Author's Responsibility When Editing Their Galley

I was chatting with my good friend Brenna Lyons, author of more than 20 books 'in print' and president of EPICauthors. She felt for the challenges of starting a new publishing company, with new authors. Very few publishing companies will accept the number of first time authors that we have.

In response she gave me a tutorial she wrote for EPIC and the workshops she teaches at writer's conferences. Enjoy :)

---

You're about to get one of my classes on the subject of editing, which means it's LONG...I apologize in advance, and it's got both what you want to hear and extras that you don't.

The editor is not there to fix everything for you. You should come in with a reasonably clean product. (And for this purpose, the book is product. Writing is creative. Editing is manufactury with a little creativity thrown in.)
Why should you bother self-editing? There are several reasons...

1. If you don't learn to self-edit, you submit a poorly-edited manuscript, and you get rejected. It's not that the publishers don't edit with you, but they expect a minimum quality to start with. The cleaner you submit, the more likely you are to get signed in the first place.


2. Even editors are not perfect. If the editor is tired, he/she may make a mistake. If you take that suggestion blindly, you create an error, when you should realize it's wrong and question it...nicely. I'll get back to that a little later, when we're talking about working with editors.


3. Your name will be on that book. After the editor finishes with you, you are going to have to do galleys. There will be things the editor missed...or errors created in formating. You need to be able to find them yourself. If the book goes out wrong, barring the publisher not inputting your galley corrections OR errors the publisher made after your final check, it is ultimately YOUR fault it went out that way. Or...sort of. Read on to find out where the lines lie.

Your grammar and punctuation skills aren't up to par? TURN OFF grammar check on WORD. It is worse than useless. It's a dumb program in that...it doesn't understand the logic of clauses. Try this site! http://dailygrammar.com/archive.shtml Yes, I got the site from you, Suz, and I STILL recommend it to people.

Your spelling isn't up to par? This is one thing that WORD is actually good for. If you've misspelled it, it can give you suggestions for the correct spelling, as long as you're close enough. Have a dictionary on hand to make certain you've chosen the right word, in the case of homonyms.

Also, have a thesaurus closeby. Why? Because, if you are really lost for the spelling, perhaps you can come up with a similar word or an opposite and use the thesaurus to find the word you want to use. In addition, if you find you are repeating words, you can find synonyms...or just plain change the action/description to avoid repetition.

You tend to use the completely wrong word spelled correctly, so WORD doesn't see it as misspelled? If you have a Windows machine, download ReadPlease at http://readplease.com/ You get a 30-day free trial on the full version (which can do an entire book at once) and unlimited use of the free version, which can do about 2000 words at a time. The full version, after the 30 days, costs $60, but you can continue to use the free version.

What does this do for you? It reads it back to you. Let me explain how this helps you. The human mind has the wonderful and cursed ability to complete and correct broken patterns. This works verbally as well as spatially. That means you, reading silently OR aloud, will tend to correct errors in the text without noting that you have. This is the #1 reason that authors have a hard time self-editing. You know what the page SHOULD say, so your brain tricks you into thinking it's there, just as you envision it. Even editors sometimes do the same, which is why they cannot catch every error you make, though it may be their first read on the book.

ReadPlease, or any other text to speech program you care for, reads PRECISELY what's on the page. There's no human correction of the pattern to worry about. If the wrong word is there, you will hear it. Reading along with the program, as it reads to you may help you find other errors.

You tend to use homonyms incorrectly? The find feature is your friend. Keep a list of words you typically misuse...there/their/they're, for instance. When you're editing, search for each of them and read the sentence it's in ALONE. Did you use the right one?

A few more things to keep in mind for BASIC editing. I'll get into advanced edits in a little while...

1. Check the publisher/agent guidelines. Check for a style sheet, as well. Always format specifically to it, for each submission you make. Take the time to make the changes every time. No brownie points for ignoring directions.


2. The most overused words/items that every author should look for and minimize the use of are:

that
always
never
just
as
while
then
now
still
even
finally
actually
really
ly adverbs, in general (since you can usually show this with action instead of telling it with the adverb, giving a richer read)

removed (when talking about a body part...you move your hand, not remove it)

dropping eyes (you drop your gaze not your eyes)


burying your eyes (need I say more...you might bury yourself in your reading, but if you're burying your eyes, I don't want to know about it)

but/ or/ and to START sentences (sometimes is okay...too much is not)


sentence fragments (these CAN be used and add to the tapestry of the book...just not often)

exclamation points (I'll get back to that)

ellipses and em dashes (I'll get back to that)

was XXXing (to start every scene or every chapter)...use a more active start than was doing something every time, please

People use a lot of exclamation points. The truth is, if you can eliminate it with a tag, do so. If you can't, you should really only use it in a couple of cases: someone's swearing/cursing in some way...and not a muttered one, extreme danger on the scene/warnings, extreme fury...not just anger. Suz always said to TRY to get the number of them down to no more than one every 10K or so. Usually, people end up with more than that, but at least they mean something, when they are used.

