Lillie Ammann's Blog, page 105

Letter from a Reader: Do I Need an Editor?

Recently, I received this question from a reader:

After reading your Ten Tips to Impress an Acquisition Editor, I have a question:

My question centers on what an acquisition editor expects when he or she receives a manuscript. I understand that if I was submitting a book to an agent or publisher that they would expect it to be perfect, but from what I have heard an acquisition editor buys a manuscript first, and then he or she has editing done in-house at the publishing company’s expense. Is that right?

Is it in my best interest to have my book professionally proofread first, or is this an unnecessary step and expense when submitting a manuscript to an acquisition editor?

First, to clarify roles, an acquisition editor is an editor at a publishing house who reviews submissions and acquires manuscripts. Usually when we refer to “publisher,” we actually mean the publishing house, which includes the acquisition editor. The position of publisher is usually the head of the publishing house; depending on the size of the company, the publisher may never have direct contact with your manuscript. In smaller companies, the publisher may become involved after the acquisitions editor recommends the company publish your book. In very small companies, the publisher and the acquisition editor may be the same person. So when you submit to an acquisition editor, you are, in effect, submitting to a publisher.

Regardless of whether you’re submitting to an agent or a publisher, anyone who is deciding whether your book is worthy of publication expects it to be well-written. No one in the publishing industry has time to wade through poor grammar and unclear writing to determine if the manuscript can be edited into a publishable book. On the other hand, once a manuscript is accepted for publication, the company will still edit the book to fit the company style. As to whether your manuscript needs to be professionally edited, I can’t say positively. Some authors use other writers as critique partners and essentially edit each other’s work. Some authors use beta readers who are knowledgeable about a specific genre and love to read and who are willing to read and give feedback on a particular author’s manuscript. Some writers have a relative or friend who can edit their manuscripts for them. What I will say is this: I think every manuscript needs to reviewed by one or more knowledgeable people besides the author. Every writer is too close to his own work to realize that a sentence isn’t clear—he knows what he meant so he understands it and can’t imagine that other people don’t. No one can catch his own particular errors that he doesn’t know are errors. He can’t recognize that a character’s actions appear illogical or out of character; because he understands the motivation, he forgets to explain it to his readers. My recommendation to every author is to self-edit their manuscripts using the book Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, Second Edition: How to Edit Yourself Into Print and get their manuscripts as clean as possible. Then use one or more of the available outside sources: critique partners, beta readers, knowledge friend or relative, and/or professional editor. Naturally, as a professional editor, I’m biased toward that option. However, I suggest authors use one or more of the other options first. If you clean up your most common errors, the professional editor will have a much easier job and thus will usually charge you less.

I provide a free sample edit as part of the price quotation process. Sometimes, I recommend that the author use the sample edit to self-edit their manuscript one more time before coming back to me. Often taking care of two or three recurring errors throughout the book will make a significant difference. Then I do another sample edit to see if they have cleaned up the manuscript enough for a lower quote. Frequently that is the case. My job is easier and faster, and the writer saves money. And the writer has learned some things that will make their next book much better from the writing stage.

However, remember, that if your book is accepted by a publishing house, someone in that company will edit the book again—no matter how many times it’s been edited. Some issues regard style; not all grammar rules are hard and fast. When there are variations, some companies prefer one choice and other companies follow a different choice. As a professional editor, I follow what is common in publishing, but it may not be what a specific publisher prefers. The main thing is that there be consistency in the manuscript. When they are two choices in how to handle a situation, you can’t use them randomly in the same manuscript. Also, different “house styles” (what a particular publishing house prefers) may have stipulations such as no (or only x number of) flashbacks allowed. Some companies like prologues and epilogues; other companies don’t permit them. So a manuscript can be clean as far as grammar and usage errors but still have to be edited to ensure it meets the requirements of the house.

In the next post, I’ll talk about choosing an editor.

Happy Valentine’s Day 2014

Today is Valentine’s Day, a day for love. We usually celebrate romantic love on this special day, but there are many forms of love that we can celebrate today.

Last year, I was alone of Valentine’s Day for the first time in 46 years. I wrote about my experiences and shared how the most important way to show love is to spend time with the one you love.

