UPDATE 1/8/2021
I am a member of several closed writers’ groups on Facebook. I won’t name them. No one I have encountered so far is setting the world on fire with his or her prose, but occasionally I will pick up a useful tidbit about a job website to avoid or a publisher who is currently accepting manuscripts about a particular subject.
Today I read a post from a man who was angry. His five self-published books are currently available on Amazon. You can read the first four for free. That’s rarely a good sign. Anyway, he was upset because he’d gotten a one-star review from someone. The review said, and I’m paraphrasing slightly, the author could benefit from the use of an editor. His grammar is so bad, this book isn’t worth reading, even for free.
'I didn't do nothin' wrong
'
The author, in his rant about this review, explained his characters speak with Southern accents, so he used colloquialisms, writing sentences like, “I’m fixin’ to head into town. If you ain’t goin’ with me, just stay here.” He complained that, and again I’m paraphrasing, the reviewer shouldn’t criticize my attempts to capture a Southerner’s way of speaking. These quotes were written this way intentionally.
I agreed with his premise. Colloquialisms are fun in a skillful writer’s hands (think, Twain). So I went to Amazon, found the author and his five books, and easily located the one-star review. I read it, then I started to read the book online. For free. And I’ve got to tell you, the reviewer was right.
This author, and I might be using the word author too freely, has a Facebook page, so I visited it. There I found a long post about the uselessness of spending money (“hundreds, maybe thousands of dollars”) on an editor for a self-published book. It was, to his mind, an unnecessary expenditure.
You don't know what you don't know
You know the saying “You don’t know what you don’t know”? That’s the problem with this poor, misguided fellow. He interpreted the reviewer’s comment to be a criticism of the colloquialisms. But I’m certain that’s not what he meant. Grammatical mistakes occurred often in the prose. He has poor knowledge of punctuation. His paragraphs are long and riddled with passive-voice sentences. In the 20 or so pages I read, the “to be” verbs nearly lulled me to sleep.
And—yes, I’m going to say it—he was guilty of breaking the rule “show, don’t tell.” In one passage, the author talks about a character walking along a dirt road carrying his rifle. He sees a prairie dog “scurrying along the ground” (as opposed to scurrying among the clouds, I guess) and decides to take a shot at it. The next sentence: “He was an excellent shot.” Pretty compelling stuff, right? I guess the reader must assume the bullet found its mark. Or not. Who knows?
I'm an author, dammit.
This writer sees himself as a “published author.” The advent of easy, cheap self-publishing options has given rise to a slew of writing hobbyists who are now “published authors.” I am not a critic of self-publishing. Not at all. I am, however, a critic of folks who call themselves published authors because they can string a few sentences together, create several two-dimensional characters, produce a story with a beginning, middle, and end, and get it on Amazon for all to read.
One of the comments the writer got in this Facebook thread said you need help with your grammar, to which he replied, and I am not paraphrasing this time, I'm not the slightest bit worried about my grammar.
Well sir, shame on you.
Don't settle for "good enough"
The above-mentioned writer is under the impression, according to his post, that typos and occasional grammatical errors are acceptable and should not distract from the overall quality of a book. I couldn’t disagree more. Well, I would say that, wouldn’t I? I am an editor. Be it a blog post, a magazine article, a textbook, or a novel, I do not settle for “pretty good,” “close enough,” or “good enough” when I edit a piece.
And neither should you.
One more observation: I did not post a comment about the writer’s one-star review in the thread, but many in the group did. After a dozen or more folks encouraged
the man to start using an editor because, well, he desperately needs one, he stopped accepting comments. You don’t know what you don’t know.
Updated: Dec 20, 2021
UPDATED 12/20/21
A developmental edit is probably best understood at the basic level by thinking about the word developmental. The manuscript begins to develop from its current state toward the final work you want it to be. In Scott Norton's book Developmental Editing: A Handbook for Freelancers, Authors, and Publishers, he personally defines developmental editing:
"...significant structuring or restructuring of a manuscript's discourse."
