Editor Spotlight – April Michelle Davis

Article by April Michelle Davis

What’s the first thing you notice about a book?

Now imagine yourself in a bookstore. You are looking for a good book. What about a book is going to pique your interest to make you pick it up? Possibly the cover art, the title, or the author? What’s the next thing you might look at?  The opening lines?  You open the book to the first page, and guess what? The opening lines are boring; they don’t grab your attention and make you want to read the book. So you toss the book aside and look for a new one.

Now, image that you sent your manuscript to a publisher. The publisher does not have the cover art to look at and may have a title to read, but the marketing department will probably change the title anyway. So what is the publisher going to look at? Your opening lines. If your first line is a cliché, you will probably receive a rejection. If the publisher gets to your second line, but it is boring, you will probably receive a rejection. And if the publisher gets to your third line, but it does not intrigue, you will probably receive a rejection.

This is why your opening lines are paramount for your manuscript to be published.

So what should the opening pages of a manuscript do? There are four main goals:

1.      Introduce the story-worthy problem

The reader should be quickly introduced to the problem that will encompass much of the story.  This needs to be a problem that is important enough to the main character that it can sustain the entire length of the story. The story will probably include other problems as well that the main character encounters while trying to resolve the larger problem, and these can be introduced when appropriate, but the overall conflict of the story must be introduced quickly or the reader will begin questioning the purpose of the story.

In the Wizard of Oz, written by L. Frank Baum, the reader quickly learns that the main character, Dorothy, is unhappy with her life. Throughout the entire story, Dorothy is learning how to be happy with what she has and that she does truly love the people who are part of her life. This is a classic man vs. self literary conflict occurring while Dorothy is trying to find her place in the world.

2.      Hook the readers

A suspenseful event should occur in the beginning of the story to hook the reader, and this event should be connected to the overall problem in the story that the main character must overcome.

In the Wizard of Oz, the tornado in the beginning of the story takes Dorothy away from the place where she has not been happy, so she should now be happy, right? Instead, she learns that she is not happier, but actually more unhappy because she now misses her family.

3.      Establish the rules

In the world the author has created, the rules need to be quickly established. They cannot be introduced  conveniently as the story progresses—then, the reader begins to doubt the story and  may even put down the book if it becomes too unbelievable. The rules can be anything the author desires, but they must be consistent. A story cannot begin in one genre and switch to another without the reader questioning the author.  If the author continues to perform unexpected surprises like this, the reader may set the book aside because the reader cannot hold any expectations for the story or the world that has been created.

In the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy is upset with her life. She expresses her sadness when she visits the wizard neighbor and other neighbors. In the movie, to further emphasize Dorothy’s sadness, she sings a song. It is a song that a young girl might sing to herself. She is not rapping or singing hip-hop.

4.      Forecast the ending

Many authors write the opening pages of the story last, and one reason for this is that the opening pages should forecast the ending of the story. The reader should not know exactly how the story will end, but the reader should know where the story is heading. Foreshadowing allows the reader to feel that the story has completed a circle If there is no foreshadowing, then the story has simply ended, but it does not necessarily feel complete.

In the Wizard of Oz, after learning that Dorothy is upset, hearing her song in the movie, and experiencing the strength of the tornado, the reader can assume she will find her way, but by then the reader is hooked on Dorothy’s journey.

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April Michelle Davis

Prior to starting Editorial Inspirations in 2001, April Michelle Davis worked as an assistant editor at the National Society of Professional Engineers and a program assistant for the American Prosecutors Research Institute. Various degrees include a master of professional studies degree in publishing and a bachelor of arts degree in English. In addition, she holds the following certificates: Editing, book publishing, and professional editing.

April frequently attends and speaks at workshops, conferences, book festivals, and writers’ retreats and has been a member of the Editorial Freelancers Association since 2005, a member of the American Society for Indexing since 2009, and a member of the National Association of Independent Writers and Editors since 2010.

