Tag Archive | editor

How to Revise Your Novel – Part Four: Seek Professional Help

You can argue, you can justify, and you can complain all you want, but you can’t escape the truth. Your novel needs professional help! You may be the most talented writer in the world, but at some point someone else has to look at your book and tell you what needs work.

Yep, try as we may, we are not impartial judges of our own writing. How can we be? We know the plot and the characters inside and out. We’ve lived with those people and those situations for months, maybe years. Most importantly, we know the details that we may have forgotten to actually write down, and we will fill in the blanks. But when someone else reads that story, they’ll see blanks.

Honestly, I don’t get it. I’ve heard so many writers out there say that they don’t really need an editor or they can’t afford one. That statement makes absolutely no sense to me. No one, and I mean no one, is that good. Everyone needs an outside opinion in order to see the forest through the trees and to produce the best work possible.

Okay, so how exactly do you work with an editor? How do you handle all that criticism and still find the will to carry on and rewrite what you’ve already poured your heart and soul into … again?

If you’re like me, the first time you sent a novel off into the hands of a professional editor you did it while quaking in your boots. I was so afraid my editor, Alison, would trash it. I was sick for a week thinking that she would tell me my writing was horrible and that I should stick to my day job. It was terrifying.

Guess what? A good editor won’t tear you down. A good editor is there to help build you up. When I got that first edit letter from Alison it restored my faith in my own ability to pen a good story … even though it consisted of 14 pages of things I’d done wrong. A good editor will point out the flaws in your story while making you super excited to get to work on fixing them.

But how? How do you fix what isn’t working?

Well, just like the process of revising your first draft is all about honesty, the process of putting editorial suggestions into action is to listen. Drop all of your preconceived notions about how you are going to be the next bestselling author and really listen to the points your editor is bringing up. Is she telling you that your character’s motivation doesn’t ring true? Is she saying that the story lags in the middle? Listen to that. It’s better to hear it from an editor at this point of the process than it is to see it in a review down the line. Because at this point you can do something about it.

A good editor will come armed with suggestions. My favorite part about working with Alison has been that she comes armed with questions. What if the hero doesn’t show up in time to rescue the heroine? What if that minor character was actually in love with the hero? What if the hero went back to his old life? Those are all actual suggestions Alison made about my various novels.

You know what? She was right. Did it mean rewriting large chunks of my novels? Are you kidding? I rewrote the entire middle section of The Courageous Heart based on a few of Alison’s suggestions! Was it tedious? Yep. Did it make the novel better? A thousand times better!

Working with an editor is a collaborative process. You’re the writer, ultimately you have the final say, but a good editor is an idea machine that you can tap for days. It’s not cheating, it’s not betraying your own creative process, it’s called working with an editor and making changes. And it feels so good when you come up with a better twist than you had before, even if you have to go back and start the revision process again to do it.

But you have to listen. There is no place for ego in working with an editor.

Okay, so I’ve talked all this time about working with an editor, but there is actually an alternative. And I’m a very recent convert to this alternative. I only mention it with the gravest of caveats. Not everyone can settle for this alternative and you personally aren’t the one who can make the call on whether this option alone is right for you.

Let’s talk about beta-readers. Beta-readers are like lovely mini editors. They are the people you give your novel to for an opinion. Yes, in some cases you can rely on beta-readers instead of editors to help you through this phase of revisions. I cringe as I say that, because I just know someone out there is going to assume that they’re off the hook and that they don’t really need to hire a professional.

Some people in certain circumstances will do fine having their novel edited by beta-readers alone. Which people? Those who have worked with an editor before and have proven their skills and been given the okay by a professional. Who should they ask to beta-read their books? Trusted, proven author-friends who know what they’re doing and who are not afraid to point out the broccoli in your teeth. That or friends or family members who are avid readers.

I recently read that Eloisa James has her sister read everything she writes early on (just like I have my sister-in-law/best friend read everything I write). I know of a couple of NYT bestsellers who are buddies and swap manuscripts. I was asked by an awesome writer friend who just landed an agent to beta-read her first novel (and I hope this second one too eventually – hint, hint) and I’m about to give her my latest. Can I put the two of us in the same category as NYT bestsellers? Absolutely! Because we’re both going to hold that title someday, aren’t we.

