As both an editor and a literary agent, I see manuscripts all the time from authors who obviously did not prepare well. They neglected to consider a few things in their planning, if they did any planning at all. Here are some of the most common preparation oversights:
1. No outline - I know it is something we learned in school and no one likes to outline, but few authors are organized enough in their minds to plan an entire book in their head before writing it. And I don't care who the author is, outlining will help them get that book solidly planned so that it comes out looking and reading professional. If and author thinks that they don't need to outline or that outlining "cramps their style," then the author is deceiving themselves.
2. No character map - not many authors know about this little tool, but the best authors throughout history have had some form of character mapping done before they began writing. What is a character map? A character map is a set of pages (print or electronic) that lists the character's name at the top and then is a complete and total history of the character. This is done for major and minor/supporting characters. Without a character map of some kind, the author inevitably gets facts mixed up and the inconsistencies are hard to fix when they add to more and more inconsistencies. A character map takes a long time, but it "puts on paper" what the author is thinking about each character. This can also be done for places and events, by the way.
3. Not prepared to pay for editing - I cannot relate the number of times I have been hired to edit a manuscript after the author got someone else to edit the manuscript for free. If a person says they will edit for free, they are not a good editor. Some of us do this for a living and we do not do it for free. A good author will plan ahead and save money to pay for a professional, competent, and ethical editor to proofread and/or edit the manuscript. You cannot get good editing for free!
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
The Pronoun Envy Pandemic
As I sit here procrastinating (again) the doing of the work I make money at, I want to muse for a while about pronouns.
I had an 8th grade English teacher - Ms. Hansen - who influenced me more than I'll ever know. My colleague Koni Atencio and I took the class together, but I seem to remember more about the class than she does. Anyway...
Ms. Hansen taught us that one can become lazy with our use of language and in no place is this more evident than in the over-use of pronouns. I see manuscripts all the time where this is the case, and I call the phenomenon "Pronoun Envy." What is pronoun envy?
Pronoun Envy is when an author uses "he," "she," "him," "her," "his," and especially "it" as often as they can and do not use proper names or other nouns. Here is an example from an actual manuscript I read a few weeks ago:
John, Robert, Martha, and Elise were at the movies that night. He told her that she was too good for him, but she didn't think that his giving her peanuts and soda pop was a precursor to being asked out. After all, she didn't like it, anyway.
Which "he" and which "she" and which "her" and, most importantly for me, which "it"?
I could spend a long time dissecting this sentence for its errors, but let me concentrate on the pronoun envy for "it." The rule of language is that a pronoun refers back to the most recent noun. So "it" refers to "soda pop," but when you read the above example, you wonder whether "it" is supposed to be a pronoun for her (whoever she is) being asked out by him (whoever he is).
I see writing like this all the time, even in the many self-published books I get for my Kindle. This is lazy writing, just lazy! A good author, and their even better editor, should catch these pronoun envy problems and the errors should never make a final manuscript. If an author is serious about becoming a great author, then the author needs to learn from the mistakes and not be envious of pronouns in future writings.
I had an 8th grade English teacher - Ms. Hansen - who influenced me more than I'll ever know. My colleague Koni Atencio and I took the class together, but I seem to remember more about the class than she does. Anyway...
Ms. Hansen taught us that one can become lazy with our use of language and in no place is this more evident than in the over-use of pronouns. I see manuscripts all the time where this is the case, and I call the phenomenon "Pronoun Envy." What is pronoun envy?
Pronoun Envy is when an author uses "he," "she," "him," "her," "his," and especially "it" as often as they can and do not use proper names or other nouns. Here is an example from an actual manuscript I read a few weeks ago:
John, Robert, Martha, and Elise were at the movies that night. He told her that she was too good for him, but she didn't think that his giving her peanuts and soda pop was a precursor to being asked out. After all, she didn't like it, anyway.
Which "he" and which "she" and which "her" and, most importantly for me, which "it"?
I could spend a long time dissecting this sentence for its errors, but let me concentrate on the pronoun envy for "it." The rule of language is that a pronoun refers back to the most recent noun. So "it" refers to "soda pop," but when you read the above example, you wonder whether "it" is supposed to be a pronoun for her (whoever she is) being asked out by him (whoever he is).
I see writing like this all the time, even in the many self-published books I get for my Kindle. This is lazy writing, just lazy! A good author, and their even better editor, should catch these pronoun envy problems and the errors should never make a final manuscript. If an author is serious about becoming a great author, then the author needs to learn from the mistakes and not be envious of pronouns in future writings.
Friday, June 22, 2012
Positive Thinking or Derangement?
At least once a week, I am contacted by an author who claims that their latest novel is a New York Times bestseller. Given that I make money by 1) editing these manuscripts and/or 2) signing an agency contract with these authors, I have to always bite my tongue in regard to such statements.
