As any good book writing coach will tell you, after writing a book the next hardest thing to do is find a good editor. It is never a matter of sending your manuscript to several different publishers and hoping one of them will contract you. The same is true for online services. You can self publish a book, but without an experienced editor it probably will not get a lot of attention.
In short an editor makes a manuscript better it already is. This is far beyond grammar and spelling checking it. They routinely fact check any possible citation referenced. They read through the heading and chapter layouts making sure they are accurate. Most importantly though, they give ideas. Having read several books they have several ideas which can make a manuscript a number best seller.
Begin by determining what type of editing services you really require. Most manuscripts will need some developmental type editing. Copy editing is carefully going through a manuscript and attempting to improve on it. Generally hard editing is reading through it with a close eye and looking for misspelled words and other simple mistakes that often make them awkward to read in print form.
Check out their credentials. This is your work of art you are going to be handing to someone, never be afraid to ask as many questions as you need to be comfortable. Make sure they have a sound knowledge of what they are doing and understand the genre you are trying to break into. This knowledge and experience can be the difference between success and failing.
Most editors like to brag of their success stories. There is no real shame in this and should be expected. Look at any website they have to see a list of their successful publications. Keep this in mind though, it is very likely that 80 percent of these books are self published. See how many of their titles were actually published by traditional clearing houses.
Many good editors ask for a testimonial from the people they do work for. Just as you would check on anyone else you employed, take time to check up on them and always contact one or two to get some feedback. Search web-sites for reviews on them, and what people thought of the any books that have not been self published.
See if they have written any manuscripts themselves. This will go far to show that they can easily point out different problems and have the working knowledge to fix them too. You would be very surprised how many editors write as a side job under various pseudonyms.
This is one of the most important decisions you will ever make. Finding a good book writing coach and editor will affect your career in a huge way. Be patient and take the time to do it correctly and in 10 years you too can share your success story with other beginning writers.
In short an editor makes a manuscript better it already is. This is far beyond grammar and spelling checking it. They routinely fact check any possible citation referenced. They read through the heading and chapter layouts making sure they are accurate. Most importantly though, they give ideas. Having read several books they have several ideas which can make a manuscript a number best seller.
Begin by determining what type of editing services you really require. Most manuscripts will need some developmental type editing. Copy editing is carefully going through a manuscript and attempting to improve on it. Generally hard editing is reading through it with a close eye and looking for misspelled words and other simple mistakes that often make them awkward to read in print form.
Check out their credentials. This is your work of art you are going to be handing to someone, never be afraid to ask as many questions as you need to be comfortable. Make sure they have a sound knowledge of what they are doing and understand the genre you are trying to break into. This knowledge and experience can be the difference between success and failing.
Most editors like to brag of their success stories. There is no real shame in this and should be expected. Look at any website they have to see a list of their successful publications. Keep this in mind though, it is very likely that 80 percent of these books are self published. See how many of their titles were actually published by traditional clearing houses.
Many good editors ask for a testimonial from the people they do work for. Just as you would check on anyone else you employed, take time to check up on them and always contact one or two to get some feedback. Search web-sites for reviews on them, and what people thought of the any books that have not been self published.
See if they have written any manuscripts themselves. This will go far to show that they can easily point out different problems and have the working knowledge to fix them too. You would be very surprised how many editors write as a side job under various pseudonyms.
This is one of the most important decisions you will ever make. Finding a good book writing coach and editor will affect your career in a huge way. Be patient and take the time to do it correctly and in 10 years you too can share your success story with other beginning writers.
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You can visit the website www.carmenreneeberry.com for more helpful information about Some Good Tips From A Book Writing Coach For Finding A Good Editor
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