About Editors By An Editor

The distinguished author, editor and publisher Barbara Rogan says:

Hi John,Thanks for the nice mention on your blog, courtesy of Mike. I'm not sure which of my websites you visited---I have two, one for my writing: http://barbararogan.com and one for teaching: http://nextlevelworkshop.com and evaluations--but I'm glad you liked whichever one you visited. (Probably the former; it's prettier.) The content actually overlaps a good deal, and if you check out the writers' lounge in either of the two sites, you'll find a lot of useful information there for beginning writers. Feel free to extract suggestions or pointers for your blog if you'd think they'd be useful to your readers.

I agree with what you said on your blog about writers needing to think twice about having books edited privately. For unpublished writers, it almost never pays; and in fact, learning to edit your own work is one of the essential stages of learning to write. I teach an online course on that---quite rigorous, and the reactions have been very gratifying. For people who've actually completed a novel, a professional evaluation can be useful, though. When agents and editors reject work, they generally don't explain why; and it's awfully hard to improve if you don't know what you're doing wrong.

Mike C From Writers Forum Says:

There are no safeguards beyond copyright law, but theft of fiction is pretty uncommon. Poetry has a habit of being ripped off by schoolkids for the class poetry contest (I've judged a couple and googling first lines reveals the cheats pretty quickly).

Posting Your Unpublished Work

Can one post excerpts or lengthy portions of his/her unpublished work without worrying about theft? Are there extra safeguards besides the copyright law?

Mike C. Says: Forgot Barbara Rogan's Link

I missed out the link to Barbara Rogan's site... Barbara Rogan's Next Level Workshop

Mike C. From Writing Forums Speaks on Editors...

Editors work both freelance and in-house with publishers. Major publishers will have a team of editors (though in the current climate that may switch more to freelancers subcontracted by job).The only Agents who retain or recommend editors are generally scammers - "We love your book, we can definitely sell it, but it needs polishing, our guy can do that for $500..."If you obtain an agent they will likely suggest what needs polishing, but they'll expect you to do it. Freelancers often operate as 'Book Doctors', of variable quality. If your writing is up to snuff, you don't need them. If you want a professional second opinion, shop around. Two I can recommend are Martha O'Connor The Writer's Consultant and Barbara Rogan who offers both writing courses and manuscript evaluation.

Where Do Editors Fit ?

Do most editors work for the publishing houses in-house or by contract? Do they work for literary agents in-house or by contract? Or do they hang their own shingle out? Probably all of the above...
If you are fortunate enough to obtain a good agent, will they further have your work edited as part of their services if they are interested in your story? And if so why should writers go directly to editors if they possess pretty good english/editoring skills themselves?

Does anyone out there have good answers to these questions?

Getting Your Book Reviewed

Happy Valentines Day all! Hope every single one of you have found love in some significant way on this day in 2009...Or will in this coming year.

Let's shed a little love and info on courageous self-publishers today! How does an unknown, self-published author get his book reviewed? This really does help sales. He uses professional "book review" companies or other critically acclaimed review venues such as amazon.com and the American Library Association (ALA) to name two.

Click on this post's title above to go to an intro article on book reviews...Also go to amazon.com and click on the "Self-Publish with Us" link at the bottom of the page.

Book reviews give the prospective buyer an idea of the story without giving away the ending and surprise tid-bits; also, buyers are more likely to purchase if someone else likes or loves the book...

Dissecting a Book Marketing Plan

Still talking about marketing our newly published book.

What is a book marketing plan and why do we need it?

How do we write a marketing plan?

What do we need to have a marketing plan?

And much more interesting content in this article located at: http://www.spannet.org/marketing_plan.htm.