So embrace the edits, folks! Seek out the opinion of trusted professionals. Foster those relationships and make them last. You want to publish the best book possible, right? It starts with listening to the opinion of those who are in a position to know what the best looks like and to follow their advice. Because once you’ve done everything you can to make your novel the best it can be, it’s time to put it out there in the world.

Self-Publishing: What You Need to Know Before You Start

Sep26

Congratulations! You’ve decided to self-publish. Welcome to the wild and wonderful world of the fastest-growing segment of the publishing industry.

Fastest-growing, eh?

Yep. Seems like you can’t turn around these days without someone sprinting off to publish the manuscript they’ve been working on for years. Or months. Or a couple of weeks. But does that mean that if you self-publish the rest of the literary world is going to “dial you down to dumbass”, as my Dad likes to say? Does that mean you’ve forever separated yourself from the realm of the serious author? Not anymore it doesn’t. But it does mean that you get to navigate a minefield of potential mistakes and problems, and you get to do it all by yourself.

Now, I consider myself to be a successful self-published author. I’ve got three books out and one coming out the first weekend of November. And I’ve learned a lot of things during the process of publishing those books. I’ve made some mistakes and I’ve had some extraordinary good luck. I’ve also watched other writers make some mistakes and do things right. These things are super important to know. So in no particular order, here we go….

The first thing you need to know about self-publishing is that you’re not the only one who has this idea. In fact, right now the market is flooded with self-published authors eager to impress the world with the fruits of their imagination. There are now millions of books out there just waiting to be read. What does this mean for you? It means that you have to figure out a way to stand out from the crowd. Think writing the book was a challenge? Try getting it noticed above the sea of other books whose eager authors are trying to do exactly the same thing. The sad thing is that the majority of these books will stay right there in the sea.Now I’m not trying to discourage you by telling you this. Quite the contrary. I want you to be well aware of what’s ahead of you so that you can tackle the challenges head-on. Because this whole thing is an incredible challenge.

Right, so what do you need to do as a self-published author to stand out and catch on?

The first and most important answer is the same thing that everyone out there has been telling you. You have to write the best book possible. There’s no getting around it. So for those of you who are tired of hearing that, here’s a few things that will help you get there.

Patience. Patience is the only way to write the absolute best book possible. It takes a lot of time to write a first draft. It takes even more time to write the second and the third and the fourth drafts. Words can’t be rushed onto the page. Yes, it’s a great idea to set yourself a word-count goal for the day and to make it consistently, but that first flush of story is going to deserve to be flushed until you put some more work into it. That work takes patience. It takes letting it sit, handing it off to beta readers, and most importantly of all, it takes shipping it off to an qualified, professional editor to whip it into shape. Don’t skimp on the editor, people!

But patience isn’t just about time. Patience is about keeping the lid on yourself. It’s about being diligent. One of the things that draws people to the process of self-publishing is the speed with which we can get something published. It’s so exciting to think that in just a few short hours people out there in the world will be able to buy your imagination fruit! But be careful not to fill up the apple cart before the fruit is ripe. One of the biggest mistakes I see self-published authors make is focusing too much on getting out there and not enough on refining and perfecting the product. I’ve been guilty of it myself. And I’ve had to go back and publish updated editions with all sorts of embarrassing corrections.

You’ve worked hard on that book. That book deserves to be ready before it bursts out into the world. If you’re going to self-publish the onus is on you and you alone to set aside the writer part of you in favor of the editor part. You are your own quality control. This takes so much honesty and self-awareness that it boggles the mind. Don’t rush it.

Moving right along….

The other biggest mistake that I see self-published authors make is in the way they use social media. You might hear the message that in order to succeed you have to be on every platform all the time posting public service announcements about the worldwide benefits that buying your novel will bring. Um, the only thing you’re going to accomplish by attempting that is burning yourself out on social media and annoying a lot of people in the process.

