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How (and Why) to Work with an Editor

July 1, 2018 by Barbara McNichol Leave a Comment

Barbara McNichol from June 2018 issue of Speaker Magazine

work with an editorAs a professional, you send your ideas into the world in writing—via books, blogs, articles, and more. In today’s crowded marketplace, the more you write, the more every word counts.

Who can help you break through the clutter? Editors: your conduit to communicating to those you want to influence. For if an experienced editor doesn’t “get” your message, neither will they. And because the written word sticks around longer than the spoken word, it matters!

Why You Need an Editor

It’s tempting to regard hiring editors as an unnecessary expense. Instead, see it as an investment in effectiveness. Here’s why:

  1. You grow as a writer. Pay attention to editors’ changes and learn the tricks of the editing trade. That includes getting assurance that your piece meets your objective.
  2. You improve your book’s marketing power. A good editor can wordsmith titles, headings and subheads as well as incorporate keywords to hook readers during online searches.
  3. You gain insight and save embarrassment. Your writing benefits from an editor’s initial “deep massage” that asks insightful questions and makes suggestions to hone your message. It’s followed by a tight copyedit to find those pesky grammar gremlins and wording errors before readers do. After you make changes, your editor reviews everything, does a final proofread, and keeps your project moving.

Then at the end of the process, you can declare with confidence, “My writing sounds just like me—only better!” (As an editor, that’s what I desire for my clients.)

Choosing an Editor

For books, the magic of selecting the right editor lies in the Sample Edit—a complimentary edit of your work from your manuscript. Sure, you get value from seeing Before and After of someone else’s project, but don’t skip this step. Request samples from all contenders. That’s how you come close to comparing apples to apples.

I call the Sample Edit “magic” because you get to see:

  • the level of editing required
  • how clearly your message can be expressed
  • if the edits changed your voice—a huge concern for authors.

And it does something else: The Sample Edit helps determine your project’s place on the editing spectrum. Does it require proofreading, copyediting, or a complete rewrite? Along with word count, that determines an editor’s customized fee, communicated in writing up front.

In your selection process, be sure to examine prospective editors’ credentials. Study their websites and peruse their portfolios. Testimonials are great, but also ask for references so you can pose questions to their clients related to your needs.

In short, don’t miss the opportunity to deliver your best writing. After all, it’s you, your voice, your contribution to the world. Make sure your message comes across clear and strong. It’s that important!

Tricks of the Editing Trade

  • Enliven your text by using active (not passive) construction:
  • Active: “The boy chomped into the juicy watermelon.” The verb “chomped” is active.
  • Passive: “The juicy watermelon was eaten by the boy.” The word “by” is a clue that it’s passive.
  • Keep it simple:
  • One idea per sentence
  • One distinct point per paragraph
  • No more than 21 words in a sentence.
  • Whack wordiness:
  • “I really think it’s time to go.” (“It’s time to go.”)
  • “Due to the fact that” (“Because…”)
  • “There are m[M]any experts that believe in magic.”

Word Alert: The word “that” doesn’t substitute for “who” when referring to a person. You’d refer to someone who speaks, not someone that speaks.

  • Use the correct word to say what you mean. Even from excellent writers, editors often encounter misused words: browse vs. peruse, compliment vs. complement, advice vs. advise.

As an expert editor, Barbara McNichol proudly helps speakers/authors change the world with their well-crafted words. Over 24 years, Barbara has placed more than 350 books (and counting) on her editor’s “trophy shelf.” She is also the creator of Word Trippers Tips, a resource for better writing available at www.WordTrippers.com.

Filed Under: Editors and Authors Tagged With: editors' credentials, expert editor, find editor, misused words, nonfiction editing, professional book editing, professional business book editor, Whack Wordiness, word clutter, work with editor

Use Bulleted Lists Effectively – Here’s How

June 14, 2017 by Barbara McNichol Leave a Comment

by Barbara McNichol

Business authors have great expertise to share with the world. Their most recent book often represents their seminal work.

That’s true for Robin Speculand’s Excellence in Execution. As part of Robin’s authorship team for more than 10 years, I’ve witnessed how he has brilliantly brought together myriad elements he’s developed to teach leaders how to implement strategies. Based on years of research and training, this new book delivers the H.O.W. (How Organizations Win) of strategy execution.

In nonfiction books especially, the value of clear, consistent writing comes through. With a little help from his editor, Robin has reinforced this in his current and previous award-winning books, his website, and throughout his Implementation Hub portal.

Across these platforms, two effective techniques can be adopted by all writers:

  1. Relying on bulleted lists to complement points made in prose
  2. Making sure all bulleted phrases follow a clear, consistent style

What’s a clear, consistent style? This bulleted list provides the answer:

  • Use bullets often. People skim more than they read word for word.
  • Keep the number of words to a minimum (i.e., take out unneeded adverbs and adjectives).
  • List the shortest line first and the longest last whenever possible so the bulleted list looks attractive on the page.
  • Start each bulleted phrase with the same part of speech (e.g., all nouns, all gerunds, all verbs, and so on, but never a mixture).

That last point is key. Consistently use the same part of speech to prevent the reader’s brain from flying in a variety of directions. In the following two lists from my WordShop, you’ll see how using the same part of speech makes the second one easier to follow than the first.

