Competitions – Page 20

Are we really all editors?
Yes, really. Let’s look at a few examples.
A handwritten or typed note. An informal letter. An official form. A poem, short story or a novel.

What do they all have in common?
If we were honest, we rarely get across the intended or perhaps the necessary information at the first attempt, irrespective of the category of our ‘writing’. This means that when we change a part of our original document, we are editing.
Books have been written about editing. With that in mind, please remember that my aim is merely to draw attention to the importance of editing and hopefully highlight some of the prime issues for the unwary.

What is editing?
An accepted definition is any, ‘change made before the final copy is ready for submission’. With particular regard to the indie writer, I would suggest that the final copy could be some way off, so please don’t believe that you write, you edit, you publish.

Let’s extend our simplified look at editing to include drafts.
Each time you amend the document you are working on the next draft. For example if you’ve written a story and you go through it to edit, the end result is the second draft. If you go through and edit again, then that one becomes the third draft and so on.
You write a story and are happy with the general feel of the manuscript. You have your first draft. We’ll say for the sake of argument that like me, you don’t have a team of editors. You have a long road ahead of you if you intend to edit the work yourself. There is a variety of issues to watch out for, but they cannot all be searched out at once. It takes a slow, systematic approach whereby each aspect of editing is tackled separately.
Look at my next question and ask yourself if you could check for all of the issues listed – and deal with all of them at the same time.

What are we looking to amend?
Incorrect syntax (assembly or structure of sentences), punctuation, grammar, spelling (for a particular market), unnecessary word usage and incorrect word usage. We must also check for: incorrect use of capitalisation and efficient use of dialogue tags.
Those items are the basics, because if we are writing a short story or novel we have to be aware of many other issues. We must check continuity, facts, weights, measures, cliche, dialect, slang, racism, sexism, and more.
What about sentence length, paragraph length, section breaks, page breaks, headings, sub-headings and suchlike?
These are items I would classify under formatting. Having said that though, I would keep a wary eye on sentence and paragraph length while writing.

What’s the difference between editing and formatting?
To my way of thinking, the main difference is that editing is the nitty gritty of our manuscript, whereas formatting is more to do with presentation. For example, when e-publishing we should keep in mind that the average paragraph should be smaller than it would be for a traditionally published book.
In December 2014, I stopped reading a book on my Kindle because the average paragraph was taking up two or three screens. If that occurs it becomes a block of text to the reader.

I have no doubt that there will be those who visit, read this post and have their own opinions on editing. If you are one such person, please leave a comment. The more we discuss the topic, the more benefit it will have for each and every one of us.
My intention is to produce a topic heading in my main menu in which I’ll list a variety of the issues pertaining to self-publishing. I mean e-publishing as opposed to paper publishing. Under that topic I will build a selection of issues to watch out for and a simple guide with regard to how I deal with those issues.

What can you expect to see in my self-publishing menu?
Editing (of course), formatting, use of numbers, use of capitals, continuity, simple research and also dialogue.
Before I close I’d like to thank Michael Roberts from our Indie Author Review Exchange on Facebook. Why? It was thanks to Michael that I put this post together and I will go on with the other projects mentioned above.
Michael asked in the Facebook thread if I had any trusted editors. Unfortunately the answer is no. I paid for an editor once, but it is an expense few of us can afford. I decided after my first novel to build my own system, which I must admit has been refined with each book I’ve produced.

Why don’t I pay for an editor?
Let’s see … should I pay for a line editor, a copy editor or a proof-reader? Each of those is different and each could be paid for separately but still not produce the best result to meet the author’s needs and budget.
Finding a good editor is like finding a good anything. You must consider cost, time, means of contact, whether or not you accept suggestions and many more factors.

Have I paid for anything to help with my editing?
Yes, I pay for a programme called Grammarly, which like all such things has a few glitches, but it helps me speed up the editing process and draws my attention to some classic issues. It is an essential part of my editing system, but I still make the suggested amendments manually, I never click on the automatic adjustment. Like I said, there are glitches.

This feels like about the right time to stop …

A handful of the reference books I keep close to hand

There will be many who take offence at my suggestion that there are some writers out there who are not really concerned with creating a worthwhile product. That in itself is unfortunate, because a short time after posting Part 1 of this very article, I found a FREE promotion by a fellow Indie author which incensed me.

I don’t want to dedicate this piece to that one author, so I’ll leave out a lengthy explanation about the many issues I discovered – and I only read the samples of all three books.

If you missed Part 1 of this article, the gist of it is my concern that we have a large number of people purporting to be ‘writers’, who are turning out badly presented, badly edited, over-priced ‘books’. If we expect to sell our work it should at least be worthy of the price. Even if we are giving the product away, it should be presented to a marketable standard.

You don’t have to agree with me, but I have my own unofficial set of requirements for the ‘average’ Indie author. I believe we should all have the following at the very least:
imagination – ideas – integrity – diligence – knowledge (of subject) – a good story – a decent vocabulary – thick skin (for negative feedback) – stamina – determination – life experience – time – an open mind – acceptance of constructive criticism – a basic knowledge of creative writing conventions.

Yes, the list could go on, I know.

When we produce our book we must have some idea of how to ‘present’ the product. I paid an ‘experienced’ editor to assist on my first book and still found issues after I’d published. At that point I decided to learn more and go it alone with most of the work. Since my first book, I’ve had the assistance of a proof-reader who has stood by me in everything I’ve published.

I develop my story and make minor edits with each draft. By the third draft I use my proof-reader. Invariably this is followed by another draft. At this stage I use a grammar/punctuation programme. I print my manuscript more than once during my process to allow me to edit as I revise the individual chapters. There is no set number of drafts, but I try hard to recognise when ‘enough is enough’.

Prior to being uploaded to Amazon I will have a printed version of my manuscript in front of me in a room where there is no TV, radio, or other people. I perform one final line edit, which is a tedious, laborious, time-consuming, but necessary obligation to the end-user; the reader.
Now having said all of the above, I’m proud to be a member of the Indie Author Review Exchange. We have every level of talent, from the novice with one title, to the experienced author with a considerable portfolio.

Why should I feel a pride in such a group?
– We have an unwritten mutual pledge to help each other which is strong and can be seen by the support offered every day and it’s an International community.
– We have writers whose first language is not English, but they’ve produced remarkable work which they have had successfully translated, which is something that seriously impresses me.
– We have novice writers who are not afraid to ask for help or advice.

Is there a negative or downside?
Yes, unfortunately we have a couple of writers who believe that they’ve done enough work, and they are not prepared to heed a friendly word of advice. Unfortunate, but that is their choice.

Why is that negative?
It is negative because it affects credibility. In the first instance it damages the credibility of the individual author’s brand. Apart from that relatively minor issue, a badly produced piece of work by an Indie writer is a slur on all of us.

Is there anything positive?
There are many traditionally published authors who are unhappy about our emergence and success. They would be happy to see our entire movement curtailed, so the best thing we can do is to prove the doubters wrong – and show them that we are all achieving a high standard in every way.

I realise that like me, there are vast numbers of Indie writers who have a ‘day job’ to pay the bills, or a family to raise, so it is a credit to our movement that we have been so successful both as individuals, and as a growing section of the publishing industry.

Thank you as always for reading my thoughts, and I welcome comments or discussion.