April is the chapter coordinator for the Virginia chapter of the Editorial Freelancers Association, and she is the chair-elect for the Mid- & South-Atlantic chapter for the American Society for Indexing.

See April’s website, Editorial Inspirations. Connect with her on Facebook at her personal page or her Editorial Inspirations page. You can also find her on Twitter and LinkedIn.

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I realize that not every editor/proofreader is perfect for every writer. I present the Editor Spotlight series of blog posts to help all writers find the perfect editor. The Editor Spotlight series will be presented throughout my regular blog posts and special theme weeks. – Karen S. Elliott

Editor Spotlight – Courtney Koschel

Editor Spotlight – Shonell Bacon

Editor Spotlight – Chris Eboch

Editor Spotlight – Heidi Thomas

Editor Spotlight – Shawn MacKenzie

Editor Spotlight – Wendy Reis

Karen’s Blog Survey Results

I asked you to participate in a blog survey a few weeks ago, Karen’s blog feedback survey and name a Sock Monkey! 

You had to make a comment on the blog to be entered in a random drawing. The winner of The Hunger Games boxed trilogy is Tonia Marie Harris!

Tonia Marie was a guest on my blog during Romance Week with In a Heartbeat. Tonia Marie is a mother, writer, poet, and blogger who “procrastinates in her spare time.” Tonia is working on a YA ghost story and exploring self-publishing vs. the traditional market. See Tonia Marie’s wonderful blog, PassionFind. You can see Tonia Marie on Facebook and follow her on Twitter.

Blog survey results

Overall, I think I’m doing okay. The very positive feedback was mostly in the 70+ percentile, the positive feedback often took me to 100%.

Questions and responses

FYI, I have rounded the percentages to the closest whole number.

Do you enjoy the theme weeks like Fright Week, December Holidays Week, Romance Week, North Dakota Week? 73% liked, 18 % said okay. One person said stop. One person commented, “Haven’t read all but what I did I liked.”

Do you enjoy the posts from creative professionals like musicians, artists, book cover designers, and photographers? 67% said yes and would like to see more, 25% said they were okay, one person said not so much.

Are you enjoying the Editor Spotlight series and would you like to see more? 67% said yes, 33% said they were okay. Comments included, “I think it is a correct balance right now … more? No,” and “Not too often, but they’ve all been excellent.”

Do you enjoy the bulk of my guest bloggers? 50% yes, I like the guest bloggers and have found these posts helpful in connecting with awesome new people, 50% yeah, guest bloggers are okay. One comment, “I like a balance with more from you than guests.” (I had been thinking that I was maybe having too many guest bloggers. I’m going to remedy that and write more myself.)

Have you found value in the blogs on writing, inspiration, writer’s block, and general publishing stuff? Split 50/50 under responses, yes, very helpful and yes, usually helpful, I learn a thing or two.

Do you find value in the blogs about social networking like FB, Twitter, and LinkedIn? 33% said very helpful, 42% said I sometimes learn a thing or two, and 25% said yeah, okay, but the market is already too flooded with social networking. (I have had my say – for now – on social networking, so won’t bug you too much with those any time soon!)

Do you find value in the blogs about word origins, language, grammar, punctuation, and vocabulary? 75% said yes, 25% said somewhat. I had two additional comments – “I love to learn more about language” and the other “LOVE THIS!!!”

Do you find my blog easy to navigate and leave comments? 83% responded, yes very easy, mostly easy got 17%. One additional comment was “Google+ button doesn’t let me add a comment (I use Chrome).”

Sock Monkey names  

Jo-Jo

Scary Possessed Ape J

Bobby

Curious Abraham

Mr. Marbles

Somkey

Rupert

Bippy Muffin

Woolis Lamb

Lorenzo St. Simian

I am partial to Lorenzo St. Simian!

Blogs you like

Question #10 asked you to share other blogs you liked. I thought if a subscriber likes it, then I should share the love. The quoted material is from your comments.