Ellipses and em dashes... Do you really need one? If so, please use the right one! Ellipses are for trailing off. Em dashes are for snap breaks. But, look at how often you're using them and why. Is there a choice? If not, keep it.

Another to look for and delete are two dialog tags in a single paragraph. Use an action or scene tag for one, if necessary, but don't use two dialog tags in a single paragraph. It's typically seen as bad
form.

An amusing addition to this list from an editor at EPICon 2007, while we were discussing dialog tags... If you're using the word 'ejaculate,' you better be talking about sex. Using that as a dialog
tag, in anything BUT parody, is considered in poor taste by many editors. Grinning...

3. Unless you KNOW the publisher you're submitting to doesn't mind head hops, don't use them. It's a make or break type of thing for many editors. If the editor doesn't mind, and you're not head hopping, you're okay from the start, because the editor doesn't care. If you're head hopping, and the editor doesn't like it, you've lost the sale, in all likelihood.


I look for specific things in edits, when I work as an editor...and when I self-edit.

Continuity edits- Are there holes in the story arc? Did you contradict yourself or break your own world rules? Is your characterization stable or not?
Logic edits- Does what you wrote make sense? Do you have sensory, science, etc. errors? How are the motivations? Even if I hate the character, can I follow a logic trail and perhaps even empathize with the villain's POV? Etc.
Character edits- Are you head hopping? Are the POV characters consistent, even through the changes they go through in the book?
Style edits- These are specific to a publisher and to genres.
Line edits- Word choice, punctuation, grammar, etc.

Pet peeves from both the editor and author side of the fence...


As an editor, if I hear one more person try to tell me that poor grammar in narrative is "my voice," I am going to smack that person upside the head with a grammar book. Just kidding. Thinking about it makes me human. Doing it would make me unprofessional. Seriously, poor grammar in dialog is to be expected. A first-person vernacular book MAY have poor grammar in narrative, much as there are books written all in IM-speak as if inside a chat room. That's fine, because the book is written entirely in the "voice" not of the author but of the character. But, your average book doesn't use poor grammar in the narrative. Nor can you pass it off as "voice."

Oh, and if I have one more author rant at me for finding her errors... Tell, me... What is the purpose of edits if not to make the book better?

As an author? Oh, I have a ton of stories I could share. Let me choose a few of the best.

1. Editors aren't perfect, but... Here are some of my favorite imperfect editors.

Editor A tried to correct me on the use of breath/breathe, only she was trying to make a change that would make the use wrong. I, nicely, told her that she had them backward. The smart editor would have said, "Oh, yeah. I was tired. Sorry about that." I've had a lot of editors say this, and we just blow it off and keep moving. It happens. They're human. I'm human. We're in this together. This one tried to convince me that they were the opposite in Canada, and she'd try to remember that I was an American author. Grinning... You get interesting comments like that, when you deal with editors from all over the world, and I do.

Editor B...now this one WAS tired, and I believe it, sent me a note that I was head hopping in the paragraph. Now, head hopping is unusual for me, but it's not impossible. This editor was usually spot on, as well, so I tore that paragraph apart, looking for the head hop. I finally went back to her and said, "He thinks. He sees. He moves. Where am I head hopping in this?" At which point, I got an "Oops. I was really tired last night." from her. And, we moved merrily along.

2. Editors can't know everything, even things you might consider general knowledge.

Editor C obviously knew nothing about pregnancy and childbirth. While editing one of my books, she commented that it was her understanding that a woman wasn't allowed to have sex in the last trimester, and I might want to change that. As a mother of three, I took it upon myself to educate her in the truth. The scene stayed.

Editor C...again... Grinning... Her vocabulary wasn't quite up to dealing with my books. She would often highlight a word and ask me if I had that right...what it meant, etc. It came to a head, when I received an e-mail that said, "I KNOW it's a word. With you, it's ALWAYS a word. Just tell me what the hell it means." I've since considered buying her a good dictionary.

3. Editors will not always agree with you...vehemently.

Editor D... I had one scene of a guy at work. He's cycling out of a clean room. It's the only time in the book this happens. All the technical terms are easy to pick up from the context. She wanted me to define each term. I said it would be an info-dump to. I went to the EIC and explained the disagreement. I did tell the EIC that I would define the terms, if she agreed it needed done, but I felt it would bog down the scene. The EIC read it and agreed with me. The scene stayed as it was, and we went merrily along. All handled calmly and professionally.