Trust me, I’m speaking from experience here. When I first got into this gig last year I went nuts with the whole blog, Twitter, Facebook, Google+ thing. I tried to be all things to all people all the time. Not only did I end up with a sour taste in my mouth over so many of these social media tools, I didn’t see any results from them.In the end I switched to as two-part strategy. I focused my attention on the social media tools that I actually enjoy: my blog and Facebook. As a side note, I made a mistake within a mistake of joining every Facebook author group under the sun only to find that I wasn’t able to give most of them everything they deserved. I learned that it’s far more effective to give your all to a smaller amount of people within a circle of activities that you really enjoy than to try to master all forums.

And you know what ended up happening? Part two of the two-part strategy. I made friends with people who like the tools that I don’t like so much. This meant that when I had news, like the fact that I was running a promo of The Loyal Heart in July, some of those dear friends I had made posted about it on forums I didn’t even know existed. 50,000 eBook downloads later….

Concentrate on what you love. Pace yourself. Interact on a genuine level with people who are on the same path that you are. Help them out without expecting anything in return. And watch and see what happens.

Of course, you have to be patient while you do this. It took me a year’s worth of cultivating these connections and friendships before I was able to have the success I had with my promo. The good news is that I’ve made some fantastic friends along the way.

And that brings me to the biggest potential pitfall, the biggest message self-published authors or authors considering self-publishing need to hear.

Be careful about how you define success. I know you don’t want to hear it, but the likelihood of you being the next J.K. Rowling or Stephen King or even E.L. James is about the same as your chances of winning the Powerball Lottery. It’s okay. You’ll get through this. Take a deep breath. Just because your debut self-published novel does not instantly get optioned by Hollywood doesn’t mean you aren’t a success.

It’s time to redefine success. I consider myself a successful self-published author because since I made the decision to take this road I have worked hard and produced consistent results. I have published. I continue to publish. I also continue to learn. My writing has improved by leaps and bounds. And yes, I’ve sold books. Enough to pay for a new transmission when my car died earlier this month (although I really wanted to spend my royalty money on something a heck of a lot more fun). I’ve also begun to have my fellow writers at events here in Philadelphia come up to me asking for help and advice with self-publishing. When your peers ask for your advice, that’s success.But just because I consider myself a success right now doesn’t mean I haven’t raised the bar for myself. Yes, I love self-publishing. I intend to keep on doing it. But now another bee has flown into my bonnet. I want to see if I can get a couple of books in my “backlist” published by a small press. And I’ve got a couple of ideas for novels that I want to write in time to pitch to agents during next year’s conference season. And my long-term goal is to just be a writer. I’m starting that journey by self-publishing. It’s not an either/or prospect. It’s a stop along the way.

So huzzah! You’ve made a great choice to self-publish. It’s a lot of fun. Consider this the first step in a fantastic journey that will teach you to be a better writer all around.

Developmental Editing and Copy Editing: What’s the Difference?

Apr17

There are so many writers out there these days. Now that the world of publishing has been blown wide open and anyone can publish a book a heck of a lot more people than ever before are calling themselves writers. And that’s great! But I’ve been lurking around the Kindle boards and other reader hang-outs lately and let me tell you, it’s not so great to them. Because there is a lot of half-baked material being served up as if it’s a feast.

What’s the problem? Editing.

Oh my gosh, I can’t tell you how important editing is. If writing a book is like throwing all the ingredients together and mixing then editing is like checking the recipe to make sure you’ve put the right ingredients in at the right amount.

I’ve heard a very large number of self-published writers out there say that they can make due without an editor.

Well you can’t.

*ducks*

At least I’m in the school of thought that says you absolutely must have your work edited by a professional before you can let it see the light of day. There are more things that need looking at in a novel than most writers setting out on the journey realize. And based on the comments I’ve seen here and there, there is also a misunderstanding about just what it is that an editor does. So let’s take a look at that, shall we?

First, there are two kinds of editors. You can’t do without either of them.

When a lot of people think “editor” they think of the person who reads through your manuscript looking for bad grammar, misspelled words, and typos. This is a Copy Editor. Copy editing is like making sure you don’t have broccoli in your teeth. I, for example, am terrible at punctuating dialog. I can’t keep it straight in my head which bits of dialog should end with a comma and which should end with a period, which bit after the dialog should be capitalized as a new sentence and which is a dialog tag. It’s obvious when you point it out to me, but when I’m just reading through I write it all wrong.

