Posted on 06/15/2017 6:06:26 AM PDT by Huskrrrr
I have finished my first fiction novel, and I am requesting the names of editors that might help me with a developmental edit. My goal is to submit a polished manuscript (or sample) to potential literary agents. Any advice from experienced authors will be greatly appreciated. The genre is fantasy/romance. An adult or possibly young adult audience is my focus.
Check out www.lulu.com. Not sure if they offer editing but it’ll take you about 5 minutes to find out. You can also self publish three and get it on Amazon.
Three - there
Thanks for any advice given!
I believe self publishing is the way to go.
Getting a good editor for free is difficult. Editing is a lot of work.
Check with FReeper LS. He has published books according to his profile page.
Is Pendant Publishing still around? They published Yuri Testikov and Jake Jarmel, I hear. Although Alton Benes may not approve of them.
For any kind of fiction, check out CNN, Wash Po, NY Times, and other alpha soups: NBC, ABC, CBS.
Freeper LS writes history books (good ones). You should seriously look into self publishing as an e-book. There are quite a few authors making a living that way- some of them quite obviously do not use editors (or, at least, not competent ones). Here’s the site for a guy that I read-
www.drewhayesnovels.com
Drew writes his novels one chapter at a time in blog format, then, when finished, publishes them as e-books and audiobooks. He’s making a living at it, and he’s not the only one.
Go to “The Writer’s Café” at kboards and look for editors that specialize in your genre.
http://www.kboards.com/index.php?board=60.0
A lot of great resources there.
Congratulations! A great achievement! And best wishes on enduring the important editing process. Keep your eye on the prize of completion and you will get there. But regardless, finishing a novel is a fantastic bucket list achievement!!!
Bookmark
Self-publishing can work. We self-published my husband's first book in 1996 and with a published book (and news clippings about the press it got), my husband got an agent who then sold the book to Contemporary Books and the idea for another to McGraw-Hill.
Since then, we've helped several others self-publish books (mostly business nonfiction). Off the top of my head, I can think of 3 that were later picked up by major publishers (we always make it clear to the authors that this is a long shot). Most don't care as they're doing the books to give out to potential clients.
Whether you self-publish or are picked up by a publisher, you have to be willing to spend some time and money to promote it.
Bookmark
Smashwords, a self publisher, has editors and book cover that advertise through them. If there is a local writer’s guild where you live, they usually have resources for editors. Good luck, I won’t be too far behind you!
It’s easy for authors to know their characters and storyline so well that they don’t realize they’ve made intuitive leaps that aren’t clear to first-time readers. If you haven’t already, I’d suggest having some other people read it first - they don’t need to be literary types, though ideally they’d be people in your market. Another strategy is to give at least some of the readers only the first one to two thirds of your book on which to comment. If they don’t ask you for the rest to find out what happens, you’ll know you have more work to do.
If you decide to go the ebook route, I recommend word-2-kindle.com. (I have no relationship with them other than being a satisfied customer.) They charge only $49 for most text-only books. You get both an epub and a mobi file of the book. The last book I gave them to do had images or sidebars on almost every page, and it came back flawless. They also do book covers. I haven’t used them for that, but the ones they show on their website look good.
I work with several authors that right books in the same genre as you. I don’t know what she charges but I’ve heard the editor on this page is great. http://www.blueinkpress.com/news.html
Sorry, auto correct & I’m half asleep. *write, not right*. FReepmail me if I can help further.
Ping.
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