Norton discusses what I've already mentioned in my previous blog post on manuscript assessments, that even in the industry, opinions vary as to what significant means. At the University of California Press in Berkeley where he worked, a developmental edit was considered:
"...intervention that moves content from one chapter to another, or rearranges the lion's share of a chapter's contents within itself but that falls short of writing new material."
During a developmental edit, I make certain I have a firm grasp on two big-picture questions:
What is the purpose of the book? Don't lose sight of why this manuscript has been written.
Who is its intended audience? The author and the DE must keep at least one person in mind at all times who is the ideal reader.
My duties as a developmental editor can be wide-ranging, depending on the levels of experience and confidence of the author. But these are my primary responsibilities:
Suggesting a format that best communicates the thesis (message).
Restructuring the text to fit the chosen format, which can include adding or deleting material to make the text flow.
Ensuring consistent structure.
Identifying gaps in the material (in fiction, this can include plot gaps and problematic characterization).
Deleting text that does not achieve the agreed upon objective of the book or speak to the target audience.
Illustrations, diagrams, photos, and the like are taken into consideration during this phase, as well. If beta readers have been used, I will review their feedback and work with the author to decide how to incorporate suggestions into the material.
In addition to working as a nonfiction and creative nonfiction editor and writing coach, I am co-author, with Dr. Terri Lyon, of the book Make a Difference with Mental Health Activism: No activism degree required—use your unique skills to change the world. Visit my website page Make a Difference and Dr. Lyon’s activism website Life At The Intersection to learn more about Make a Difference, including how to place bulk orders.
Updated: Jan 8, 2021
If you are a veteran writer, you probably know which level of editing your manuscript needs before you reach out to an editor. But if you are struggling with the difference between a manuscript assessment and a developmental edit, or a line edit and a copyedit, you are not alone. I'll come clean -- in writing those descriptions on my SERVICES page, I did some research (I love research). I wanted to make certain I described my services using my industry’s consensus as to what those services entail. The first five websites I went to for the definitions of the different levels of editing provided five slightly different definitions. In fact, the more I researched, the more confused I became.
Ultimately, I defined my services in accordance with editorial services descriptions from the website of the Editorial Freelancers Association (EFA), of which I am a member. Through this blog, I would like to go into greater detail about each of these services. Let’s start at the very beginning….
Manuscript assessment. Manuscript critique. Manuscript evaluation. These terms are often used interchangeably. But there are subtle differences.
To my mind, critiques are usually the purview of community writing groups. Small gatherings of men and women who love to write, and are typically hoping to be published, read and critique each other’s work on a weekly or monthly basis. A good writing group, where everyone shares similar hopes and are at similar skill levels, can be fun, informative, and genuinely helpful.
An evaluation is typically done at no charge by your mother or your best friend who, of course, will love your work and recommend you don’t change a word. But seriously, the best way to get free evaluations of the quality of your work is to use beta readers. Be picky when choosing your beta readers, though; the quality of the feedback is directly proportional to the objectivity of the reader.
I offer manuscript assessments. With an assessment, you will get a report detailing your manuscript’s strengths and weaknesses. I will comment on the appropriateness of the style, tone, pace, voice, structure, organization, consistency, and thoroughness of the work. The areas of assessment will vary depending upon the category and genre of the work. No line editing or revisions are done at this point. When asking for an assessment, take time to tell me what areas of the manuscript you are concerned about and where you would most like me to focus my attention. You can ask for an assessment of just one or two particular aspects of the work, if that’s all you need at that time.
The main difference between a manuscript assessment and a developmental edit is primarily in what I supply to you. I will explain that further in my next post.
In addition to my business Strike The Write Tone, I am a contract editor, writing coach, and ghostwriter for The Cheerful Word of Hendersonville, NC.