A good copy editor knows the rules of grammar and uses them mercilessly against your manuscript. I should have had someone copy edit The Loyal Heart a little more intensely before I published it because I had a serious ‘smirk’ problem. Copy editors are also there to catch overuse of words. Thankfully, self-publishing allows you to discreetly swap out a more thoroughly edited version of a novel without anyone being the wiser. *shifty look*

Yes, copy editing is obvious and oh-so necessary.

But even more essential, in my humble opinion, is developmental editing.

A Developmental Editor is a writer’s best friend, but I bet most writers are terrified of the prospect. I know I was before I had my first manuscript developmentally edited. A Developmental Editor reads your manuscript and asks questions. They peel away the layers to figure out what makes your story tick. Or more importantly, what stops your story from ticking. A Developmental Editor not only points out the broccoli in your teeth but asks you why you needed to have broccoli in the first place. Maybe kale would work better?

Like I said, I was terrified when I sent my first manuscript to a Developmental Editor. I loved that story. I was passionate about it. The very last thing in the world that I wanted was for someone to pick it apart and tell me everything that was wrong about it. I chewed my nails for weeks, wondering what my editor, Alison, would say about the story. I was terrified that she would tell me I was a horrible writer and should stick to my day job.

Well, she didn’t. Why? Because Alison is an excellent editor!

A good Developmental Editor, like Alison, is there to work with you. Because there are all sorts of things that you, as a writer, can’t see when you’re so close to your work. Think of a Developmental Editor as the sharpest reader your story is ever going to have. If something doesn’t make sense, they will tell you. If they think you didn’t lift a character or situation to its fullest potential, they will tell you. If they have an idea for a different direction your story or backstory could go in, they will tell you.

LISTEN TO THEM!

Case in point: I’m working on a western Romance, Our Little Secrets, right now. I wrote it, and rewrote it, and revised that. But something still wasn’t right. I knew something wasn’t right, but I couldn’t put my finger on what it was … or wasn’t. The time came and I sent it off to Alison. And I waited in dread because I knew something wasn’t right. I knew a serious critique was in the mail.

And then came my edit letter. And yep, the story has some problems. But guess what? I may have known that there were issues, but Alison had a much clearer idea of what the issues were. Her long, long, long letter of critiques read like the pieces of a complex puzzle fitting into place. Oh! Of course my heroine seems a little too perfect and a little too capable of handling things. I didn’t really define what she was afraid of well enough. And of course that potentially awesome scene fell flat. I only depicted my hero’s shock over the turn of events, not all of the other emotions he would be feeling. Oh! That’s what was missing!

I don’t care how good of a writer you are, if you don’t have someone else, someone professional working with you to process your story it’s not going to be as good as it could be. Do you know which of the Harry Potter books is J.K. Rowling’s least favorite? The Goblet of Fire. Why? Because she felt as though her publishers rushed her and she didn’t have a chance to edit it as much as she wanted to. Yes folks, even the master herself doesn’t get it right on the first draft and needs the help of editors to bring a story to its full potential.

So please, please, please do yourself and your readers a favor. Bite the bullet, hold a bake sale, wash cars, break the piggy-bank, max out your credit cards and hire an editor. A Developmental Editor and a Copy Editor. You need them. Everybody needs them. If J.K. Rowling can do it, you can too.

Next week: How to listen to your editor, critiques, and reviews without whining or losing your temper and becoming a better writer for it.

If At First You Don’t Succeed, Revise

Sep20

Help! I’ve fallen and I can’t get up! I’m doing revisions!

You think that someone who has written eight novels would be a little more comfortable with revisions, but no. Revisions stress me out. Maybe this is why I’ve written so many novels but not tried to get them published (until now). When I look at the revision process it’s like looking at a giant mountain that I’ve created and having no idea how to get over it.

Don’t get me wrong. I’ve revised things before. The first novel in my Medieval Romance trilogy, The Loyal Heart, is in its sixth draft. It started out at 250,000 words (long story, literally) and is now hovering around 109,000. I know how to trim and polish and buff and shine.

