Carol’s Comments (group member since Mar 31, 2017)

Carol’s comments from the Navigating Indieworld Discussing All Things Indie group.

The kind of editor I am:

I know exactly what I can, and cannot do. I am an experienced copy-editor, and I am also a professionally trained proofreader. I rely on my experience and my vocabulary to read your manuscript, correct any obvious flaws, and then hone it to the best of my ability. In the honing process, I offer suggestions to remove over-used words, and give you options to clarify your voice, by rearranging passages, fixing tenses, and taking away any jumbled or hard to understand areas, sort of a bastardized version of line editing, to present you, at the end, with a cohesive document.

I am not, nor have I ever said I was a content or developmental editor.

I am also not a genie.
I cannot guarantee anything past what I say I can do.
I also keep all correspondence between my authors and myself, so later, if someone says I promised developmental or content editing, I know I did not.
I am a reader. And because I am, I know, for the most part, what readers like.
Check out my Facebook page at Editing by Carol Tietsworth, or contact me at legal2b@yahoo.com

Doing a sample copy-edit for a prospective client is fundamentally a high-wire act. You don’t want to squash their talent by overcorrecting. I mean you absolutely want to correct, and show them how good it can be, without treading on sensitive toes, and making them doubt themselves.

And no matter how you wibble and wobble on the wire, somebody’s not going to be happy. Normally, it’s the copy-editor. I’ve had it all, from the author who told me that “all the secretaries in my mother’s business said it was wonderful and you found too many mistakes”, to “how about I just tell you my premise and the names of the characters, and you write it?” No, no and no. And, oh, by the way, a copy-editor and a ghostwriter are NOT the same.
Don’t get me wrong, I love being a copy-editor, words are my business. I am a one-trick pony. I like words.

I read, on average-just for me 20 + books a week, my trusty Kindle gets quite a workout. I also write horror and have had a novella and 10 short stories published in an online ezine.

And I edit. It hurts me to see books go to the publisher without any editing. It hurts to hear people slaughter English, but apparently, that’s just me. That’s my nutshell.
Check out my Facebook page at Editing by Carol Tietsworth.

How I work is I offer a 500 word free sample, then afterward I charge .004/word for a copy edit. While I am editing I will proofread if it's warranted, and I also make suggestions to clarify a sentence or passage. These suggestions I set off in parentheses, so you can decide whether to use them or not.
Let me know if you are interested, you can reach me at legal2b@yahoo.com.

The kind of editor I am:
I am an editor.
I know exactly what I can, and cannot do. I am an experienced copy-editor, and I am also a professionally trained proofreader. I rely on my experience and my vocabulary to read your manuscript, correct any obvious flaws, and then hone it to the best of my ability. In the honing process, I offer suggestions to remove over-used words, and give you options to clarify your voice, by rearranging passages, fixing tenses, and taking away any jumbled or hard to understand areas, sort of a bastardized version of line editing, to present you, at the end, with a cohesive document.

I am not, nor have I ever said I was a content or developmental editor.

I am also not a genie.
I cannot guarantee anything past what I say I can do.
I also keep all correspondence between my authors and myself, so later, if someone says I promised developmental or content editing, I know I did not.
I am a reader. And because I am, I know, for the most part, what readers like.
Check out my Facebook page at Editing by Carol Tietsworth.

No, but she's a dentist. Scary stuff, couldn't make this up.

I explained that to her, not as eloquently as you just did, but she wasn't having any.

If you ever want to try an editor, try me. My Facebook page is Editing by Carol Tietsworth, and my fees are more than reasonable.
The problem I had with her premise was one of her characters needed a heart transplant, and they were going to kill the heroine's ex and take his, even though there was no relationship in common and they hadn't tested for compatibility. She told me hearts were always a match and interchangeable.

Apparently, she went to a family picnic and told them all what a terrible b***h I was, and they having read her stuff out of familiar duty, told her she should be kissing my feet. That's the only reason she paid the end payment. Then she said she wouldn't be using me again. Thank goodness.

But, I love editing, so I'm already a nut.

Being a professionally trained proofreader as well as an experienced editor makes me a good choice for the person looking for help with their manuscript. The fact that I am also a published author only makes me a better choice.

I have been proofreading and editing for some time now, and I keep my fees lower than the norm because I know authors typically have to budget for services. My low fees are a stress reliever. I also line-edit part-time for two publishing houses.

I stay in email contact with my authors during the editing process and send any questions I have to them, so our relationship stays true and current. In addition to the editing, I often make suggestions, (in parentheses) to clarify a thought or passage. These suggestions are merely that, and not etched in stone.