Ordinary Courage by Dr. Brené Brown. “She sticks to her theme and always provides food for thought.”  http://www.ordinarycourage.com

August McLauglin – health, fitness, eating disorders and nutrition http://www.augustmclaughlin.com and blog  http://augustmclaughlin.wordpress.com. “post variety, life topics.”

“Barbara Swafford has a blog that she has named “Blogging Without a Blog.” She usually writes once a week on a topic and asks a specific question related to her post, as you do. I follow it because it is very user friendly. She receives a lot of comments from readers who answer her questions.” http://bloggingwithoutablog.com

Joanne Gaskill’s blog. “Because it contains parenting tips, shares a bit of her life, and her journalism career.” http://www.bloggymoms.com and http://www.bloggymoms.com/profiles/blog/list

Descent Into Slushland, Brian Taylor. http://descentintoslushland.wordpress.com. “He’s a new writer on the scene-fresh, honest, and fun material.”

http://www.37days.com. “Patti Digh has been a friend & an inspiration for over 5 years now, and she lays the bread crumb trail!”

Indies Unlimited. Celebrating independent authors. “So many contributors with information, humour and support.” http://www.indiesunlimited.com

Kana Tyler’s, Kana’s Chronicles. “Witty, touching, fun, and very informative re both writing and just living in the Big Bad World.” http://kanatyler.com

So, there ya have it

For those who participated in the survey and made comments – Thank you so much! If you didn’t do the survey, feel free to comment now.

Editor Spotlight – Courtney Koschel

Questions to ask When Hiring an Editor, by Courtney Koschel

You’re finished. The End has been written, and you’ve tweaked to the point that if you look at it one more time you’ll curl up in the fetal position with your hands wrapped tightly around your knees and weep.

After you’ve given it your best, you decide the next thing you want to do is hire an editor. If you Google “freelance editor,” a million searches will overwhelm you, threatening to send you back to the fetal position. Finding someone to work with can be a scary task. There are many editors out there with different areas of expertise. You’ll want to ask different editors about their specialty in order to pick the right one to work with on your project. Be aware that the different editors often use different names for the type of work they do. I’ve included those in this post. Here are some questions to keep in mind during your search.

• What types of editing do you do? Like I said earlier, different editors have different areas of expertise. There are developmental editors, copyeditors, and proofreaders. Developmental editing (sometimes called content editing) is pretty extensive and comes before copyediting. This is when an editor will look over your work for the overall picture. They’ll analyze the characters, their motivations, the flow of the story, plot holes and inconsistencies, sometimes rewrite and restructure the work, and look for any other major big picture problems. A copyeditor (sometimes called a line editor) focuses more on grammar, style, punctuation, sentence structure, etc. and comes before proofreading. A proofreader is someone who looks for anything a copyeditor would miss. Their skills lie in looking over a piece that’s already pretty polished. They will look for grammar, punctuation, and misspelled words. All of these different types of editors are important, but make sure you choose the right kind for your project.

• Do you have references? Most experienced editors will have references. Ask to see them. You’ll want to look at what their previous clients said about them, and note their strong points. Ask yourself if they match what you want for your project.

• Do you edit my genre? Crucial question. You want someone who is familiar with the type of writing you do. Some editors work on multiple genres, and that’s fantastic. But someone who edits primarily adult romance may not be the right pick for your young adult fantasy, and someone who edits mostly children’s picture books may not be the right fit for your adult thriller. You get what I’m saying.

• Do you offer a sample? A lot of editors offer a sample, even if it’s a small one (and honestly, that’s still generous. It takes me an hour to perform developmental edits and hard copyedits on 4-5 pages). I am highly favorable of this. This gives you the chance to see what type of editing the editor sees for your manuscript, and it gives the editor a chance to preview your work to determine what type of editing they recommend. Both are important. Once you receive your sample, go over it. Is your writing stronger? Were they thorough?