And then came the second book in that trilogy, The Faithful Heart. Oy vey. I knew it needed a lot of work when I finished it. The heroine was almost non-existent in the story. But as I started rereading it with the intent of having it ready to publish by Christmas I realized I had Mt. Everest on my hands. Yes, the heroine needs to be beefed up considerably. A whole mess of minor characters need to be squished together to uncomplicated things, and the plot? Um, what plot. Or rather which plot? Yeah, you see what I’ve got on my hands? About the only thing that doesn’t have to change in this story is the hero, Jack. Because Jack is what the entire story revolves around.

Whew! I’ve got a starting point!

So here are a few tips and insights from my revision desk as I tackle this gargantuan rewrite. I hope that leaving these breadcrumbs as I slog through the woods might help others of you out there with the same task ahead of you.

First thing I did in this revision process was to reread the novel. Sounds obvious, right? Let me clarify. I printed out the whole damned thing and reread it with a pen in hand. I was not doing line edits, mind you. Yes, some of the prose is atrocious. What I did was to go through and make check marks and occasionally a great big star when I came across things that I liked and that I wanted to keep or ideas that need to remain even if they have to be written into another scene. By doing this I also calmed down a bit because I saw that I already had the tools to fix a lot of the things that are wrong with the story.

Next, or rather as I was rereading, I wrote out a scene by scene summary for each chapter. These were really simple descriptions like “Jack meets Lydia”. You’d never guess from that summary that that’s the moment when the hero meets the antagonist. I did this so that I could have a complete reference sheet for where everything is in the original draft for the inevitable moment when I will need to yank it out and shove it back in again somewhere else.

Then came/comes the hard part. This is the part I’m still doing, so forgive me if my verb tense suddenly switches. Replotting. I traditionally have not been a plotter. I have been a pantser. But with wisdom has come the knowledge that plotting, though painful, is extremely useful. So I’ve been thinking and rethinking this gd story, filling a legal pad with note, ideas, musings, alternative outcomes, and motivations. I have a good friend who is also a writer who I stand around at work and prattle on to about the story. She punched about a dozen holes in it the other day and I dragged my sorry backside back to my cube and spent the next hour scribbling on that legal pad coming up with ways to fix the holes. Fortunately I found them.

Basically this step has involved swallowing a LOT of pride. If it doesn’t work it doesn’t work and refusing to see that does not write a better story. As Writers we are blinded by our stories the same way we’re blind to the faults of a lover. Until someone else points them out. P.S. This is why it’s essential to get a freelance editor if you’re planning on joining Team Indie. All the same, you have control of how you fix them.

Most importantly, don’t panic! You wrote this baby and you can rewrite it too. You can make it stronger, faster, better. Yes you can! The only times I have ever failed and left a story hanging are the times when I let it psych me out. Don’t let that be you.

Honestly, the rewrites are coming along pretty okay now. I’ve got seven lovely rewritten chapters looking clean and fresh as a daisy. Once I get the other fifteen or so taken care of I’m sure I’ll go back and slice it all up again. Or at least tweak it. The point is, this is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do with my writing, but I can already feel that it will be one of the most satisfying things I’ve ever done.

So how about you all? How does your revision process work?

Team Indie

Sep13

We’re on the cusp of a brave new world, folks! You’ve heard about the changes, read the blogs and articles, tracked the success stories and stats. Indie Publishing is here to stay. Thank you so much Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, etc. But most of all, I would like to give a great big huge thank you to New York and the Traditional Publishing racket. Without you this never would have been possible.

That’s it. I’m coming out. After giving it careful consideration, weighing my options, sending out bunches of submissions, attending conferences, reading those blogs and testimonials, and most importantly writing for the past 26 years and completing 8 novels, I, Merry Farmer, am issuing the following definitive statement: I’m going to be an exclusively Indie Author.

Why?

Ah! The answer to that question is at the very heart of who I am and what I want from this world.

