad market stock mutual fund. A little each month so that you'll capture most of the market recovery and less of a loss if the market tanks again.
What about gold? A lot of people are investing in gold now because that's what people do in a panic. Gold is tangible, pretty, and a store of value. But compared with stocks, it's a crappy long-term investment. Stocks eat gold's lunch.
So were you stupid to listen to my advice about not selling stocks in my last post about a week ago, right? No, you were smart. You were smart because you didn't lock in a large loss. Sure, our stock portfolios are down a lot, but those are paper losses. Eventually the market most likely will make up for those losses.
Of course there are no guarantees--you know, the old saw about past performance isn't indicative of future returns, etc. But the past is all we have to go on, since none of us can predict the future. And stocks have always performed better over the long run compared with any other investment. But also keep in mind that stock investing should always be about the long run, which means holding them for at least five years, preferably longer, because stock markets can be extremely volatile over the short and intermediate term (like today and the next several months for sure).
Besides, now is not the time to invest in ANYTHING! Bonds are a crappy investments now because interest rates are so low (low interest rates mean expensive bond prices). Real estate is over-valued and also extremely volatile, commodities are for specialists and suckers.
So what if you suddenly come into a lot money through an inheritance or the lottery? How do you invest a windfall in today's financial mess? Stocks are iffy right now because you don't know how low the market will go when it's all said and done, so I'd go with safety. A bank account, money market, short-term bond funds. When things finally get squared away with Covid-19 and the economy starts recovering, then start investing s.l.o.w.l.y in a broad market stock mutual fund. A little each month so that you'll capture most of the market recovery and less of a loss if the market tanks again.
What about gold? A lot of people are investing in gold now because that's what people do in a panic. Gold is tangible, pretty, and a store of value. But compared with stocks, it's a crappy long-term investment. Stocks eat gold's lunch.
Blue Line=Stocks, Gold Line=Gold. (Covers March 1990 through today)
(Graph courtesy of macro trends.net)
So, again, this is no time to make major investment decisions. In fact, if you need to liquidate your stocks to get cash, it's a much better idea to, instead, take out a personal loan or draw on your home's equity if you can, because interest rates are historically low. Please, please, please, don't follow the herd and lock in your huge stock losses now.
Your main focus today is to stay healthy and keep your social distance. Try not to think about your stock portfolio. I'm trying to put it out of my mind. Bourbon also helps.
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