editing

3 Techniques to Proofread Your Story

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This post, by Andre Cruz, originally appeared on his The Word blog on 10/3/13.

After I complete a story, I just want to be done. Don’t you? I mean, to develop a story from mind to paper takes time and after spending a lot of it you want to kick your feet up and move on. You figure to have someone else proofread your story, since you’ve heard that it is better to have a fresh pair of eyes look at your manuscript.

In the beginning of my writing career, I felt that way. I figured that once I completed a story I needed someone else to look at it for proofreading. I thought that proofreading my own story was not only a waste of time, but toxic to my story’s overall success.

That is not the case. In fact, I have found that it is the complete opposite. No matter who you find to proofread your story. Even if they offer some of the best proofreading services, nothing beats you reading through your manuscript yourself for errors before you send it to a proofreader.

Think about it. No one knows your story as well as you do. So when proofreading your own manuscript, you are more capable of finding things that should be there, but aren’t, such as certain dialogue and narrative. A proofreader will only be able to correct what is there and if they are capable enough to feel something is missing in the manuscript, will they be able to correct it as well as you would? I don’t think so.

 

Click here to read the rest of the post on The Word.

 

What Does It Cost To Self-Publish?

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This post, by Sue Collier, originally appeared on Self Publishing Resources on 7/23/13.

Although it is possible to self-publish for a very small amount of money—have friends edit your manuscript, do your own interior layout, design your own cover, upload the files to a POD printer and/or ebook service—the reality is that by self-publishing, you are essentially launching a new business. And publishing a professional-looking, high-quality book will cost you some money.

So what can you expect spend for a book that looks as good and reads as well as the trad published stuff on the shelf next to it? Well, let’s say we have a 65,000-word manuscript in the self-help genre (nonfiction); there are no images, but several different levels of headings and a few tables that need to be created.

 

Editing

Every writer needs some kind of editor. Even if your sister-in-law’s cousin’s neighbor’s father was a former college professor and has offered to read your manuscript for free, I recommend you still hire a pro. As an editor myself, I have edited plenty of works written by academics—and other very smart people—who are awful writers and probably even worse editors.

You can expect to pay a minimum of $1,200 for a professional copy edit of a manuscript of that size. You might be able to find an editor who does it for a bit less and who probably has less editing experience. You can also expect to pay a lot more, depending on the level of editing required, anywhere from $2,600 and on up to several thousand dollars, depending on the experience of the editor. I’ve read some people estimate a developmental edit at $18,500, but that does seem quite high to me.

 

Interior layout

 

Click here to read the rest of the post on Self Publishing Resources.

 

Audio Proofing Word Files On Kindle

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This post, by Morris Rosenthal, originally appeared on his Foner Books site on 10/29/13.

Today I caught myself, with the shaving cream prepared for action on my hand, running my toothbrush under the hot water. I took it for my razor. So it’s not surprising that I have trouble proofreading my own writing, as my blog entries frequently testify. Believe me, I go through them several times before posting, you’re seeing the cleaned up versions:-)

One proofreading trick I discovered a couple years ago is to send Word files to an eInk Kindle and to read them there in large print. For some reason, this has more of a “published” feel to me than laser printed proofs, and the look of a published book is the only thing that recalls my proofing ability to the old days, when I never made it through a trade book without spotting errors.

Last week, as I was finishing up a guide to borrowing audiobooks from public libraries for Kindle and Fire, a little light bulb went off in my head. Audio? Proofing? I fired up my Kindle 2 (on which it’s possible to listen to library audiobooks though you have to download them to a PC first and transfer by USB) and used Send To Kindle to send over the draft I was working on. Then I used that funny synthesized voice that has been available on Kindle eInk since the beginning, and lo and behold, I picked up on a couple more errors I had missed through repeated readings.

 

Click here to read the rest of the how-to on Foner Books.