4. Switching editors can cause havoc!

Editor E came in at the middle of a series and wanted to change how created-for-the-world language was handled in the text. IOW, she wanted to italicize all created words, though they weren't being spoken in another language but were additions to the English language in use. I explained to her that there were already several books out, and in the name of continuity, that would be a very bad plan. She agreed and dropped the subject.

This next is not one of my editors, but rather one of Christine Feehan's editors. She also changed editors in the middle of the series. In Dark Gold, Christine has a shocking (for her readers) breach of world rules. Here's the scoop. Christine didn't do that. A new editor, that didn't know her world rules, came in and misunderstood what was going on in the book. She changed a single line that violated the world rules.

Neither is this editor one of mine. This editor came in after Robin Owens' final galley pass and decided she was obviously spelling a word wrong...and why the heck wasn't anyone seeing this but her! The "helpful" editor changed it without asking her. When the book released, Robin saw that she had a "waffling" cat. It wasn't waffling. It was "whuffling," a common cat noise. Again, the editor didn't know what the word meant, and she was new to the book.

For the record, I found your way of editing...finding the first few times I did each thing wrong and making me find the rest...to be particularly effective, and I use it myself now.


Continuity edits-

Look for holes in the story arc. You might miss them, because you have the complete picture in your head, so be prepared for an editor to say you have a hole "there." In the meantime, now that the book is done, do an outline. Don't throw tomatoes at me. I don't do synopses or outlines BEFORE I write, but I do them after I do. So, do one. Do you move through the plot points smoothly?

Make a timeline and make sure you left enough time for things to happen realistically. Make sure you don't have broken bones (big bones, like arms and legs) healing in two weeks or a woman pregnant for a year. Now...is anyone interested in what major NY author made THAT mistake? Grinning...

Make a list of your world rules and make sure you didn't break any, during the course of the book.

Do a read-through, or have a program read it through to you. Is there ever a time where you contradict yourself in action? This is one that you might catch years later. I was just reading though a book I wrote two years ago, while we were at the park today, and realized I had the character get dressed twice in the same scene. That made it through three edits and not one but TWO sets of galleys...e-book and print. It went out that way. And, I will correct it, before I sell it to anyone else. In another book, IN GALLEYS, I caught that the heroine was on her butt on the ground and I had her STEP back from another character. It now reads that she shied away from him. Stepping on her butt? That doesn't work.

Is your characterization stable or not? Try re-reading every scene you've written from the POV of the non-POV characters. Are they still in POV, even when you're not in their heads. If you THINK about what they are doing and saying, does it make sense, still? While you're at it, check for head hopping? Are you staying in a single head or slipping to other heads? Do your characters make sudden changes that make no sense?

Logic edits-

Does what you wrote make sense? No. Stop and thing about this. Look for the following problems...

Are your characters TSTL (too stupid to live)? Do you have impossible or implausible set ups? Examples?

In one book I've read recently, an author had a character go back in time and be able to do amazing things, because the gravity was so much less. (SCIENCE ERROR) Yes. The Earth has gained SOME mass from falling space matter, but it has not gained enough mass to make people able to
jump 50 feet in the air a few million years back. That is too large a change in the mass of the earth. The book ALSO has the hero suddenly learn to speak a language, with no understanding of how he did, when just a day or two ago, it was gibberish to him. Side note...I write fantasy, not delusion. (One of my catch phrases. What you write has to make SENSE, even if it's fantasy genre.) It also had a TSTL heroine. I commented that I wished it had been a short story of the first chapter with the happy ending of the heroine getting killed when she should have died the first time. No, I wasn't editing this book, thank goodness! This was purchased for amusement. It did that...sort of, in a painful way.

In a NY book by a popular author I've read recently, a lawyer discovers a murder scene with his girlfriend. A young boy is falsely accused of the murder. Now, this lawyer...a MATERIAL WITNESS in the case, decides to act as defense attorney for the kid AND investigates the murder, including breaking into the crime scene a couple of times. Anyone else cringing? Anyone else hearing the term "conflict of interest" echoing? Professional ethics? Disbarring? And, would his state even allow him to take on that case? Even if it makes for a great bit of tension, is it believable?

Do you have science errors? I could groan right now. Let me make this one clear. Science errors are not a good thing. CHECK your science facts, even if you're not writing science fiction.

Some of my personal pet peeves?

O+ is NOT the universal donor. O- is. There is still a 10% chance of rejection with O+ blood.

Silver does not RUST. Only unbound iron rusts. Rust is, specifically, ferrous oxide, the effect of oxygen interacting with unbound iron. Silver does tarnish, but it does not interact much, which is why it's used in electronics on seagoing vessels. It's largely non-reactive.

