GOOD REVIEWS discussion
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Please have your book edited!
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Thank you so much, Dawn. I’d like to ask if you are in any way involved with marketing.
Frances wrote: "Thank you so much, Dawn. I’d like to ask if you are in any way involved with marketing."Hi Frances,
Thanks for your note. Marketing is my weakest link. I publish a newsletter to my list and post to social network. Most of my time is spent writing my own projects or editing other people. Here's my schedule:
I'm editing a book for a repeat client. Also getting ready to publish Tothars, the 2nd book in my Bonded series -- this is my adult shifter series (sex and violence).
Also started adapting one of my screenplays to novel -- what a mess to get rid of all the screenwriting junk. And have to keep working on the 4th Alcott Family Adventures book -- Nutty Chocolate.
Dawn
I have my work edited, and then I recheck every little thing. It costs , but with peace of mind,I can focus on the writing.
Dawn, thank you. The typos, the faulty grammar, the misspellings and the punctuation errors -- all these things long ago put an end to my reading and reviewing books whose authors post here, and I know that I've probably missed some good ones that didn't deserve to be overlooked. Some writers, I think, feel that editing doesn't matter. After reading a only a few sentences in some cases, I realize that the author is such an incompetent writer that he or she can't tell good writing from bad and has absolutely no knowledge of and no respect for the tools of the craft. As an indie author myself, I'm offended by those who give the rest of us a bad name.
But I know that some writers do hire editors, sometimes at an expense they can scarcely afford, and are cheated because they don't know how to find someone they can trust. I've been lucky enough myself to have had skilled beta readers, a wonderful editor, and a strong background in grammar and the mechanics of writing, but if I needed to find another editor I'm not sure how I'd go about it. I know there must be sources of such information and ways to check their dependability, but I don't know what these are or where to find them. And I suspect many other writers are in the same boat.
Even worse when it's a well known novelist. Susan Hill's Printer's Devil Court was so littered with typos, character's changing names from page to page etc it was very hard to concentrate on the story.
Hi Dawn,Are you offering to edit for free? I can't afford to pay you but I wouldn't mind utilizing your services. I've struggled financially since 2017 when my grandmother was diagnosed with Esophageal cancer. She's in remission now but medical bills don't disappear. At the moment, I'm writing full time. My family is paying our rent and eating but it's tough. In the past, I've worked with editors who've offered to edit for low or no cost, and there was a reason their rates were so good. Their work was shoddy or they were difficult to work with. So, any grammatical help you could offer me for my written work would be appreciated. =)
Rose
Mary wrote: "Dawn, thank you. The typos, the faulty grammar, the misspellings and the punctuation errors -- all these things long ago put an end to my reading and reviewing books whose authors post here, and I ..."Editing matters. A lot. But what really matters is not the editing, per se, but the results of that editing: lack of errors in the published work.
Some readers may tolerate various kinds of errors, or not notice ones they make themselves when writing.
But no reader will complain if the work doesn't have errors! And readers don't care how the work got that way.
Caveat: Some readers see 'errors' where there aren't any, because they have certain ideas about what is correct (alot, alright, it's vs. its,...) and may even complain about work that doesn't follow the latest chat-speak trends. There's nothing a writer can do about these readers, except hope they don't like her genre.
And, as you pointed out, even some expensive 'professional editors' have no idea what they're doing; there is no required professional supervision or certification to put out your shingle as one.
But it saddens me to see all indies, including myself, tarred with the same brush. And I'd point out that many traditionally-published authors complain, especially lately, about the lack of quality in what editing and proofing they're receiving from said publishers.
Robert wrote: "I have my work edited, and then I recheck every little thing. It costs , but with peace of mind,I can focus on the writing."
You are investing in yourself. That's the most important thing about this business.
Mary wrote: "Dawn, thank you. The typos, the faulty grammar, the misspellings and the punctuation errors -- all these things long ago put an end to my reading and reviewing books whose authors post here, and I ..."There are so many different types of editors. Writers who write novels and nonfiction need a book editor. Not a proofreader (that comes after all the changes are made). Anyone can Google Book Editors and come up with lists of people to check out.
