EDITORS
– GOOD AND BAD
There
has to be a reason for the phenomenal growth in self-publishing. One of many is
that within the world of published novels, the publishing house is doing less
and the writer is doing more. Yet, publishers think handing most marketing over
to the writer still justifies taking 80% to 85% of the royalty share, plus 60%
to 75% of the eBook cut.
Writers
have come up with a better idea.
The
stigma of early bad self-published books was well-deserved. Those of us who
went the high-priced print mill route using I-Universe and Xlibris and these
days Tate and Outskirts and the crooks at Author House, and far too many more
to mention, can look back and see one reason for poor sales – bad books due to
little or no editing, or worse, through self-editing. I retired as Senior
Editor of Technical Publications from Boeing so I figured I could easily handle
the editing chores for my five self-published books through Xlibris and
I-Universe. I learned even a legitimate editor cannot objectively edit his/her
own work. You need somebody from the outside. I also did the covers for those
books, another big mistake.
Publishers
today expect an edited manuscript. Whether they’re entitled to the product of
an outside editor while their editors do less, is open to argument. A writer is
probably okay doing the editing if he/she goes through it line-by-line three or
four times, or has a teacher-friend go over it. Not so if you self-publish.
Then an outside editing source must be brought into play and the cover
contracted out.
Editors
these days expect around $2 a page; times that by 330 pages and editing becomes
expensive. Cover illustrator prices are all over the wall; some get two or three
thousand dollars. I had an excellent cover made for one of my books on a bid by
a starving Argentine artist. It cost $65 and I was happy with it. I intended to
self-publish so knew I had to have a good cover. Turned out I found a publisher
who insisted on doing their own cover so that was another block of cash diving
for the sewer. Since I had the book outside edited, the publisher’s editor had
little to correct. We were done in less than two weeks.
A
good editor can not only improve a book but can elevate a writer. Maxwell
Perkins was a genius. He turned a good writer, Ernest Hemingway, into a Pulitzer,
Nobel Prize winning great writer. Hemingway spent a lifetime showing his
gratitude. There is no Maxwell Perkins today. If there is, he is way too
expensive for regular writers and it is doubtful he works for a publisher.
No
question a bad editor can ruin a book. It has happened to many; it happened to
me. The novel was eBook only, no print. One of those deals where the novel had
to sell umpteen copies before it was allowed to go print. Never mind that the
time in months or even years between eBook and print, readers would have long
ago lost interest. Most books have a lifespan of interest. Some say it’s
30days, but for a minuscule number of books, the lifespan never ends. Ray
Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451” published in 1953 has never been out of print. Same
with Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” published in 1957. In 2012 it sold
half-a-million copies. But most of us
regular writers might get 30 days or less of interest to peddle our product.
The
publisher was in Canada, I was in California and the editor lived in London.
Starting out, the cuts came frequent and deep. I kicked up a fuss but was
down-voted by the publisher who always went with her editor. Six months it went
back and forth, blazing emails from one to another. From an 89,000 word novel,
6,000 words were cut. The writing toned down to tear drops and toilet paper
pabulum. Fans who knew my writing told me they couldn’t believe the book was
mine, it didn’t read like I wrote it. I gave in with final approval under the condition
that after a year all rights revert back to me. They said two years. So, as of
December 2013, the book and its rights once again belong to me. I will add much
of what was cut, self-publish as a New-Revised-Edition with Kindle Select for
the eBook and Create Space for the print.
How
does a writer know if he/she has a good editor or a bad one. By reputation, but
most likely, by guess and by golly. There are software programs that do
line-by-line editing. It has been said they lack the human element. Well, the
human element brings subjective opinion, so that might not be a bad thing.
A
good editor at reasonable cost can be priceless. Hope you find one.
George Snyder
Contact:
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