I charge .003/word for proofreading, or $30.00 per 10,000 words and .004/word for editing, or $40.00 per 10,000 words. If I contract for editing I throw in the proofreading for free, as I'm already in there. Contact me at legal2b@yahoo.com with your word count for a quote. Or check out my Facebook page, Editing by Carol Tietsworth.

I have no problem with bazaar and minuet, especially if they are consistent, that just means you really don't know how they are spelled, and there's no problem, but part of my job as an editor is to point out potholes, places where something could be fleshed out a bit, or places where a bit doesn't track, then it's up to the author to take care of. That's all I did, I made sure her manuscript was correct, in all the ways that I could, and in the email that accompanied it, I explained why I corrected some of the words, rearranged a few of the sentences, and also that the premise needed shoring up, and why. She was livid. How dare I question her premise? So I explained again, and told her a way, and where to tweak it, to make it more believable. She came back questioning my motives and something about how my parents were related before they were married, in cruder terms of course, and then told me that readers didn't care if the book made sens. To my everlasting chagrin, I told her that in my experience, readers did care.
For the rest, I am also a published author, so I have some inkling how hard it is to send your baby out to have someone else look at it, and besides the anguish involved, there is the cost. That's why my fees are so low. I have an affinity with the written word, I charge barely enough to get by, but I do this for a living.

Her story makes no sense, she's of the opinion that readers don't notice if a story don't make sense.

Thanks for your comments. I did a sample for an aspiring author a couple of weeks ago, she sent me the sample, and truthfully, it wasn't too bad, but it was a total set up. When I got the manuscript, a nice way to say what it was, I freaked, but I'm not a quitter, and I edited it for the negotiated price. She didn't use much punctuation, what she used was wrong, she didn't cap proper names, she used minuet instead of minute, but the biggest problem was that her premise was impossible. I told her that things like that didn't work. She told me then that she had had the sample edited before she sent it to me, and that I was wrong, hearts were just like flashlight batteries, they were interchangeable.

Doing a sample edit for a prospective client is fundamentally a high-wire act.
You don’t want to squash their talent by over correcting. I mean you absolutely want to correct, and show them how good it can be, without treading on sensitive toes, and making them doubt themselves.
And no matter how you wibble and wobble on the wire, somebody’s not going to be happy. Normally, it’s the editor. I’ve had it all, from the author who told me that” all the secretaries in my mother’s business said it was wonderful and you found too many mistakes”, to “how about I just tell you my premise and the names of the characters, and you write it?” No, no and no. And, oh, by the way, an editor and a ghostwriter are NOT the same.
Don’t get me wrong, I love being an editor, words are my business. I am a one-trick pony. I like words. I read, on average-just for me 20 + books a week, my trusty Kindle gets quite a workout. Since last Friday, I’ve read 7. I also write, horror, and have had a novella and 10 short stories published in an online ezine.
And I edit. It hurts me to see books go to the publisher without an edit. It hurts me to see would be ‘editors’ take unsuspecting authors for a ride. It hurts to hear people slaughter English, but apparently, that’s just me. That’s my nutshell.
Check out my Facebook page at Editing by Carol Tietsworth.

Sometimes an author will skip the editing part in a rush to get his or her book published, to their detriment. And then that project that you sweated through and bled to get finished is not appreciated by the readers you set it out in front of. It's heart-breaking when it happens.
If your reviews talk about your book needing to be edited, I can do that. There's no shame in trying to make your project the best it can be, even after it's been published.

Did you have an editor? I'm not fishing, even though I am an editor. The best books sometimes need a tweak, and it's hard for the author to do alone, because they know what it's supposed to say, and their brain will fill in the holes. I'm willing to do a quick edit, and I'll give you a good price, because even though I'd sincerely like to see you succeed, I would still like to eat this month. Check out my Facebook page at Editing by Carol Tietsworth

Carol Tietsworth | 1 comments
Being a professionally trained proofreader as well as an experienced editor makes me a good choice for the person looking for help with their manuscript. The fact that I am also a published author only makes me a better choice.

I have been proofreading and editing for some time now, and I keep my fees lower than the norm because I know authors typically have to budget for services. My low fees are a stress reliever. I also line-edit part-time for two publishing houses.

I stay in email contact with my authors during the editing process and send any questions I have to them, so our relationship stays true and current. In addition to the editing, I often make suggestions, (in parentheses) to clarify a thought or passage. These suggestions are merely that, and not etched in stone.

I charge .003/word for proofreading, or $30.00 per 10,000 words and .004/word for editing, or $40.00 per 10,000 words. If I contract for editing I throw in the proofreading for free, as I'm already in there. Contact me at legal2b@yahoo.com with your word count for a quote. Or check out my Facebook page, Editing by Carol Tietsworth.