FINDING A GOOD EDITOR IS KEY TO WRITING WELL.

Hello everybody,

I’ve been busy since my last post in September, which is odd for me. When I retired in July, I thought I’d publish a few of the books I wrote and sit back in my rocker waiting for the royalty checks. Ha, ha being an author is one of the most time-consuming projects I’ve ever taken on.

First, you have to get everything edited properly. That means lots of back and forth between you and your editor. Then there are the numerous revisions that will drive you crazy. Your editor if she’s any good, asks you to justify things that don’t make sense when you put them in black and white on a page. You think everything you write is amazing and makes perfect sense. Well, I’m here to tell you it doesn’t. Your editor tells you how and why it doesn’t. Most times, your editor is right. You’re wrong which of course is nearly impossible for you to admit so you argue and argue then you finally give into your editors revisions. Viola, you produce a quality written manuscript. Now you have to find a decent book cover artist.

Oops, I forgot to say it. You have to find a damned good editor first. That’s a lengthy project in itself. It took me years to find one who understood my style and voice…very important. I hired a number of editors over the years. Each one was good for someone. They just weren’t good for me. I’ve even had friends with editorial skills offer to edit but never followed through. You know the deal. Friends are all talk in front of an audience but no action when it comes time to do the editing so I went with hiring another professional.

I said hiring another professional because I’ve learned some things on my journey to publication. Paying somebody to edit your work is a good thing when the editor actually does the work. The editor I have now does great work for me. The series of editors I had before, charged a tidy penny and still didn’t do a great job. You know an editor sucks when you find misspelling in the dedication…not even in the first page of your book but in the dedication. What do you do if the book is already out there in Kindle space with spelling errors? Well, I crossed my fingers hoping nobody noticed until I spoke with my publisher who redid the book once. It still contained errors just not as many before and I paid for the redo.

Thank God, that was back then and this is now. I found a great editor who helped me get three books published with a fourth one in the queue…publishing date … Oops I mean release date on December 15, but you can preorder the book Buildings, a New York love story, at the end of this month 11/30/14.

Amazon links to my published books are below:
Safe Haven: Amazon.com: http://amzn.to/1v9Pff2

Old Man Peterson, murder it’s all in the family: Amazon.com: http://amzn.to/1qQbM0G
I’m Your Baby Tonight, but what about tomorrow?: http://amzn.to/11rqmQR