Something buried in snow will actually be warmer than something exposed to the wind chill, which is why people are told to bury their tents...or even themselves in snow when stranded without proper shelter. Of course, you have to account for breathing holes, or you'll expire from CO2 inhalation.

The temperature deep underground, barring a steam vent or other phenom, is surprisingly stable. Therefore, the temperature in a cave will be cool in the summer and warm in the winter, when compared with the surface temperatures.

Oh, and not only do women have sex in the last trimester, but the progladstins in the semen help soften the cervix for delivery. I could say what else I know about it, but it's an ick for some people.

Need I go on? These are ones I've encountered in manuscripts and ended up educating authors on. I'm sure there's more, but you get the idea.

How are the motivations? Even if I hate the character, can I follow a logic trail and perhaps even empathize with the villain's POV?

Do you have sensory errors? LONG portion...settle in for a lecture, about now.

Why is it important to remember to engage all senses when you're writing? There are several reasons...

1) Providing a richer reader experience. No person lives in a vacuum, unless the person is in a sensory dep chamber, in which case, they usually have sensory phantoms, but that is another subject I could get into...sensory madness. There is more to the human experience than what you can see.
2) Avoiding continuity errors.
3) Avoiding blocking errors.
4) Avoiding oversights in character condition.
5) Avoiding inappropriate focus. NOTE that this affects all sorts of things from introspection to character description.

Can the character see it?

You have to consider line of sight. Block the scene on paper, if you have to. Now, look at the following.

-body orientation- If the character is looking away from another character, and the second does something behind the first's back, the first cannot see it, UNLESS the first is facing a reflective surface. (Minimize the use of mirrors for self-description (it's cliche), but used appropriately, they can play a great role in the book itself.) The first must turn at least partway back to be able to see what's going on behind her. You have, unobstructed and barring vision problems, an almost 180 degree range of vision (I believe it's 150-160 degrees for most people), without turning your head.

-height- If you have the height advantage, you can obviously see further than if you don't, UNLESS there are more hills around you. This cuts your range considerably. That's why Stephen King got slammed for the infamous scene in Christine where he has the kid sitting on a hilltop in Liberty Hills, watching the lights from Monroeville Mall. Mr. King looked at a map for distance and forgot to take the rolling hills of Pittsburgh into account. You cannot see the lights from Monroeville that far out, because of the rolling hills.

But, when you have the height advantage, you don't see people below the same way. Depending on how high you are and how far away they are, you may not see their faces, unless they look up at you.

-obstacles- While you're blocking it out, take obstacles into account. If the character moves to the east side of the room and is standing at a window, with an cabinet to her right, looking over her right shoulder, she sees the cabinet, not the south side of the room.

-how close/far you are from an obstacle- Aha! Two of my favorite visuals. If you stand ten feet from a column, you can see around it to either side and only lose the visual directly behind it. If you stand one foot from it, you can't see anything but the column and your peripheral vision, without moving your body. That's the first one. The second? Stand face to face with someone. You cannot, without moving your head, see the other person's face, belt buckle and shoes. And if you do drop your face far enough to see the shoes, you are likely head-butting the other in the chest or chin.

-tunnel vision- Tunnel vision is one that many people don't understand. The further back you are in a tunnel, the narrower your field of vision outside the mouth of the tunnel. As you move closer to the mouth of the tunnel, to an open space or an intersecting tunnel, your field of vision moves from a straight line out from the edges of the tunnel you're standing in to your full range of vision when standing at the mouth of the tunnel. The same holds true for spy holes. You have a limited range of vision, when looking through a spy hole/peek hole. A good one may give you as much as 60 degrees of vision, over distance. Get a protractor and measure your angles on your blocking sheet, if you use one.

-light level/weather- Many people make the mistake of only taking weather and light level into account in closed spaces or extreme circumstances. If it's blizzarding, they remember that the character can't see very far. The same with a moonless night, a dark wood, a dark room... If you're in the open, low light or light rain, mist, or snow is cumulative over distance. Look at it this way. If you have a drizzle, and you're trying to look miles across the fields, you're looking through miles of the drizzle, which will progressively cut your visual acuity, AS IF you were standing in a heavy rain.

Can the character hear it?

-decibels and distance- This is a major logic error in the making that I see often. If you can hear a sound clearly from 100 yards away, when you reach it, what happens? One of three things. A) You turn OFF the source of the sound and then talk. B) You walk away from the source of sound to talk. C) You scream yourself ragged to hear each other over it...maybe. Oh, and D, I guess...you don't hear each other.