• What can I expect from you? This is important for a variety of reasons. You’ll want to know what their communication style is like, what is offered with the editing package, how long it will take them, and how they go about giving updates on your work. Everyone has different communication styles. Some people prefer email, and others prefer Skype calls. Find out what your editor likes and decide if it fits with your style. The editing package will vary for every editor. Some will offer a consultation, others may not. Find out what is offered and decide if it’s best for you. It’s important to know how long it will take them because you’ll need to make sure the editor can meet your expectations or deadlines. I’m pretty confident that most editors are aware of how stressful the writing/editing process can be. Most are mindful of this and will give updates to make sure you’re comfortable with how things are going. Ask the editor when can you expect to hear from them. Will they contact you once a week? Will it be the same day every week? What will they provide in an update? Don’t expect them to take a ton of time to go over things they’ve done that week, that’s a waste of your money. Just ask them to check in, and maybe include where they are in the project. Figure out if this works for you.

• How much will it cost? This one is tricky, and it will definitely vary. Some editors will be more expensive than others. You have to decide what’s best for you. The most expensive editor may not be the right one for your particular project. The cheapest one may be what you need. Just make sure you’re not choosing someone strictly based on price. As long as you’re educated in your decision, you’re probably making the right choice.

Make sure you ask these questions, and you’ll probably think of more. Like I said, the best decision is an educated one. Have you worked with an editor before? What questions did you ask?

Courtney Koschel

Courtney Koschel has been writing since she could hold a crayon, but now she writes fiction for young adults. She has a BA in journalism and a MS in environmental science. In the past seven years she has worked as a journalist, an editor, technical writer, technical editor, and freelance editor. She charges $20 an hour for copyediting and $50 an hour for developmental editing.

Links

Website

C. K. Scribes

Facebook

Twitter

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I realize that not every editor/proofreader is perfect for every writer. This is why I am presenting the series, Editor Spotlight. If you know an editor or proofreader who would like to participate, ask them to contact me at karenselliott AT midco DOT net. The Editor Spotlight series will be presented throughout the next several months in between my regular blog posts and special theme weeks. – Karen S. Elliott

Editor Spotlight – Shonell Bacon

Editor Spotlight – Chris Eboch

Editor Spotlight – Heidi Thomas

Editor Spotlight – Shawn MacKenzie

Editor Spotlight – Wendy Reis

Editor Spotlight – Shonell Bacon

Finding an Editor for Your Literary Baby, by Shonell Bacon

First, I want to thank Karen for allowing me to come here and litter her blog with some of my words! I appreciate it.

Today, I want to share with you some thoughts on finding an editor for your book.

Your book is completed. You’ve read through and revised as much as you can as creator, and you have formatted your manuscript according to traditional specifications (unless you are laying it out for publication).

What’s next?

Well, before you get all gung-ho and start submitting your book to publishers and agents, you should first send it to an editor.

Why?

Because as creator of the project, you are very close to the characters, the storyline, and all other components that make your book – in your mind – sing.

It often takes a second set of eyes – and sometimes a third set (or more) – in order to see spelling and grammatical errors, holes in plot, weak characters, etc.

First thing to ask yourself is “How publication-ready is my manuscript?”

The answer to this will help you discern if your book needs proofreading, copy editing, or substantive editing—to start. Below, I talk a little about each.

If you have just finished your book and are looking to have it edited for the first time, then you will more than likely want someone to conduct substantive editing to your novel. Substantive editing seeks to achieve clarity of subject, logic, and consistency. The development of the STORY is key in this level of editing. An editor will be looking for holes in plot, weak characters, development of beginning and ending, strength in dialogue—essentially those components that make your book a book. It doesn’t make much sense as an editor (or a writer performing self-edits) to dive-in headfirst looking at grammatical and mechanical errors. If the story itself is riddled with problems, a spelling error or a comma out of place means nothing. Once an edit for the soundness of the story is conducted, copy editing then becomes key.