I read two to four manuscripts a week, hoping that I'll get to edit them, but that rarely happens. Instead, I read these tomes for evaluation for representation. Although there are some good ones, I have only read four possible bestsellers in the past nine months, and I represent all those authors.
But I wonder if this stance by authors is positive thinking, with a lot of hope build in, or whether the authors actually believe that they have written a bestseller? When I evaluate a manuscript, I look for 1) publish-ability and 2) sale-ability. In other words, is the time I am going to put into representing this author and their book, which can amount to a hundred hours or more if I am not the editor? Am I going to eventually make such money?
I evaluate a manuscript on a simple 1 to 10 scale. If it is an 8, 9, or 10, I offer to represent the author. If it is a 5, 6, or 7, I offer suggestions for improvement and offer to look at the manuscript again when the author cleans it up. If it is less than a 5, I thank the author, offer suggestions, and leave the matter alone.
Because my literary agency division is predicated on the Jerry McGuire principle and I represent less than twenty authors at a time, I have to be picky. I have read ten authors with an 8, 9, or 10 (in my opinion) out of about eighty who have submitted to me. I am picky, yes. But my authors are getting published.
Literary agents have a hard enough time already if we don't have to constantly have to find tactful ways to tell an author that, no, it isn't a bestseller.
I read two to four manuscripts a week, hoping that I'll get to edit them, but that rarely happens. Instead, I read these tomes for evaluation for representation. Although there are some good ones, I have only read four possible bestsellers in the past nine months, and I represent all those authors.
But I wonder if this stance by authors is positive thinking, with a lot of hope build in, or whether the authors actually believe that they have written a bestseller? When I evaluate a manuscript, I look for 1) publish-ability and 2) sale-ability. In other words, is the time I am going to put into representing this author and their book, which can amount to a hundred hours or more if I am not the editor? Am I going to eventually make such money?
I evaluate a manuscript on a simple 1 to 10 scale. If it is an 8, 9, or 10, I offer to represent the author. If it is a 5, 6, or 7, I offer suggestions for improvement and offer to look at the manuscript again when the author cleans it up. If it is less than a 5, I thank the author, offer suggestions, and leave the matter alone.
Because my literary agency division is predicated on the Jerry McGuire principle and I represent less than twenty authors at a time, I have to be picky. I have read ten authors with an 8, 9, or 10 (in my opinion) out of about eighty who have submitted to me. I am picky, yes. But my authors are getting published.
Literary agents have a hard enough time already if we don't have to constantly have to find tactful ways to tell an author that, no, it isn't a bestseller.
Friday, June 15, 2012
THAT
As a lover of the English language, I am always astounded at how many instances of the word "that" that I have to insert into authors' writings. I do it all the time!
What happened to make the word "that" an endangered species in our language? It is such a wonderful word and it tells us so much.
I learned that in some sub-dialects of American English, such as in the Northeast and Northwest of the United States, that the word "that" is not used in speech, thus writers do not use it in writing. I also have discovered that the word is omitted by line editors for television and radio commercials and that this followed on the elimination of the word in telephone operators' greetings and replies. I guess AT&T, at one time, schooled its operators to NOT use the word "that," even when that was the right word to use.
The word "that" is most commonly used, needed, as an adverb. But that is exactly when it is taken out of writing.
My fellow editor at JLS, Koni Atencio, says I have a fixation with the word "that," but that is okay with me! It is such a cool word that I don't mind being teased about it.
Did you know that you can use the word "that" four times in a row in a sentence and it is grammatically correct? My eighth grade English teacher, Ms. Hanson, told us this at the beginning of the year and promised she would write the sentence on the board before we finished the class, but she never did. It took me nearly 25 more years to figure it out for myself. Here goes:
After seeing the balloon rise up into the sky, he was wondering why that that that that happened so easily and swiftly.
Yes, that is grammatically correct. You word gurus, break it down and diagram it. You'll see.
We need two things, in my opinion. The first is a national organization devoted to saving the word "that" and the second is a National That Day to celebrate this wonderful word. Who will join me in the Crusade for That?
What happened to make the word "that" an endangered species in our language? It is such a wonderful word and it tells us so much.
I learned that in some sub-dialects of American English, such as in the Northeast and Northwest of the United States, that the word "that" is not used in speech, thus writers do not use it in writing. I also have discovered that the word is omitted by line editors for television and radio commercials and that this followed on the elimination of the word in telephone operators' greetings and replies. I guess AT&T, at one time, schooled its operators to NOT use the word "that," even when that was the right word to use.
The word "that" is most commonly used, needed, as an adverb. But that is exactly when it is taken out of writing.
