T.S. Sharp's Blog, page 10

The Editing Process – Appraisals.

Following on from a previous blog post about deciding whether or not to use an editor – I've made a decision.

After a couple of introductory emails to a professional editor I'd seen recommended on blogs and forums, I sent the first 1000 words of my novel, Seven Seconds, for a quote. This was for a sample edit on which to build the quote.

Generally speaking, it seems most professional editing services have the same procedure for providing quotes. The editor makes an estimate given the word length of the full manuscript and the state of the work they see. From the evidence at hand, they build a quote based on the amount of hours they think it will take to complete the task.

In my case, the sample edit I received back was extremely comprehensive. Almost not a single line escaped some kind of edit or comment. This is not to say it was ravaged by the electronic red pen, aka 'Track Changes' in Word, a lot of it was commentary or suggestions regarding the use of British, American or Australian English, or simply a comma inserted or deleted. But nonetheless, it served to prove that a professional edit of your work can provide a whole host of insights. From the brief edit I received I found a couple of nasty traits that seem to have infested my work when I looked back over the full document. 'Find & Replace' soon sorted that out.

Having the services of someone with the right amount of emotional distance from you and your work is invaluable. Ultimately it's a business transaction between the writer and the editor. The editor applies their expertise and time to your work, and sends you detailed analysis back. Generally at this stage they aren't commenting on the marketability of your work, or whether you stand any chance of ever getting published, or even if they think you are ready to show the outside world or not. They are simply looking for typos, grammatical errors and various other inconsistencies that we the writers are somehow blind to see.

In the end, I decided to opt for an appraisal rather than a comprehensive edit. While I think my novel would definitely benefit from a full edit, I found the price to be prohibitive at this point. A manuscript appraisal will provide me with a detailed report, complete with illustrative examples taken from the novel, showing me how I can improve it. Ideally I'd have a full edit done on it, but I am reasonably confident in it not needing a total overhaul in terms of grammar and spelling. I'm more concerned about enormous plot-holes that could swallow the novel whole.

So I'll be sending Seven Seconds off early next year, giving me time to edit it as best I can in the meantime. Once the appraisal is complete, I can marry it to a cover designed by a graphic designer friend of mine, and self-publish it via Kindle and Smashwords.

A large part of the decision to pay for editing services is I want to be assured that I have done everything possible to make my work ready for anyone willing to buy it. Will I make that money back? Who knows. It's possible, as I estimate the outlay for self-publishing Seven Seconds to be in the region of a couple of hundred pounds, so over a long enough timeline it could well earn its keep. I see the money spent as an investment in myself. The cost of an appraisal is certainly a cost I could absorb if sales come to nothing.

Ever had a professional appraisal done on your work? What did you think of the results?

Cover Stories – Part 2

Following on from a previous post, where I became moderately vexed about a cover image to the point where I had to mention it to anyone who happened to be within earshot or to stumble across my blog, here's another one.

'The Chinaman' by Stephen Leather.

I read this recently, and really enjoyed it. I bought a copy in a charity shop for £1, and it had the cover featured here on the left. It's a fairly typical cover for a Leather book, a lot of his covers are thematic, making them easily identifiable. A simple image on the front, and given his subject matter, it's usually a gun or someone menacing looking.

The Chinaman is about a Vietnamese immigrant in the UK who loses his wife and daughter in an IRA bomb attack, and goes on a one-man vengeance mission to kill those responsible.

The reason this book cover makes an appearance in my ranty blog? The AK47 (or variant thereof) being brandished is being held in a way that shouts (to me anyway) of a photographer saying to the model 'just hold this will you, it's for a generic photo stock website, so don't bother to work out how to hold it…'

Firstly, the trigger finger is inside the trigger guard and on the trigger by the looks of it, always a no-no for weapons handling. Secondly, and the thing that made me think 'huh?', is that the gun is being held by the barrel. Why would you hold a rifle by the barrel? Even more baffling is that this model is fitted with a grip rod for extra stability. Surely even a casual gun handler would naturally hold the weapon by the grip? If you fired a few rounds holding the weapon like this you'd burn youself, not to mention not being able to aim properly.