How loud is a sound? CAN you hear over it? Should the character mute it? Should your character be wearing hearing protection? Keep in mind the fact that noises will be louder at the source. Keep echoes in mind. Keep double echoes in mind, when they apply. Keep in mind how loud common sounds are. There are handy charts on the web for this. Here is one simple one...
http://productexperience.blogspot.com/2006/12/audibility-decibles-and-frequency.html

-ambient noise- You don't live in a vacuum. What sounds ARE there? This can be especially important to someone listening to a tape or phone call for clues. Also, is the ambient noise so high as to be distracting or to interfere with conversation? Is it loud enough to make hearing another conversation impossible? Remember that a cocktail party noise level is a whisper away from the range that can cause hearing damage. Also, remember that ambient noise is cumulative over distance, like light levels and weather conditions are for vision.

-answering machines and telephone calls- BIG continuity error problem! DO NOT write only one side of a phone conversation, unless the POV character is standing across the room from the person on the phone and can only hear one side of the conversation. Think about it. When you're on the phone, do you hear only your own voice? If so, how do you know what to answer? You don't. Don't make that mistake in books. Also...answering machines. They always precede or follow the message with the date and time stamp in that tinny voice. Don't leave it out. The devil is in the details.

Can the character smell/taste it?

-interconnected- When someone can't smell, because of illness or water up the nose or something similar, the character cannot taste effectively either. Don't forget this. The devil is in the details.

-most powerful memory link-ups are scent-based- Think about scent. When you wake in a hospital, what do you smell? Disinfectant? That sour smell of sickness? That sets up a powerful image in the mind. When you are selling a house, realtors will suggest you bake...or at least bake a pan with vanilla and cinnamon on it? Why? One of the most powerful scent reminders for most people from childhood are warm family holidays with baked goods. It sets off great connections for the buyers. You can actually invoke a negative or positive response in many readers with a simple scent in the text.

Can the character feel it?

-cold muting feeling- When you are very cold or have been immersed in water for some time, your sense of touch is diminished. Try touching the same material with warm hands and freezing hands. It feels different. Remember that senses are muted by cold/immersion.

-anything on skin- In addition, oils, creams or other coatings on the skin can change perceptions of feeling. Experiment.

-I'll add impossible body motions here- Can the characters reach what they are supposed to? I don't just mean, can a 6 foot man, standing 5 feet from X, reach it. Experiment. If you can't do it, the character can't, either. Examples?

Place your hand on your lower back. No, try it. I once read a book where the hero had to scratch the heroine's lower back, because she couldn't reach it. Her arms weren't broken. She had no birth defect that formed her less arms. She wasn't tied to a bed, either. There is NOWHERE on your lower back you cannot reach. Your upper back is another subject.

Polar opposite. Stand up and reach your fingertips down your body, without bending. You can reach somewhere around your knees? Okay... In a sex scene, when the hero and heroine are face-to-face in bed, unless one of them moves his/her entire body, there is no chance they are
reaching further than that, on their own body or the other. IOW, if the heroine has her knees bent, the hero MIGHT be able to work her panties off. Otherwise...

-Remember that your fingertips are NOT the most sensitive receptors on the body. Your face, the BACKS of your hands, the inside of your wrists... There are a ton of receptors that are more sensitive. For one thing, though you might not know it, the palms of your hands and soles of your feet are covered in tiny scars. Over time, they become desensitized by damage.

Will the character take the time to notice?

-pacing (action vs. introspection changes focus of the scene)- One of my favorite subjects. When the pacing is slow, there is time to notice a lot around a character. There's time for introspection. When the pacing is fast, you don't have that leisure. This manifests in several ways.

Fight scenes... When you're in a fight scene, your character's focus is going to be on a couple of things and no more. You're going to pay attention to incoming attacks, obstacles around you, and possible attacks from the sides or rear from new opponents. That's it. Everything else will be filtered out. You aren't noticing the wallpaper, unless one of two things are true: A) you are drugged and the wallpaper looks like it's moving B) the wallpaper has come alive and is really moving, which makes it a threat. You also aren't going to notice the perfect shade of red blood. That comes later, when you're bleeding to death on the floor and have time for introspection.

DIALOG... Pay attention to your tags and description in dialog scenes. If it's a leisurely conversation, you can have more tags, more movements and expressions and internal thoughts and emotions and... If it's a rapid fire exchange of dialog, you have time for little or nothing beyond the dialog and (possibly) internal thoughts. However, rapid fire dialog, like a real fight, exists in short bursts. You have passes of 2-10 or so barbs, a break (during which there is some verbal
circling and time for a little more scenery and introspection) then either it breaks off entirely, a calmer discussion starts, or rapid fire starts up again.

Why do people notice things? You should never have characters doing a comprehensive examination, unless one of a few things are true.

-new situation/person; change in person/situation- If the person or place being described is a new thing to the character, they will notice it in detail. I once had a character that was not described
until chapter six of the book. Why? Because the only character that interacted with him until then was another man, who had known him for 7 years or so. There was no reason for him to make a deep consideration of his buddy. In chapter six, that character meets a character who has never met him before. BINGO! She does that deep description. She had a reason to look at him and take it all in.

