tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post2644449005468048228..comments2024-03-26T23:41:10.319+00:00Comments on Authors Electric: Editors: Do Indie Authors Need Them? Catherine CzerkawskaKatherine Robertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17196712319655603442noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-51803438287126010082012-03-22T18:30:06.013+00:002012-03-22T18:30:06.013+00:00There is a tendency to over-edit. New and indie au...There is a tendency to over-edit. New and indie authors aren't very confident, and I think some editors are taking advantage of that and pushing more services than the authors really need. An editor is there to help the author's voice shine through, not shout over it with their own.Stephaniehttp://www.ebook-ed.itnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-25624974642292127622012-03-20T18:38:20.406+00:002012-03-20T18:38:20.406+00:00Aaaargh is all I can say to that one, John :-) The...Aaaargh is all I can say to that one, John :-) The same editor suggested that I should perhaps read a volume of 'letters' to 'get a flavour of the period'. When I looked up the book she had recommended,(fizzing slightly, since I'd written extensively about this period and considered that I knew my stuff!) I saw that it belonged firmly in the south of England, and had no connection whatsoever with eighteenth century Scotland. Mind you, I wasn't alone. I heard afterwards that when editing a historical novel by a colleague who not only specialised in his chosen period, but was actually lecturing in it at a Scottish university, she kept querying all his information on the assumption that he was a complete amateur. But as I said - when it works well, it's wonderful. Only glad I've had some positive experiences as well!Catherine Czerkawskahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14554969254207924049noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-82545019095834785102012-03-19T22:08:58.151+00:002012-03-19T22:08:58.151+00:00"I think I will just have to keep you!"
..."I think I will just have to keep you!"<br />Even at the literary agent stage, I've come across attempts to rewrite/edit the Highland Scottish lyrical musicality of speech. It's mistaken by some as the author not knowing how to write properly. Syntax also. The thing I learned to fear most was the "line edit", where a fait accompli is handed back to you, no document with tracking changes...just a "new" document, not just with cuts, but with new bits I had not written, and the choice proffered to take it or leave it. I had a story edited that way once, cut from 3600 to 2700 words, no consultation...I believe I was given 24 hours to decide whether I would accept the rewrite! Happy days!John A. A. Loganhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03613779477853664598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-91354442306089974042012-03-19T14:10:26.826+00:002012-03-19T14:10:26.826+00:00Utterly worst presented book I've read recentl...Utterly worst presented book I've read recently was Between Silk and Cyanide: a code-makers war 1941-1945. Brilliant account of a world where the slightest error could mean death. Not an indie e-book but a 'proper' £14.99 pb from commercial publisher. Whoever passed it for press shold have been forced to eat their own rip-cord.julia joneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09773900100240758504noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-61211614630412773512012-03-18T15:03:58.414+00:002012-03-18T15:03:58.414+00:00Lee, you've opened an excellent can of worms h...Lee, you've opened an excellent can of worms here! I've been thinking a lot about your comment and it's fascinating. Because I think if we're honest, many of us DO write first and foremost for ourselves. Not so much to get it right, whatever that is, as to find our way through something to the bitter end, to tell a story, explore a set of ideas, whatever. The sharing with readers comes later. But I know not all writers feel that way.Catherine Czerkawskahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14554969254207924049noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-91939349361533962352012-03-18T09:47:46.113+00:002012-03-18T09:47:46.113+00:00Yes, I know I'm a minority voice here as regar...Yes, I know I'm a minority voice here as regards readers. Of course I'm pleased when someone tells me they like what I've written...pleased for about ten minutes, that is. Essentially, the only reader who matters to me is myself. But I'm not trying to <i>communicate</i> something (remember, I'm only speaking for myself here, and am <i>not</i> criticising others). For me, writing is something of a game - a bit like a crossword puzzle where I'm trying to get all those words to slot in just right.<br /><br />And just what is right? Now, that's a question...Leehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13770069472552779217noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-51072961170474282382012-03-17T18:52:00.009+00:002012-03-17T18:52:00.009+00:00Ah ...time. The Amber Heart has had some twenty ye...Ah ...time. The Amber Heart has had some twenty years and about two dozen drafts, perhaps more, and I'm still finding infelicities and inconsistencies. This is a novel and a story which has grown with my ability to tell it, while I've been publishing other things. Bit like a grown-up child. The only way I can let it go is because I know there is another much loved piece of work which needs my attention. <br />But I certainly care about my readers, at least enough to want to share something with them, to communicate with them, as I want to communicate with an audience through the medium of theatre.Catherine Czerkawskahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14554969254207924049noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-11657818481587673322012-03-17T17:27:02.397+00:002012-03-17T17:27:02.397+00:00I think you're wrong about public mistakes. Or...I think you're wrong about public mistakes. Or at least I don't mind my own. In fact, I don't give a fig that my first two novels are terribly flawed. (But I don't give a fig about readers either.) A writer has to learn to be her own editor; otherwise, she's done only half the job. If I were at all interested, I'd rewrite my books from the ground up, cutting out all manner of missteps. But they serve very well indeed as a reminder of where I once was and where I now hope to go.