My fellow editor at JLS, Koni Atencio, says I have a fixation with the word "that," but that is okay with me! It is such a cool word that I don't mind being teased about it.
Did you know that you can use the word "that" four times in a row in a sentence and it is grammatically correct? My eighth grade English teacher, Ms. Hanson, told us this at the beginning of the year and promised she would write the sentence on the board before we finished the class, but she never did. It took me nearly 25 more years to figure it out for myself. Here goes:
After seeing the balloon rise up into the sky, he was wondering why that that that that happened so easily and swiftly.
Yes, that is grammatically correct. You word gurus, break it down and diagram it. You'll see.
We need two things, in my opinion. The first is a national organization devoted to saving the word "that" and the second is a National That Day to celebrate this wonderful word. Who will join me in the Crusade for That?
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Editing is Hard Work, So Pay Your Editors!!!
"I spend too much time editing." That is a common thought of mine, sometimes even a verbal statement (though I live alone and no one hears me). But it really is hard work, even if I am just doing basic proofreading.
To start things off, I may not really be "into" the topic of what I'm reading. I have no-nos that I won't edit: crimes against children, horror stories (they give me nightmares), and erotica. But sometimes I'm just not really interested in that piece on FOREX trading or that romance novel. So in those times, when I am not interested, I have a tendency to "fall asleep at the wheel," and it is even more important than ever to have right on my desktop (I use two monitors) my code of ethics, which says I will be honest and complete in the editing services I provide. That wakes me up and I continue, often actually becoming interested in what I am reading, after all.
So it is really hard for me, as a person who makes a living doing this editing stuff, to see Craigslist ads that say "no pay" or "this is a nonpaying job" or "I'll give you credit in the book." What? This is a job, not a hobby. I worked long hours for years to perfect my writing (as much as that is possible) to make myself an above average editor. I don't want to get paid by getting credit in your book, I get that, anyway, from others who pay me to edit their books.
A few months ago, I even had a woman call me and talk to me for almost an hour about editing her manuscript, only to have her say after wasting an hour of my precious phone minutes that her pay to me was going to be changing the name of one of the characters in the book to my name. I laughed out loud, thanked her for her time, and told her that if she wasn't going to pay me, then I wasn't going to edit for her.
My biggest advice to authors, whether you want to be published by a reputable publisher or go the self-publishing route, is to recognize that 1) you probably need an editor and 2) editing services cost money. So while you are writing, whether for hobby or to build yourself as a professional writer, you need to save some money to pay for editing services once you are finished.
I looked at the statistics. In the past year and six months, I have edited 84 books. Of those, 83 needed editing and only one needed light proofreading. As a literary agent, I have gotten five of these books published, eleven more have been published by publishers, and the rest have been self-published. One author, who has let me edit five of her books now (or is it six?) is on a best seller list somewhere. But if I had not edited her books, would she be?
Pay your editors, please. You won't regret it, I promise.
To start things off, I may not really be "into" the topic of what I'm reading. I have no-nos that I won't edit: crimes against children, horror stories (they give me nightmares), and erotica. But sometimes I'm just not really interested in that piece on FOREX trading or that romance novel. So in those times, when I am not interested, I have a tendency to "fall asleep at the wheel," and it is even more important than ever to have right on my desktop (I use two monitors) my code of ethics, which says I will be honest and complete in the editing services I provide. That wakes me up and I continue, often actually becoming interested in what I am reading, after all.
So it is really hard for me, as a person who makes a living doing this editing stuff, to see Craigslist ads that say "no pay" or "this is a nonpaying job" or "I'll give you credit in the book." What? This is a job, not a hobby. I worked long hours for years to perfect my writing (as much as that is possible) to make myself an above average editor. I don't want to get paid by getting credit in your book, I get that, anyway, from others who pay me to edit their books.
A few months ago, I even had a woman call me and talk to me for almost an hour about editing her manuscript, only to have her say after wasting an hour of my precious phone minutes that her pay to me was going to be changing the name of one of the characters in the book to my name. I laughed out loud, thanked her for her time, and told her that if she wasn't going to pay me, then I wasn't going to edit for her.
My biggest advice to authors, whether you want to be published by a reputable publisher or go the self-publishing route, is to recognize that 1) you probably need an editor and 2) editing services cost money. So while you are writing, whether for hobby or to build yourself as a professional writer, you need to save some money to pay for editing services once you are finished.
I looked at the statistics. In the past year and six months, I have edited 84 books. Of those, 83 needed editing and only one needed light proofreading. As a literary agent, I have gotten five of these books published, eleven more have been published by publishers, and the rest have been self-published. One author, who has let me edit five of her books now (or is it six?) is on a best seller list somewhere. But if I had not edited her books, would she be?
Pay your editors, please. You won't regret it, I promise.
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