Think about the people that you love:

If you have living parents/grandparents, a phone call or a visit would mean a lot on this special day.
If you have children at home, making Valentines and giving them to family, friends, and classmates can be a fun shared experience for you and your children and a special gift to the recipients.
If you have grown children and/or grandchildren, they may be busy with their own romantic or family activities, but they would certainly appreciate hearing from you.
If you have friends or neighbors who are elderly or lonely, a visit with a small gift in recognition of the day would brighten their day far more the small amount of time and effort it would take you.
If you support worthy causes, such as organizations that feed the hungry, house the homeless, support the persecuted, help others in need, a donation in honor or memory of someone you love will show your love both for the one your honor and ones you help.

I can’t call you or send you a Valentine card, but I will tell you, “Happy Valentine’s Day! May you love and be loved today and every day!”

O Lord, Send down thy blessings, temporal and spiritual, upon all our relations, friends, and neighbours. Reward all who have done us good, and pardon all those who have done or wish us evil, and give them repentance and better minds. Be merciful to all who are in any trouble; and do thou, the God of pity, administer to them according to their several necessities; for his sake who went about doing good, thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen. (from 1928 Book of Common Prayer)

But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13, NASB)

Image: © Depositphotos.com/livfriis

Post #1500!

When I started my blog more than seven years ago, I didn’t think about the future. I was just thinking about coming up with ideas for posts for the next day, the next week. Time passed, and with the passing of time came the accumulation of blog posts. This post is #1500, an average of nearly four posts every week for the past 92 months.

My associate, Jan McClintock, does most of the web development and maintenance for my site as well as all our client sites. She has recommended I delete old posts that have no current value on my blog. In a way, though, asking a writer to give up even an outdated post is like asking her to give up a child. What is no longer of value? What should be deleted? Will my next milestone be 1000 posts or 500 posts, fewer rather than more?

Deleting old posts feels like deleting part of my writing history. I always advocate everyone keep a journal or write a memoir or family history, and my blog is my online journal. When reading history, it’s often the simple, day-to-day activities that are most interesting. I would love to have a journal or memoir of one of my ancestors. Wouldn’t you? Our descendants will probably feel the same way. Whatever we leave them in the form of words, pictures, and memories will be a precious legacy.

Of course, when I die or become incapacitated, my blog and my words will disappear with little notice. So I might as well clean house now.

What posts would you recommend I delete? I’d be interested to know what you think is worth keeping and, conversely, what you think should be eliminated.

 

Writing Customer Reviews

Do you pay attention to customer reviews when you are shopping? I admit that I do. That’s primarily what got me started writing customer reviews. If I appreciate knowing what other customers thought about their purchases, it’s only fair to share my own opinions.

Usually I review books, but I occasionally review other products and services. Although I seldom travel, I wrote a hotel review last year when my sister and I received exceptional service on our trip to visit my brother and his family. The hotel staff went so far out of their way for us that I wanted to let others know about our outstanding service.

I don’t like to be negative, but I do write honest reviews. Generally, I will try to mention both things I liked and things I didn’t like, if possible pointing out who might like something I didn’t. Something has to really bother me for me to write a completely negative review. I can remember only one book I ever gave a rating of one star. There were two seemingly disconnected plot lines. Neither especially intrigued me, but I kept reading because I wanted to find out how they fit together in the end. Rather than showing what happened, the book ended with the detective describing how he solved one crime. But instead of tying up the other thread, he ended the book with “I’m sure you’re wondering [about the second plot line]. For that, you’ll have to read Book 2.” At that point, I was really disgusted that I had read the entire book that I didn’t like just to find out how the two seemingly unrelated plot lines came together in the end—and they didn’t come together! The author expected me to buy another book to find out what happened in the second plot line. I was ready to throw the book at the author, but since I couldn’t do that, I gave the book a one-star review.

I have learned to abandon books I’m not enjoying. I’m getting to be like New York publishers and agents. If the book doesn’t grab me within a few pages, I delete it from my Kindle. I generally don’t review other products and services if I don’t like them.

I review every book I read on Goodreads and more recently on . Some reviews are very short; others are quite long. My goal with a customer review is to point out what I liked and didn’t like. In some cases, I can do that in a few words; in other cases, especially if I loved a book, I have a lot more to say.