This is NOT true when there is no time in the pacing for description and introspection, at the time something new happens. In such a case, the description should come at a break, when there is time for it.

-making a comparison- There comes a time when a character has to make a comparison. Maybe someone or something has changed, and the reader gets the before and after view. Maybe there is a comparison to be made between two people or choices. It's a valid time to make a deep, thoughtful look at something.

-characterization- How perceptive/observant is the character, in general? This is important. If the character is naturally observant, the character will observe more and internalize more. This comes from natural tendencies as well as training. If the character isn't naturally observant, there is going to be less. And, make sure it stays consistent. If an oblivious character suddenly starts spouting
off detail, what happened? If a people watcher stops noticing things...again, what happened?

Also, keep the details to the experiences/education the character has. It's all well and good for me to spout off that I smell sulfur dioxide. I know what it smells like. A character that has never
encountered it in science or industry might come up with another connotation like rotten eggs or certain fertilizers.


And, finally...as for who is to blame... This is a blog post I made in May 2005. I think it says it all about responsibilities.


So, back to a discussion that is near and dear to me...and relates loosely to the subject I wrote about earlier... Who is really to blame when a book goes out from a publisher in poor condition?

There are people who will tell you that it's the author's fault. Simply, the author shouldn't let something substandard go out. Others will counter that it's the editor's fault for letting it get out there without proper editing (or the publisher's fault for having incompetent editors). Still others will blame the EIC or other, final line person at the editor who should make sure the product that comes off the line is as close to perfect as it can be.

Who do I agree with? NONE OF THEM!

None of them? Okay...more precisely, all of them...and none of them.

Don't roll your eyes yet. Hear me out.

Why is the author to blame? Because, darn it! Your name will be on the cover. Take the time to make sure the blasted book is as perfect as you can make it. Do your craft and your career mean so little to you that you aren't willing to give a SERIOUS once-over to the book before it goes out? I don't mean thirty minutes on a 75,000 word book and you claim you checked it! I mean "LOOK AT IT." Use ReadPlease or a similar program to read the book to you, so you can find typos that you can't see. LOOK at the formatting on every page. If you hand it back in less than a day, you haven't done your job.

Why is the author NOT to blame? Human beings have the most delightful ability to complete and correct patterns. It's inborn into most humans. When presented with a dotted line picture, you can see the whole. When handed that test where the first and last letter of every word in a paragraph is right and the letters between are scrambled, you can still read the paragraph, can't you? Of course you can! You're human. For authors, it's even worse than that. You know what the paragraph SHOULD say, so your eyes and brain conspire against you to make you THINK you see it on the page, when it's not there. That is why you have an editor in the first place. The editor is going in cold. The editor is supposed to see what is really there. That is why the company pays them. Ultimately, the editor is MORE responsible for spotting errors. No matter how saleable a book is when it comes in, it is going to have errors. There is no such thing as an author presenting a perfect manuscript for publishing.

In addition, there are errors an author cannot possibly catch, errors that occur after he/she has done galleys. Let me share a few.

I had two books release with the wrong file. One released (not once but THREE times) with the pre-galley file. Now, that wasn't MY fault as author. The post-galley file was corrected, checked and submitted for release three separate times. The publisher formatted the wrong file three times and put it out for sale THREE TIMES with the wrong file. Needless to say, that is not my favorite publisher. The other book (a different publisher, who is still mortified to have made this mistake, which speaks highly for them in my book) was put out with my first edit file. IOW, the book went out as I submitted it with the editor's notes for the first round of edits in the margins. I kid you not on this one. I had added two scenes to the book, including a new ending, and done all the edits between. The truly amusing thing was that the book reviewed well in that condition. Miracles never cease!

Sometimes the people formatting CREATE errors that the author doesn't see until the book comes back to him/her as a completed and published whole. I had a dated book and had put the full date on the first chapter. Since the rest of the book took place over 13 weeks in the same year, I didn't put years on the rest of the chapters. Taking this as an error, a well-meaning formatter added dates to the rest of the chapters, only on one of the chapters, when he was no-doubt tired, he typed 2991 and not 2001.

Another? A popular NY author had someone in formatting do a strange sort of find/replace where she replaced every instance of the word blonde with backseat. Ouch! Another? Another popular NY author had someone, after her final galley check, change the word whuffle (a cat noise) to waffle. Her ARCs went out with a waffling cat. Another? One more from NY... A well-meaning individual created a world rule breech in a famous NY author's book by arbitrarily stating that it took 4 blood exchanges (not the three established in her series) to create a vampire. Believe me...readers didn't miss it.