<br /><br />The best editor is <i>time</i>: leave your early draft for a year and work on something else. Then go back. There will be plenty of searching questions. Not to mention typos and inconsistencies.Leehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13770069472552779217noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-38365620649612334362012-03-17T17:24:32.267+00:002012-03-17T17:24:32.267+00:00This comment has been removed by the author.Leehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13770069472552779217noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-22429616479214392062012-03-17T17:05:09.515+00:002012-03-17T17:05:09.515+00:00back from chester zoo now and ready for bed again,...back from chester zoo now and ready for bed again, but prepared to be more serious about people's names. editors, professionals to the man, find it very difficult to get things right, and therefore should not be trusted too much. bertolt brecht more often than not appears as berthold or bertold than bertolt, which encapsulates the problem rather neatly. he chose to 'misspell' his name, after his parents gave him the bog standard spelling. editors, i cynically fear, quite like to show off, and when they 'know' something, they're quite resistant to checking. one can envisage them telling old bert - no, you spell it this way, herr brecht - pull yourself together!<br /><br />more seriously, some editors change things to 'improve' your english or construction, et al - and often, as cally and dennis have illustrated, screw it up completely. i've had huge rows with harper collins editors in the past, because they've assumed i don't know proper grammar when i deliberately adapt it to what i want it to sound like in the context. it's a hell of an argument, and beyond the bleeding pale. on the other hand, the best editor i've ever had, tim waller, was a harper collins man.<br /><br />the americans are worst, or at least totally impossible. they're comma crazy, change which to that and vice versa, and won't be argued with. i spent more money in transatlantic calls with one of my books than i earned from it! (mr needle, you're guilty of exaggeration, which, in america, is spelled with thre...etc etc)<br />copy editors yes - they can be brilliant. editors who change things because they know better need watching like the plague. (mr needle, you're mixing your meddafors again...)<br /><br />get someone to do it if you must, but remember who the writer is. now i'd better go and have a lie down...Jan Needlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15823078224282953782noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-22132299317567213752012-03-17T13:19:48.462+00:002012-03-17T13:19:48.462+00:00I completely agree with you, but I know not everyo...I completely agree with you, but I know not everyone does. I can forgive a few typos too - I've never read a perfect paper book either - there's always something that gets past the editors - often quite a lot of things. I suspect eBook readers are sometimes out to catch us out though. A friend told me I had a word wrong in one book, but it turned out that the word was right - she just didn't know it. (I confess to a certain amount of satisfaction in telling her.) My previous agent has made me completely paranoid about commas. He littered my book with commas where I would never have thought to use them, and now it is getting in the way of my writing. I read various 'guides' in an effort to nail it once and for all, but then realised that there isn't any agreement among the experts either. I don't mean the obvious places, but all those 'well, if the sense is clear, you don't need them' places. I have a friend who is a very well regarded writer of literary fiction who simply doesn't use them and I've never had any trouble reading his work! I suppose all this means that we can only do the best we can. There's a successful US novelist and eBook publisher (I forget who now) who wrote a blog post saying that writers should aim to be good enough, but not become paranoid about it all.Catherine Czerkawskahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14554969254207924049noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-60089300097998958062012-03-17T11:44:54.214+00:002012-03-17T11:44:54.214+00:00While of course I agree that we should all be stri...While of course I agree that we should all be striving for the best production values we can, and thus editing is a very important part of the proceedure... can I just suggest that we think about the Islamic tradition of art (I think it's all art, it may just be rugs) where you always leave one deliberate error because perfection is only for God to achieve... and maybe we shouldn't crucify ourselves (oops, mixed religious metaphors) about the odd typo. They happen. No one can spot everything. A reader who can't forgive a typo is a reader with wrong priorities. (Having said that, I have to confess my own editing skills have previously all too often been a low B and I now aspire to A grade so will be addressing the issue personally!) But it's the story folks, the story, the narrative, the ideas and their delivery NOT the typos which matter.CallyPhillipshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15481379296340077102noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-15317637572559908272012-03-17T11:23:28.714+00:002012-03-17T11:23:28.714+00:00Sometimes I wonder if I can spell my own name righ...Sometimes I wonder if I can spell my own name right! I'm reminded of the misery of my infant years at school when everyone else could spell Smith and Jones and even Robshaw, but I was still struggling with Czerkawska;-)Catherine Czerkawskahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14554969254207924049noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-57964169048370817152012-03-17T11:11:54.452+00:002012-03-17T11:11:54.452+00:00My Kindle jacket is a serious black, but it does h...My Kindle jacket is a serious black, but it does have a very useful reading light. I've not had trouble with an over-fussy and presumptuous editor but I have encountered a professional copy-editor for a very prestigious publisher who, obviously believing that German plurals were formed with 's', altered my careful mention of Junkers 88s so that eight flying tgether were Junkers 88s but one on its won was a Junker 88. This 'correction' appeared after I'd sent my own corrected proof copy back so I only saw it when I got advance copies. I complained bitterly. I'm supposed to know about WW2 air forces but now everyone will think I'm an ignoramus.It will be altered for the ebook version, never fear. Incompetence appears in the most unexpected places.Dennis Hamleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15781139870037634374noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-39080651100581198592012-03-17T10:03:18.243+00:002012-03-17T10:03:18.243+00:00A very timely post, Catherine! And what you say i...A very timely post, Catherine! And what you say is absolutely true. I shall have to struggle with my natural stinginess and actually pay the going rate.<br />BTW, love your turquoise kindle jacket! Mine flaunts itself in bright red.Susan Pricehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07738737493756183909noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-34539739919766331002012-03-17T10:02:59.987+00:002012-03-17T10:02:59.987+00:00it's too early in the morning to make a seriou...it's too early in the morning to make a serious point, and i'm off to the zoo with two small children, so i'll just be silly. does your editor expect extra pay to spell your name right, catherine (not that name)? sorree!Jan Needlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15823078224282953782noreply@blogger.com