If you would like to share your opinions and experiences with books, products, or services, here are a few tips:

You don’t need to include a synopsis of the book or a description of the product if you’re writing a customer review of a product or book described on the page where you’re leaving the review. Reviewers writing reviews for magazines or review sites need to include a little about what they are reviewing, but you have no reason to repeat information that’s already on the webpage.
Be honest. If your best friend asks you to review her book and you didn’t love it, you may want to decline to write the review rather than feel obligated to rave about a book you can’t get excited about. On the other hand, if you’re comfortable doing so, you can write an objective review, pointing out both positive and negative aspects. It’s always helpful to mention the kind of customers that might like what you didn’t. “I was disappointed in the cliffhanger ending, but readers who like the conflict to remain unresolved until the last book in a series would like this.”
Give a rating appropriate for your review. I’ve read customer reviews with a three-star rating saying, “I absolutely loved this book” and reviews with a four-star rating saying, “It was okay.” Not everyone has the same criteria for the different ratings, but those comments don’t seem to match with the star rating. I consider three stars average–a book I enjoyed but not something I will remember long after I’ve finished. Five stars means the book is exceptional—not perfect; no book is perfect—but a book that made an impact on me in some way. One star is reserved for books that make me wonder why I bothered to read them (which is why I usually don’t read far enough to give one star). Two is between poor and average (this may mean a good story with editing flaws), and four is between average and exceptional.
Be kind in your criticism. Rather than saying “The book was filled with terrible grammar and spelling mistakes,” say “A good editor could have improved the book and made it easier to read.”
Make the length of the review commensurate with what you have to say. Don’t pad your review if your opinion can be summed up in a few words, but don’t make it shorter than it needs to be to let readers know what you think.

Some customers and some readers on Goodreads rate books without writing a review. That doesn’t mean much to me—when I’m looking at what others have to say about a book or product or service, I want to know why they gave it a particular rating. I won’t enjoy a series book with a cliffhanger ending no matter how many other readers give it a five-star rating. The rating alone is meaningless without context.

Have you written customer reviews? Do you read reviews by other customers? Is there something you think is important in a customer review that I’ve omitted or something I’ve said that you don’t agree with?

5 Tips for Clear, Concise Writing

Have you ever tried to read a document written by someone whose purpose was to impress rather than to inform or entertain? It’s very difficult to follow convoluted sentences filled with unfamiliar words or familiar words used in unfamiliar ways. Writing that way doesn’t impress your readers any more than it informs or entertains them. The clearer and more concise your writing, the easier it is for your reader to follow.

Writing, simply, however, isn’t always easy to do. You may intend for your writing to be easy for readers to follow, but just having good intentions doesn’t guarantee good results.

Here are five tips to make your writing clear and concise:

Choose simple, familiar words whenever possible, but, most importantly, choose the words that best portray your meaning. “You do not require a cyclopean vocabulary to appear erudite” means the same thing as “You don’t need a huge vocabulary to appear educated” but isn’t as easy to read and understand.


Structure your sentences simply without using a lot of unnecessary words. “He stopped at the grocery store on the way home” is clearer and more concise than “He had to buy a few groceries, so he decided to go to the store after work; he stopped to pick up what he needed.”
Position modifiers close to the words they modify. “She wrote an entry about the fight in her diary at school” is confusing; “She wrote an entry in her diary about the fight at school” clarifies the fight happened at school and she wrote about it in her diary.


Use specific rather than general language. “A dozen children stood in front of the school” is more understandable than “There were a bunch of kids at the school.”
Read your writing aloud to catch and correct awkward phrasing. You’ll be amazed at what you will catch from reading aloud than you miss when editing silently.

Do you have any tips for clear writing or any pet peeves about unclear writing?

I Live in the Most Romantic City in the US

According to data compiled by Amazon.com, I live in the most romantic city in the US. San Antonio earned that designation because of the number of romance novels and relationship books along with certain movies and music ordered from Amazon.com during 2013.

I’m not sure that’s the best way to determine how romantic a city is. Maybe if the residents were busily engaged in romance, they wouldn’t have time to read or watch movies about love. I certainly read more as a widow than I did when my husband was alive. As much as I love to read, I loved spending time with Jack more.

San Antonio is a romantic city, with our beautiful Riverwalk and many other lovely and fun places. But I’d say it’s a romantic city because people are in love, and lovers have many opportunities to do romantic things together.

What do you think makes a city romantic? Do you live in one of the top 20 romantic cities on Amazon’s list or in a city you consider romantic even if it’s not on the list?