Now, NONE of these errors are types of things that an author could have prevented. So, to those who say that it is ultimately the author's fault...sorry. I cannot agree.

Editors? The first-line folks? I already stated why it WOULD be their fault. Why wouldn't it? First of all, for the same reasons it might not be the author's fault. The wrong file can go out or the final formatting can cause errors that the editor will never see.

Another reason that it wouldn't be is if the author refused reasonable edits. THAT would be the fault of the publisher and EIC for allowing it to happen, as long as the editor let them know it was happening. There are some prima donnas out there. I won't lie. Some authors feel their art is above editing. But, the buck stops here. The publisher must publish with a couple of thoughts in mind: Will it sell? Does it break any laws? Does it offend my core readership, the people we do not want to offend above all else? AND...Is it worthy to carry the company name? The company name will be on that cover as well as the author's. The quality of the offering MUST be taken into account by the publisher. I realize that the publisher may not want to give a popular author walking papers, and that is their prerogative, but in the end, I am not certain allowing substandard books to go out is in the company's BEST interest.

So, to all those who claim it's the front line editor's fault... Sorry, I cannot agree with that.

To those who state it is the EIC or other final-phase person at the publisher's fault... Sorry. You know what I am going to say. Ultimately, this person should be the most accountable for the state of a released book. It is the hand that should hold it last, the one that should safeguard company and author both. But... This person is only following orders, and if the publisher decides to let a prima donna slide, the EIC has absolutely no choice in the matter, besides quitting.

Likewise, few publishers (I mean the OWNER of the company now...) do the final check themselves. While they, like the captain of a ship damaged at sea, are the final person held accountable for any problem at the company, people are strange creatures, and you cannot always anticipate when an editor will decide to slack off, when an EIC may be preparing to jump ship and isn't doing the job correctly, when someone doesn't report a prima donna up the line and tries to handle it personally...and badly.

So, whose responsibility is it to make sure the book makes it out there correctly? No one person. It's a team effort, a (hopefully) well-oiled machine. When the machine breaks down...or if it never worked correctly, the books are going to come out with errors.


--
http://www.brennalyons.com http://www.myspace.com/brennalyons
"One of the most deviant erotic minds in the publishing world...not for the weak." Rachelle for Fallen Angels Reviews of Brenna Lyons FAIRY DREAMS -Available for pre-sale now!

UK Copyright Law: A Quick Guide For Freelance Writers

Summary
As a freelance writer, you'll need to be aware of the legal protection your work enjoys so you don't sign away rights that you should retain. This is a guide to some key aspects of UK copyright law.


As a freelance writer, ideas are your bread and butter. Getting a commission means revealing your idea for a great article to an editor or someone else. There's no way around it, but how can you prevent people from ripping you off? Here's what you need to know about UK copyright law.

In the UK, copyright is an automatic and unregistered right. That means there's no need to apply specially or fill in any forms. Copyright takes effect as soon as certain works (this term applies to all copyright protected material) are created and there are nine types of work that enjoy this automatic protection. These are literary work (including newspaper articles), dramatic, musical, artistic (photos, drawings, diagrams, maps etc), sound recordings, films, broadcasts, cable programmes and published editions of works. All of these are known as intellectual property. Intellectual property is a bit like real estate - it can be bought, sold, transferred and inherited, though only with your written permission.

The key thing to remember as a writer is that ideas themselves are not protected but the way ideas are expressed is protected. So if you think of an idea for an article, that isn't protected; when you write it, it is. It's the information you select and the way you arrange that information that makes it unique.

In order for material to have copyright protection it has to result from independent intellectual effort. In other words, you must have put some work into it. You'll need to be able to prove this if challenged, so although it's not obligatory, you can protect yourself by sending a copy of your work to yourself by recorded delivery and leaving it unopened. Recorded delivery post is date stamped so you'll be able to prove that your work existed on a particular date.

Copyright lasts for the duration of the author’s life plus 70 years for literary, dramatic or musical works. Different periods apply for films (70 years after the last to die of the director, screenplay authors and musical director), sound recordings (50 years) and published editions (25 years). People are allowed to publish excerpts from your copyrighted work for the purpose of news, review or criticism. This is known as fair dealing. Works used in this way should be properly acknowledged.

When you give someone the right to publish your work, you are assigning that right temporarily (a bit like renting out your house). As a writer, you'll want to avoid signing away any of your rights permanently. Instead, be clear on what rights you are assigning. First serial rights are normal. This gives the publisher the right to publish your material first in whatever country or region (for example, the UK or US) the rights apply to. Once the material has been published, all rights revert to you. Some publishers will also request online rights and the right to keep your work in an online archive. You'll want to make sure these rights are for a limited period or are non-exclusive, so you can make the most of your material.

