The Business of Writing by @KimHeadlee: Professional Editing #ASMSG #MFRWOrg

Madeline McDowell Breckinridge ca 1920,
US public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

You can slap together a collection of words, dash off a DIY cover, upload it all to Amazon, and call yourself a writer. You might even make some money doing so, and good for you if that happens to be the case. 

Being a professional writer, however, entails ever so much more than the technical definition of earning money for one's efforts implies. 

One of the biggest complaints I hear—and see—with books written by independent authors is the sheer volume of grammar, punctuation, and spelling mistakes. In fact I would go as far as to say that poor editing is a leading contributor toward the subpar reputation of independently published books as a whole.

Mistakes will catapult a reader out of a story faster than you can&helip; think. And if you believe your readers won't notice or care about poor editing, then I respectfully suggest that you are underestimating —and alienating—a large sector of your audience.

That's not a risk that I'm willing to take with my own fiction, and I hope you agree.

To be fair, books churned out by the Big Six (or Five, or whatever the ever-collapsing count du jour) publishers often contain glaring errors too. The first edition of my novel Liberty, published by HQN Books in 2006, had sections of missing and repeated pages in three different combinations (!!), which proved to be a nightmare for me when trying assemble good copies for personal appearances. That wasn't an editing issue, of course, but it's a graphic illustration of my point that mistakes do happen at even the highest levels of the publishing business.

The bottom line is that authors who are contracted by large publishing houses already enjoy a level of respectability that's built in to the system. The rest of us must do our level best to achieve respectability on our own, and the first step toward that goal is to hire a good quality professional editor, and perhaps even two: one for content editing and one for copy editing.

My primary editor is Deb Taber, and I simply cannot say enough good things about her work. She is the consummate professional, she knows the English language inside and out (and, with regard to my projects, sideways :D), and she offers encouragement along with suggestions for improvement. I get nothing for mentioning her here other than the satisfaction of knowing that you will receive the highest quality feedback if you choose to hire her to edit your work.

Someone else whom I commend to your attention is Robin Allen of Griffin Editorial Services. I have known her for going on 15 years now, and all the copy editing work she has ever done for me has been absolutely top notch. Again, I get nothing for the mention other than knowing that you will be as delighted with her editing work as I have been.

You say you cannot afford to hire a good editor?

I say you cannot afford NOT to.

Budget for it, or set up a crowdfunding campaign if you must, but please do not be tempted by those who claim that you can successfully edit your own work. The fact is that the human brain is wired to see what it expects to see, thereby making it impossible to remain objective where the editorial process is concerned.

I implore you to help halt the downward spiral in perception of the quality of independent authors' works by hiring professional help to make your book be the absolute best product that it can be.

*** I need your help! ***

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***

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Not more than half were still alive in Ch 14/sc 1d of RAGING SEA by @KimHeadlee #amwriting

Graphic overlay c2016 by Kim Headlee.

It's official.  I now have an embarrassment of riches. :)

On Monday I received input from my primary editor regarding my forthcoming nonfiction book, The Business of Writing: Practical Insights for Independent, Hybrid, and Traditionally Published Authors.

Two days later my proofreader returned her annotated version of Raging Sea: Enemies & Allies.

Yep, you guessed it. I am wading through a truckload of editorial comments.

Since I need to publish The Business of Writing first so I can have copies in hand for my upcoming workshop presentations, I haven't yet looked at Robin's notes for RS:EA. Soon, however, I will assess how much work I need to apply so I can establish a publication date and associated preorder period.

Stay tuned for more announcements about both books!

Meantime, enjoy today's excerpt from Raging Sea—if indeed "enjoy" is a word that can apply to this particular, gut-wrenching situation

Previous excerpts of Raging Sea 
Chapters 1–6 in PERMAFREE Raging Sea: Reckonings

 Chapter 7: Sc 1 | Sc 2 | Sc 3 | Sc 4 | Sc 5a | Sc 5b |
Chapter 8: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 2 | Sc 3a | Sc 3b |
Chapter 9: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 1c | Sc 1d | Sc 1e |
Chapter 10: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 2a | Sc 2b | Sc 3a | Sc 3b | Sc 3c |
Chapter 11: Sc 1a |  Sc 1b | Sc 1c | Sc 2 | Sc 3a | Sc 3b |
Chapter 12: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 1c | Sc 2 | Sc 3 | Sc 4a | Sc 4b | Sc 5a | Sc 5b |
Chapter 13: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 2a | Sc 2b | Sc 2c | Sc 2d | Sc 2e | Sc 2f |
Chapter 14: Sc 1a | Sc 1b | Sc 1c |

Raging Sea Chapter 14, Scene 1d

©2016 by Kim Headlee

All rights reserved.

Sgeir heaved a sigh but didn’t get a chance to begin. A stone-muffled commotion seeped into the chamber. Eileann took it to mean the clan was welcoming the war-band home. Of a sudden, she had never wanted to see her father and sister and husband so acutely in all her life.

Over the women’s protests, Eileann rushed from the chamber. When Fioruisge gripped her wrist to pull her back, she yanked free and surged out the door.

In the corridor, the shouts grew louder… and transformed into lamentations.

Eileann burst out of the broch and into the worst hell she could imagine.

The war-band had indeed returned, to the last man.

Not more than half were still alive.

Horses not being ridden were bearing their fallen riders lashed to their backs, led by the survivors.

Fist to mouth, Eileann hitched her skirts in her other hand and sprinted toward the wave of mothers and wives and sisters searching for their menfolk. Some reunions were punctuated by relieved if weak whoops. Others ended in a flood of tears.

Eileann found her father in the midst of the bedraggled troop, sitting as tall in the saddle as his wounds would allow. They did not appear life threatening, thanks be to Nemetona. Her sister Rionnag rode beside him, her armor bloody but not breached, as near as Eileann could tell.

Rionnach was leading Iomar’s horse. Iomar’s throat had been slashed.

Pain twisted Eileann’s gut.

Her father halted the band, and he ordered the warriors to dismount. Dynann appeared from somewhere to throw herself into Rionnach’s arms.

While Rionnag held the reins, Eileann dropped to her knees beside Iomar’s horse, her face on level with her husband’s. With trembling fingers she reached for his face, trying to summon thankfulness that the enemy had left her this small mercy. Pain knifed her gut again. Willing it away, she forced herself to trace the eyelids that would never open, the lips that would never again kiss hers…

The pain would not be denied. It ripped through her like the sword wielded by a ro h’uamhasach, that most terrible of battle-frenzied warriors who stabs and slashes and hacks at his foes until nothing remains but a mass of bloody flesh.

“Eileann!”

Who had spoken? Her mother? Her sister? One of the wisewomen? Eileann couldn’t tell through the merciless pain.

She threw back her head and uttered a great keening howl, powerless to stop it, even to inhale, until at last she collapsed, sobbing, in the dirt.

***

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***

All this month, you are invited to…

— Follow Kim on Twitter
— Follow Kim on Pinterest
— Subscribe to Kim's YouTube channel
— Leave a comment on any page of The Maze, especially if you have done the Twitter, Pinterest, and/or YouTube follow<

… and each action this month is good for one chance to win a copy of any of Kim's e-books.
Please enter often, and good luck!