Image: © Depositphotos.com/jorgophotograph

The End of the Line: Thanks to Commenters

In January 2008, I followed the lead of another blogger and wrote a post thanking everyone who had left comments on my blog in 2007. After that initial post, I posted quarterly thanks the first half of 2008, then I posted monthly thanks through 2012. Comments on the blog have dropped as people spend more time on social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, and less time reading and commenting on blogs. I returned to quarterly thanks in 2013, but sadly, blog comments have now dropped to the point that I will no longer devote individual posts to comment thanks. Although I appreciate comments as much—maybe more now that they are so rare!—I don’t feel I’m delivering value to all of my readers when I spend so many posts thanking my loyal commenters. So this will be the last regular public thanks, but it is definitely not the end of my gratitude!

Thank you to the 33 commenters who left 72 comments in the last quarter of 2013. Your comments extended the conversation and added value and interest, and I enjoyed replying to every one of them. I appreciate all my commenters, especially those of you who consistently comment. Thank you!

Top Contributor (17 comments)


Kristy
Migration Expert


Major Contributor (10 comments)


Sarah
Eye Cream HQ


Outstanding Contributor (6 comments)


gurav
Security Direct


Important Contributors (2 to 4 comments)


Carlene
n/a


Marian
Migration Expert


Sally Ferguson
Sally’s Words


Dawn Colclasure
DMC Writer


James
McMahon RV


Jan McClintock
We Need More Shelves


Lee
Free Job Search Websites


Rey
Canadian Nanny


Significant Contributors


Adrien
Passion Outlet


Asad
Wisdom About Quotes


Barney
Wisdom About


Becca
Dumper’s Handybin


Christopher Roberts
Philosophy and Thoughts


Derek
Travefy


Harry
WebSan


Jack
Mamann, Sandaluk, & Kingwell, LLP


Janell
Storage King Arthur


Joe
Corefront


John
Knowing God


Jon Butler
Bank Routing Number


Mary
What Are Hormones


Paul
Susan Cowen


Rob Southey
Pender Island  Realty


Stephanie Miller
Host and Cash


Victoria Pitts-Caine
Victoria Pitts-Caine

School Choice Week 2014

This is National School Choice Week, a week set aside to educate and raise awareness for the need for school choice. Some parents and students have school choice–those families who are wealthy enough to afford private school can send their children to whatever school they choose.

However, those families of limited means are forced by circumstances to send their children to public schools, and generally they are restricted to specific schools in their neighborhood. In most cases, the schools in the poorest areas offer the poorest education. Students with the fewest resources available to them are stuck in the lowest-performing schools.

You can see the difference between typical inner-city schools and outstanding charter schools in a video narrated by Juan Williams.

If you believe in equal opportunity, then you must support school choice because opportunity will never be equal as long as students are forced to attend inadequate schools.

 

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Roe v Wade: 55 Million Dead Babies Later

Today is the tragic anniversary of the legalization of murder of unborn babies. Since Roe v Wade was decided by the Supreme Court in 1973, 55 million children have been slaughtered in the womb.

The right to life is the civil rights issue of our time. How many more lives will be destroyed before we finally right this terrible wrong?

O GOD, merciful and compassionate, who art ever ready to hear the prayers of those who put their trust in thee; Graciously hearken to us who call upon thee, and grant us thy help to stop the slaughter of  unborn babies created in thy image; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (adapted from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer)

Eric Metaxas wrote the following on Breakpoint Commentaries:

William Wilberforce faced similar if not worse circumstances. The whole culture of his day was broken. Of course, the slave trade was the worst of it. So what did Wilberforce do? This may surprise you—it did me—but, despite all the darkness, he started by assuming the best of his fellow citizens. … So let’s assume that many people—not all—when civilly confronted with the truth of abortion will change their minds, at least in some measure. So we need to tell them.

The following links powerfully tell people about abortion:

Think of Me Turning 34 Today
Child Sacrifice in America

These incredible videos tell by showing:

180: The Movie
The Case Against Abortion

And here are some of my attempts to tell:

Abortion: Legalized Murder
Another Year, Another Million and a Half Dead Babies
The Most Basic Human Right: Life
Slavery and Abortion: Moral Relatives
Now Choose Life, So You and Your Children May Live

Are you a proponent for life? Will you cry out for an end of the legalized killing of the most vulnerable among us?

Image: © Depositphotos.com/GoodOlga

On MLK Day: The Civil Rights Issue of the 21st Century

Dr. Alveda King—niece of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, daughter of Rev. A. D. King, and granddaughter of Rev. Martin Luther King Sr—carries on their legacy by fighting for the civil rights issue of our day: life from conception through natural death.