First thing is to check their references. And, you don't want an editor of poetry or magazine articles to edit your science fiction novel.
Carole wrote: "Even worse when it's a well known novelist. Susan Hill's Printer's Devil Court was so littered with typos, character's changing names from page to page etc it was very hard to concentrate on the st..."Carole, I can't tell you how many "best selling" authors I've given poor reviews. Maybe the wrong file was uploaded? I don't know. All I know is they should check and double check.
Rose wrote: "Hi Dawn,Are you offering to edit for free? I can't afford to pay you but I wouldn't mind utilizing your services. I've struggled financially since 2017 when my grandmother was diagnosed with Esop..."
Hi Rose,
I'm so sorry to hear about your grandmother. I can't edit for free at this time. I'm not one of those best selling authors who are raking in the dough (yet) and I haven't worked in my field as a technical writer/editor since 2016. I think it's an ageism thing.
Editing jobs supplement my social security. I have great references on my website: https://dawngreenfieldireland.com/edi...
I also hired an editor and proofed and reproofed my novels before they were published. Despite that, a few typos still slipped through. That's on me and I've gone back and fixed them whenever they have been pointed out. However, one reader took me aback commenting about the many, many typos and misspellings she found--turned out four were legit, (such as missing an 'a' in a sentence), the rest were British vs. American spellings like favour vs. favor. And (now this cracked me up) a missing accent mark over the 'e' in raison d'etre (missing here as well since I don't know how to add it in a post). Sigh. So in short, as a reader, I try to be reasonable. I'm willing to overlook a few typos, but not on every page or every other sentence as long as the writing itself is good and the story intriguing. I do highlight errors as I read in case the author wants to see them.
I hear you! As a technical writer and editor for a lot of British affiliated companies, the Brit vs US spellings drove me crazy.I am generous with authors — always trying to give them the benefit of a doubt, but when a book has more than a few typos, or in the case of several recent reads, so littered with them, I am unforgiving.
When someone is trying to start a career as a writer and they don’t take the time to be a professional, I have very little use for them.
Replying to M.Why, oh why don't US designed keyboards and language function software contain the various accents, umlauts, etc.? (The only way to access these is to instal a foreign language and then, through 'trial and error', discover which keys / key combinations give what - it keeps one amused for an hour or so - or of course, purchase a foreign keyboard!) But of course we, that is the rest of the world, ought to know that the entire world, no, not just the world, but the entire universe - luckily for Captain Kirk and crew! - speaks American English.
Sometimes I can find a work-around. I go out to the Internet and search for the word I want that has the umlaut, copy it and paste it into my Word doc and 99% of the time it will "stay" in place.Yeah, thank all the gods for Captain Kirk!
Robert wrote: "I have my work edited, and then I recheck every little thing. It costs , but with peace of mind,I can focus on the writing."
Thank you for investing in not only yourself, but your career, you smart man!
If you would like to receive my newsletter, take a trip to my website and sign up dawngreenfieldireland.comI only send a newsletter when I have news about a book or service.
Leslie wrote: "Replying to M.Why, oh why don't US designed keyboards and language function software contain the various accents, umlauts, etc.? (The only way to access these is to instal a foreign language and t..."
I've discovered you can insert the specific accented vowels through the Word Insert Symbols section. Still a bit labor intensive, but workable. I also do the cut-and-paste from the web to add to the manuscript's autocomplete.
A friend sent me this years ago, and I'm still able to use the instructions with Word:To produce á, é, í, ó, ú: Ctrl + ‘ (apostrophe), then (still on Ctrl) the letter
To produce à, è, ì, ò, ù: Ctrl + ` (accent grave), . . . the letter
To produce â, ê, î, ô, û: Ctrl + Shift + ^ (caret)… the letter (that is, ctrl, then shift, caret, drop shift but stay on ctrl, the letter)
To produce ã, ñ, õ: Ctrl + Shift + ~ (tilde)….the letter (ibid.)
