Thank you. I stole it and sent it to my friend who’s about to self-publish his great stories with countless grammar and spelling errors, that he’s not asking anyone to correct.
I'm actually the speaker at next month's author's group here in town. I went to last month's meeting and for about two minutes told the audience about my long history in publishing, including being the person who selected manuscripts for publication. Told them that at the next meeting, I would be speaking about shaping and editing manuscripts. As I left the meeting, two women sort of bumped into me. "I have something else to do that day," said one. "So do I," said the other.
Not really surprising. I basically tell people to stay away from writers' groups, because you won't find any writers there. Even funnier, I was introduced to a woman in a small but wonderful town in CA. When she heard that I had just left my job as editorial director of a well-known publishing house, she pulled herself up, got really huffy and fumed, "Well, I'VE been to ten writers' conferences.
You get the picture.