When we look to copy edit, editors tackle the manuscript line by line, paying attention to small (yet oh so important) details like grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, passive voice, word choice, consistency of detail, spelling, and consistency of style. I like to refer to copy editing as the yin to substantive editing’s yang. Every story needs to be checked for development of the story and development of the words and punctuation used to develop that story. Copy and substantive editing provide this.

If your novel has already been edited and has been given thumbs up on story and on details, such as grammar and punctuation, and you have even formatted your book for publication if you’re going the self-publishing route, then proofreading would be your next hurdle before the finish line. Proofreading tends to focus on two things: 1) final check of spelling, punctuation, and serious grammatical errors and 2) problems that arise from layout, such as errors in headers/footers, page numbers, and widows/orphans.

Although there are some editors, like myself, who blur these types (I’m always, first and foremost, looking to develop the story, but I can’t help but to look at the minute details, too); it is important to know that you will probably need more than one edit.

Editing is an important process in getting your manuscript to shine; as a result, you should make sure you have your work edited more than once. In the initial stages, having a strong story is important; hence, you would look at substantive editing. As the “story” is perfected, you would look toward getting your manuscript copy edited, and in the final stage, once the manuscript is in layout form, you would seek someone to proofread your manuscript.

When you find an editor you’re thinking about using, be sure to talk with him or her before agreeing to have the person edit your work.

What kinds of questions could you ask?

1-      Do you have any clients/references that I can contact about your work?

2-      What is your editing philosophy?

3-      What is the process in which you edit and communicate with a client before, during, and after an edit?

4-      Do you provide a free sample edit so that I might see your work before making a decision?

This last thought has more to do with YOU than with the editor.

I have had people in the past come to me for editing, thinking I would have their book done within two weeks and they would be ready to send it out to be printed as soon as the book is in their hot little hands.

NEVER is that the case.

Here’s a drop of wisdom – you may have finished your book, but it’s not perfect…or as perfect as it can reasonably be.

When you send a book to an editor, prepare to have it returned with revisions (sometimes major) to be done. Editors do not write your books to make it better; that’s a ghostwriter, and s/he is paid a lot more money to write your book than we do to edit it.

Editors, and I’m speaking from my own experience, clean up errors and make a lot of suggestions. If I see a hole in the plot, I state where I see it and make suggestions on how to fix it. If I see weak dialogue, I explain why it’s weak and offer suggestions on how to fix it. If I see an underdeveloped main character, I point this out, explain why I think the character is underdeveloped, and offer suggestions (or ask questions) that can help the writer develop the character further.

The editor’s job is to fine tune, but most importantly (and specifically) the job is to help YOU make your book the best book it can be. We offer you the advice, suggestions, and tweaks that YOU – as creator of the work – can go back and develop to make your literary work shine.

Be prepared to put in the work needed in revising and don’t be in such a rush to have a book in between covers.

You’ll thank me later.

Shonell Bacon

About Shonell

Shonell Bacon is an author, doctoral candidate, editor, educator–everywoman. She has published both creatively and academically–novels, short stories, essays, and textbooks. In addition to her love of writing, she is also an editor (12+ years in the trenches) who loves helping writers hone their literary craft. She is an educator, having taught English and mass communication courses in addition to fiction writing. Shonell also finds the time to pursue her Ph.D. in Technical Communication and Rhetoric at Texas Tech University.

Links

Website

CLG Entertainment ~ editorial and workshop/coaching services

Facebook

Twitter

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I realize that not every editor/proofreader is perfect for every writer. This is why I am presenting the series, Editor Spotlight. If you know an editor or proofreader who would like to participate, ask them to contact me at karenselliott AT midco DOT net. The Editor Spotlight series will be presented throughout the next several months in between my regular blog posts and special theme weeks. – Karen S. Elliott

Editor Spotlight – Chris Eboch

Editor Spotlight – Heidi Thomas

Editor Spotlight – Shawn MacKenzie

Editor Spotlight – Wendy Reis