The story hardly features an AK47 at all, so it seems a strange thing to include on the cover, regardless of the strange way it's being handled. No doubt it's not an AK47 at all, but one of the many variations made under licence. Gun nuts/enthusiasts – feel free to inform me on this issue.

Speak At Night Book Recommendations – 'Unfamiliar Country'

The good people at the Speak At Night blog are currently featuring my short story as a recommendation.

Unfamiliar Country sits among other excellent books by indie writers, several of which are published through small press epublishers Night Publishing. Like other blog sites that feature recommendations, they list a new book every couple of days to help independent writers promote their work.

Browse the listings for new books by new writers.

Cover Stories

Has anyone read this book? I haven't, but I have a question for anyone that has. Does the book take place during World War 2? Does it at any point involve American soldiers from World War 2?

From what I can gather from the pitch and blurb, it has nothing to do with WW2 at all. Chris Ryan's new book is about an ex-SAS man (who would have thought it!) who whilst doing security contract work in Iraq stumbles across a conspiracy and the action later moves to Jerusalem amid Middle East tensions.

The reason for my question, and this ranty blog, is why are the three characters featured on the front of it WW2 era US GIs? Seen in silhouette, they're clearly carrying weapons from WW2 – namely Tommy Guns (Thompson sub-machine guns) and the guy on the right possibly a BAR light machinegun. Also the helmets look a bit 1940s too. In any case, given the level of US involvement in global conflicts in the last ten years, the profile of an American soldier and his kit would be widely recognisable I would think.

Like I said, I haven't read this book, so I cannot say for certain that the cover is not in keeping with the narrative within, but it bugs me so much, I'd love to know. I acknowledge that I am a bit of a dork for noticing such a thing, but it irked me to the point when I saw it in Tescos that I felt compelled to point it out to fellow shoppers, to share my incredulity. I didn't do that of course, that would be weird. It's much to better to write a ranty blog about it instead

Someone such as Chris Ryan, ex-SAS and best-selling author of numerous military fiction books, surely would have noticed such an issue when he saw the cover? I'm sure he wouldn't let weapon and uniform bloopers pass in his writing, so why the cover?

If you've read 'Killing for the Company' – please tell me there is a reason for this.

Please. I could always buy it and read it myself of course, but I want to know NOW!

The Editing Process

Recently I've been considering using a professional editing service to edit the manuscript for my novel, Seven Seconds. It's been through the hands of a couple of beta readers, and whilst I appreciate their efforts, I think it needs a professional and emotionally detached treatment.

There is only so much a writer can do to improve his or her own work when it comes to editing, and it's amazing to see the kind of glaringly obvious mistakes you miss simply because you're far too close to the text. I'm fairly confident it's reasonably sound in terms of typos, but professional scrutiny of grammar and formatting could turn out to be invaluable.

I've read a few accounts of successful 'indie' self-publishers paying to have their work edited, saying it makes all the difference in terms of professionalism. I am beginning to think it will bring to the end product a reassuring feeling that I've done all I can do to finish it and present it to a paying public.

I recently got a quote for a full edit of my manuscript which was in the region of £1000, and while I think this is a bit too much to justify at the moment, I think spending a few hundred on it will be worthwhile, especially if it comes back with plenty of recommendations. One thing I certainly want to avoid is putting my novel out on Kindle before it's ready. The worst thing would be to get reviews damning it for being badly formatted or amateurish, thus harming further potential sales.

Ultimately, a self-publishing writer wants to see money spent on preparation of their work, in terms of cover art, advertising and editing, as an investment that will be returned in sales income. To that end, an indie writer has the delicate balancing act to perform between polishing their work within their own means, and spending money they might not earn back.

Spent money on self-publishing? How did it work out?

Unfamiliar Country up on Daily Cheap Reads!