Indie Publishing is the most suitable option for me. It fits my personality and my goals for my life and my writing. Because for me writing is not about fame or money, book deals or prestige. For me, writing is about love. Once upon a time, many years ago, before Indie Pub was a thing, I remember saying to my friend that I didn’t really care so much if I was ever published as long as I could give my stories to a few people to read and they liked them. Sharing my novels is a way of sharing myself.

Okay, maybe that makes me a hippie-dippie Writer, and maybe there’s an element out there who doesn’t take something as emotionally based as my approach seriously. I can definitely see some people out there thinking that if you don’t have the drive or ambition or patience to grab the bull that is Traditional Publishing by the horns then you’re an untalented hack. Maybe there’s a correlation in some minds that says if you can’t stay the course and send out hundreds of submissions until you beat some poor agent and then editor into submission to be traditionally published then you’re just not that good.

Balderdash, I say!

Here is my biggest problem with the world of traditional publishing. It’s just so dang subjective! Okay, yes, I know there are such things as good writing and bad writing. Frankly, I’ve seen some really, REALLY bad writing between the pages of a book that I wasted money buying in a bookstore. I’ve seen some dreadful novels that somehow won awards. And I’ve read some wonderful things by friends and fellow Writers who couldn’t get the publishing industry to take notice. This has always bothered me. No, to say it bothers me is an understatement. It pisses me off.

Which brings me to the other reason I’m firmly on Team Indie.

No, not that Indie ... although he makes a good mascot for the cause

I won’t say I have a problem with authority, but I have a problem with authority. I don’t feel the need to thumb my nose at them or to fight the Man or anything, but I also don’t feel intimidated by authority. Not even my bosses at work. Maybe it’s my aristocratic roots. Maybe it’s because I was raised as a poor kid in a town of rich people who ran everything but were still complete jerks. I only see someone as an authority, in a position of superiority to me, if they prove that they are worthy of my respect. And frankly, when I hear publishers talk about the hundreds of manuscripts they reject every day while rolling their eyes, and when I hear them say they can’t give feedback on every submission they get (not even one sentence? really?) it irks me. I have tried for years and years, really I have, but I just can’t convince myself that respect is a two-way street in this industry. The people at the top are very happy on their pedestals looking down at the struggling masses in distain. And dude, that’s just not right! I have never wanted to be published so badly that I was willing to subject myself to that subtle form of bullying.

Okay, maybe it’s not my aristocratic roots. Maybe it’s my smoldering proletariat roots.

Indie Publishing makes me weep with joy and relief because it is the true test of a Writer’s mettle. Direct to consumer, baby. Forget the middle man. Let the proletariat be the judge! If you’ve written something genuinely good that people want to read, people will read it. You don’t have to get anyone in New York City’s permission for those people to read it. And if your baby sucks like a Hoover, then you can hold your head up high and say “Those ignorant f@#%ers! People are such ignoramuses! They don’t see quality prose when it’s right in front of their face!” Of course you’d be wrong, but you don’t have to grow a stack of rejection letters pointing it out. You can continue on, safe in the assurance of your own superiority, content that you came, you saw, you distributed your work as best you could, and it’s everyone else’s fault.

Of course, if you’re savvy and care about writing the best book possible, Team Indie means that you can pour your blood, sweat, and tears into your work, hire a freelance editor, own your baby, and set it free into the world with the knowledge that you have CREATED and nobody could stop you from declaring it to the world. Did I mention hiring a freelance editor? Because that’s important. The only people who I have unwavering respect for in the industry thus far are the brave few professional editors who may very well be swimming against the big fish stream by offering their services to we, the new generation of Writers. Sure, they’re doing it to make extra money, but I can’t help but feel that at this stage of the game it’s just a little bit of a leap of faith for them. I also can’t help but feel that these freelance editors are the ones who will be in the best position in years to come as Team Indie becomes loud enough to make Team Trad nervous.

So there you have it, folks. I carry the banner for Team Indie and I carry it proudly. Because my goal is not to be Nora Roberts. My goal is to be Merry Farmer, to share my enthusiasm for the stories in my head and heart, and to do it on my terms. That’s all.

P.S. Since crafting this blog post I have decided that I would also like to support the Team Indie cause by becoming a Freelance Editor myself. Please check out the Freelance Editing Services tab at the top of my blog page for details.