To produce ä, ë, ï, ö, ü, ÿ: Ctrl + Shift + : (colon)…. The letter (ibid.)
To produce å or Å: Ctrl + Shift + @ (“at”)… a or A (ibid.)
To produce æ or Æ: Ctrl + Shift +& (“and”)….a or A (ibid.)
To produce ç or Ç: Ctrl + , (comma)….c or C
To produce ð or Ð: Ctrl + ‘ (apostrophe)….d or D
To produce ø or Ø: Ctrl + / (forward slash)….o or O
To produce ¿: Alt + Ctrl + Shift + ? (that is, Alt, then Ctrl, then Shift, then ?, staying on each key as you engage the next one)
To produce ¡: Alt + Ctrl + ! (ibid.)
To produce ß: Ctrl + Shift + & (“and”), then s
Mary,Thanks for providing the special symbols. It’s very helpful for people who don’t know how to create these things.
You're welcome! These can be -- not difficult, but tiresome to create, especially if for some reason you have to keep typing an ñ twenty times to a page... So, there's a way to cheat, which took me a while to realize (I can be a little slow sometimes): Copy and paste. I just copied the ñ and now I can do it by pasting it in forever. ñ ñ ñ ñ ñ !
You're on a roll...don't wear out the keyboard! Get to writing or reading, Mary.
I have to get back to editing a book for a client. Eight chapters left. Woo hoo!
Hi Dawn, I have never paid an editor, but used to be an editor myself, so edit my own books as well as using a beta reader. I challenge you to find any errors in my self-published books.
I'm proud of you!! If you want to email me a book (MOBI/Kindle or PDF), I'll give it a read.
Rose wrote: "Hi Dawn,Are you offering to edit for free? I can't afford to pay you but I wouldn't mind utilizing your services. I've struggled financially since 2017 when my grandmother was diagnosed with Esop..."
Hi Rose,
Have you thought about using Beta Readers/ARCs? There are many avid readers (including myself) here on GoodReads that will offer to read books by Indie authors in exchange for a copy of the book. Whatever route you take, I wish you the best! Happy writing!!
Rose wrote: "Hi Dawn,Are you offering to edit for free? I can't afford to pay you but I wouldn't mind utilizing your services. I've struggled financially since 2017 when my grandmother was diagnosed with Esop..."
Hi Rose,
Have you thought about using Beta Readers/ARCs? There are many avid readers (including myself) here on GoodReads that will offer to read books by Indie authors in exchange for a copy of the book. Whatever route you take, I wish you the best! Happy writing!!
Dawn wrote: "I'm proud of you!! If you want to email me a book (MOBI/Kindle or PDF), I'll give it a read."
Thanks, Dawn. I sent an email to you this morning using an address I found on your website, asking if it was the correct email to use, but obviously not. How do I find your current email address?
ILoveToRead wrote: "Rose wrote: "Hi Dawn,Are you offering to edit for free? I can't afford to pay you but I wouldn't mind utilizing your services. I've struggled financially since 2017 when my grandmother was diagno..."
Beta and/or ARC readers are not editors and don't help that much. Once a book is out there filled with errors, readers remember the sloppiness and there goes your audience.
A profession, such as writing, comes with required services, like any other business. Unless you find a full-service publisher, you will have expenses: cover, editor, formatter. If you cheap-out, you get what you pay for. When you invest in yourself and your career, you can be proud of your accomplishment.
Never fling a book out there that isn't ready.
Why would anyone jeopardize their fragile writing career by not investing in themselves and not hiring an editor?
People, you can't just fling your book out there and expect people to forgive you for all those typos.
My background consists of 34-years of technical writing and editing. I've edited a lot of novels and nonfiction books. I have great references just waiting to tell you how my editing and the report I provide have helped them.
Dawn Greenfield Ireland
Creator of worlds and characters. Screenplays, novels, nonfiction books.
I do it all. I can fix yours.