The www.dailycheapreads.com website is featuring my short story, Unfamiliar Country, today. In their own words about the site -

Every day, we list cheap reads available for your Kindle e-reader through Amazon. Almost all of the books we feature will not be priced over $5. At least once a day we post a SuperCheap read for less than $2. We also post FREE books as soon as they become available. The only thing better than cheap is free.

There is a UK facing site too – www.dailycheapreads.co.uk – but I think the sites feature books independently, so it won't be displaying on the UK site as far as I know. I might well contact the UK site to request a feature.

It went online at 10pm US Central time, which is 6 hours behind the UK, but I've already had a sale (a single sale – wahoo!) so it was worth the grovelling email to ask for it to be featured!

There are a few of these Amazon affiliate sites catering for Kindle products, and they serve the Indie self-publisher like myself perfectly. They seem to be a key tool in the marketing toolbox for selling books, as the sites attract a considerable amount of traffic, especially when you consider the social media aspect.  DailyCheapReads.com has more than 1,800 'likers' or fans who will receive an update from the site for each book that is listed on the site, including mine.

In most cases you just need to contact the administrators and they'll queue it up for listing. I have another similar spot for Unfamiliar Country coming up in October, on Speak At Night recommendations. More on that later.

Facebook page for 'Unfamiliar Country'

I decided to create a Facebook fan page for my short story 'Unfamiliar Country' which is available on Kindle.

Fan pages, the ones you 'like' and then get updates from when new posts are made etc, seem to be natural companions of most ebooks, and pretty much every other commercially available product. So I thought I'd do the same.

It's pretty simple to do, and is really no different from a standard Facebook page. The one for 'Unfamiliar Country' doesn't have much content right now, it's more of a landing page, but if you were to land there, there isn't much to see. I'll address that issue soon hopefully.

The other question I faced was whether to create a fan page for myself as a writer, or one for the book, and then subsequent ones for other titles. I decided to go with one for 'Unfamiliar Country' in the end, thinking that I can create others later, or just ditch this one if it proves unnecessary.

Do you have a fan page? Do you want me to 'like' it?

I'll soon find out whether it's cumbersome or annoying to make posts to the fan page as well as or instead of my own personal one. I'll have to remember to keep related posts strictly for the fan page, and not blur the line between the two.

I'd be interested to know how other writers jostle with this almost schizophrenic approach regarding Facebook. Do you point links and posts at both versions of your Facebook personas, or just one? How much do you cross-pollinate the written product and your personal life when it comes to Facebook?

Oh, and the page for 'Unfamiliar Country' – is here; https://www.facebook.com/pages/Unfamiliar-Country/170389943041748

Feel free to 'like' it.

Short Story Symposium

Whilst browsing the Kindleboards forum recently I discovered the Short Story Symposium blog, run by Alain Gomez. It's a blog designed for the reader interested in exploring the short story format, where excerpts of work are showcased with details of where to purchase the full version.

I submitted the details of my short, Unfamiliar Country, and crossed my fingers for the opportunity to have it displayed on her site, and was pleased to get a positive response from her. It's due to feature on 1st November and will be eagerly awaited, by me at least.

Check out the blog – http://shortstorysymposium.blogspot.com/ – it's great to see the short story format celebrated and enjoyed by so many writers.

I look forward to seeing my work up alongside other shorts.

'Unfamiliar Country' now featured at Indie Snippets

Indie Snippets has posted up a 200 word snippet of 'Unfamiliar Country'. The site feaures work by indie writers and writers published by small press publishers.

Thanks go to Bryan at Indie Snippets.

Big thanks to Indie Snippets

Indie Snippets will be featuring my short story, Unfamiliar Country, on their site in the near future.

Indie Snippets features  up to 200 word excerpts from the latest indie novels and short story collections. You submit bite-sized snippets from anywhere within your story and if selected, Indie Snippets feature it on their site with a link to the product on Amazon.

I sent them an excerpt from Unfamiliar Country and today got confirmation that they'd like to run it – so big thanks to Bryan at Indie Snippets.

I'll post another blog with details once it goes up on their site. In the meanwhile, check out Indie Snippets and support indie writers and small press publishers.