A key term to be aware of is moral right. This is the right to be credited as the author (have a byline) and to object to alterations or errors which might damage your reputation (known as derogatory treatment of your work). It also includes the right not to have work falsely attributed to you. In other words, no one should say you wrote something if you didn't.

So what do you do if someone tries to pass off something you've written as their own work? If your copyright has been breached you can take the infringer to court but beware. There are two things that could damage your case. The first is if the person commits innocent infringement, which means the person genuinely didn't know you owned the copyright; the second is if you have previously allowed someone to use copyrighted work without complaint. This is known as acquiescence.

Summary
So there you have it: the lowdown on UK copyright law. In essence, freelance writers need to be aware that their written work enjoys automatic copyright protection, that they are entitled to be credited as the author of any work they right, that they should only assign limited rights to their work and that they have the right to sue if their copyright is infringed.












Learn to Write Free
Novel Writer Magazine
Writers Online Courses
Get Paid To Write

The Secret of 'Talent'

It always amazes me how people appreaciate good writing, whether it appears on a blog, in an article, or in a novel. The thing is, anyone can write well. You can write something that receives hundreds, even thousands of views. You can write a novel that sells thousands of copies. The secret is to write something that people want to read, by writing about life.

Take a look at two blog posts I wrote that received top hits, despite the fact they are on a blog community, www.communati.com, that has hundreds of great writers on the site.

My first article received almost 500 views in less than a few hours. Within 4 hours of being written, it was on the ‘most popular list.’ Gladiolas, Dahlias, Pear Trees and The Secrets of Life . This is nothing more than a look at a quiet summer afternoon that I spent with my family, and how it touched me, and also touched my readers. The writing is not literary and flowery. There is nothing poetic about it. I just wrote it in a way that made readers look into their own lives. This is the secret of great writing, making people look at their own lives instead of forcing them to see life through your eyes.

The second is a tutorial on saving time. I did not tell people to save time. Instead, I showed them how I save time. There is a big difference between talking about what to do and how to do. The world is full of tutorials that tell people what to do, but never gives them the tools to help them do it. How Much $$ Does Multitasking Costing You?
You’ll also notice that I made some great titles. Are titles important? Yes. They are so important that I have even returned to my blogs and changed titles. In some cases, the hits increased.

So, next time you write, don’t just put words on paper. Think about your readers. “Take care of your readers and they will take care of you.”



----------------
Visit More Learning Sites:
inspiredauthor
Get Your Book Published
Get Paid To Write
How I Built a Career

How to Be an Editor

Someone emailed me and asked for a 'short answer' on how to become an editor. It really isn't that simple. There is no course that can help you. In fact, most university graduates with a BA can only work in a non-fiction house. Universities just do not understand many of the concepts used in today's fiction - like showing. I wrote this email, then thought my readers would benefit from the advice.



***

Most editors in today's business are interned, take a lot of training, or train themselves. An amateur editor will take months to edit a book, and do a poor job. A professional editor learns who to clean a manuscript in 20 - 50 hours. There are two ways to get paid, either hire editors for about $20 - 25000 a year or pay them on a royalty basis. The royalty is very flexible. Some houses pay only a few cents per copy sold, others pay $.50 or even $.80, depending on the book/sales/ and how much the editor puts into selling the book.


We do have a mentoring group in Friday nights, 7eastern, where you can learn about writing a great novel, or editing. We are currently working on creating strong hero arc types. This isn't the type of course where we say make him nice. We study personality types etc. Last week we watched two movies and discussed the hero arc type. We also had a police profiler come in and tell us what 'mistakes' we were doing that was subconsciously ruining the character/relationship in the reader's mind.


I started in the business by writing reviews. Eventually, you will start seeing a difference between the books that sell, and those that don't. You'll be able to pick an up-and-coming author just by reading her story. It is fun, you receive a lot of free PDF books, and some galleys, and even some print books. (incidentally, we are looking for a reviewer at www.inspiredauthor.com) You can also start your career by posting book reviews at www.novel-writer.com.

If you work with a publisher, you can probably be editing within a few months. There is a great school where some of our editors work, www.writersonlinecourses.com.

If you train yourself, and work with editors through submission, as well as writing book reviews, it will probably take until your third book is published.

There is more to editing than grammar. Content editing means tracking the plots, looking for plot holes, and finding character flaws. Line editing means organizing paragraphs so they flow, fixing grammar, and improving the style. Proofreading means finding all the typos. There is another element to editing, it involves dealing with authors in a professional manner. This skill can be difficult to learn, but a good publisher can help train you.

I hope this helps. Let me know if you have more questions - and maybe we will see you at the chat on Friday (www.enspirenpress.com in the chat room)