This first list—points for formatting a manuscript—has a mixed bag of bullet points:

  • Single (not double) space between sentences
  • Change any straight quotes to curly quotes
  • Ending period goes inside a quotation mark (U.S. style)
  • Subheads if appropriate
  • Bullet points indented 5 spaces

This second list uses the same part of speech to start each bullet:

  • Use a single (not double) space between sentences
  • Change any straight quotes to curly quotes
  • Put ending period inside a quotation mark (U.S. style)
  • Add subheads if appropriate
  • Indent bullet points 5 spaces

Challenge: Look at your own bulleted lists. If you haven’t started each point with a same part of speech, change them. When you do, your writing will gain clarity and consistency.

Filed Under: Business Writing Tagged With: better writing, bullet points, bulleted lists, Excellence in Execution, nonfiction editing, professional business book editoruse of bullet points, Robin Speculand

Choosing the Right Kind of Editor for Your Nonfiction Book

March 26, 2012 by Barbara McNichol Leave a Comment

by Beth Justino

Choosing an editor is a big step. This is the person you will trust with your words, your ideas, and your vision. How can you choose wisely?

The first step is to understand what kind of editorial service you’re looking for. Editors work with manuscripts in different ways. Some take the “10,000 foot” view, considering your book’s overall structure and theme, while others are basically holding a magnifying glass right up to the details of spelling and punctuation.

Which is right for you? Do you want someone to tear your work to shreds? To suggest alternate endings, or to point out entire chapters that aren’t necessary? Or do you want someone to check the spelling?

While not everyone uses the terms noted below, these are standard descriptions for different editing services.

Developmental:

Also often called a “substantive edit” or “manuscript evaluation.” This service invites an editor to critique your overall manuscript. Feedback often comes in a memo, or in annotated comments throughout the work, that provides general guidelines and feedback for you to tackle revisions. The editor doesn’t actually change anything in the document itself.

For nonfiction manuscripts, the feedback will focus on the impact of your content: its clarity and conviction, the flow of ideas, and the effectiveness of the writing style.

Line:

This is typically the most intense (and some say, invasive) editing, and the place where you really need to trust your editor. Line editors bring out the best in your author’s voice and make your writing shine. That means that sometimes a line editor will make actual content changes to a work.

Line editing represents the highest level of the editor’s craft. Line editors consider what can be trimmed, condensed, or cut in order to improve pace, avoid repetition, and make the experience of a book as engaging as possible. A line edit might include:

  • Eliminating wordiness, triteness, and inappropriate jargon.
  • Giving dialogue more “snap” and bite.
  • Smoothing transitions and moving sentences to improve readability.
  • Extending examples, adding subheadings.
  • Suggesting—and sometimes implementing—more comprehensive additions and deletions, noting them at the sentence and paragraph level.

 Copy:

Copy editing is, I think, what most people envision when they think about editing. The book remains largely in the order and at the pace that it was, and editorial changes happen at the sentence level.

Copy editing may include:

  • Editing for clarity, format, syntax, obvious factual errors, and continuity. 
  • Correcting faulty spelling, grammar, and punctuation.
  • Correcting incorrect usage (such as who for that).
  • Checking specific cross-references (page numbers, references, etc.)
  • Flagging inappropriate or over-used figures of speech.
  • Changing passive verbs to active.
  • Flagging ambiguous or incorrect statements.

 Proofreading:

This is usually the final step in editing, when a detail-oriented, meticulous editor goes word-by-word to correct grammar, spelling, usage, and typographical errors. Proofreaders make sure that spelling (is it grey or gray?), hyphens, numerals, and capitalization are always consistent.

Proofreading fixes what our computer spelling and grammar checkers miss.

Which of these services fits what you need right now?

Beth Jusino is an editor, teacher, and the Director of Book and Author Marketing for The Editorial Department, one of the oldest and most respected author services firms in the United States. There, she evaluates everything from self-help nonfiction to mystery novels, women’s fiction to memoir. She lives in Seattle, where she is a member of the Northwest Independent Editors Guild, and teaches a “Guide to Getting Published” seminar each quarter at the University of Washington’s Experimental College in Seattle. She has published white papers on Writing a Nonfiction Book Proposal and Market While You Write: Developing Your Author Brand While You’re Still Working on Your Book (both available from The Editorial Department for now, and Amazon soon).  Find out more at www.editorialdepartment.com.

 

Filed Under: Editors and Authors Tagged With: Beth Justino, book editing services, copy editing, developmental editing, line editing, nonfiction editing, proofreading, The Editorial Department

What’s the Link Between Quality and Value in Your Writing?

February 27, 2012 by Barbara McNichol Leave a Comment

by Barbara McNichol

When you select a dentist, no doubt you weigh many factors before making that appointment. Quality and value considerations top the list.

I recently explored how book authors in my circle view the relationship between QUALITY and VALUE when it comes to improving their writing through editing.

Not only did I bask in some praise (“like finding a good dentist, Barbara takes all the pain out of editing,” one client wrote), I got valuable information to share at an upcoming editing panel at the Tucson Festival of Books. 

The questions I asked about 400 authors were:

  1. If you have not used professional editing services, what do you expect the VALUE of your written pieces to be when they are professionally edited versus no outside editing?
  2. If you have used editors, how did you perceive the relationship between the QUALITY of the editorial services received and the VALUE it brought to your work?
  3. For future projects, how will you determine the QUALITY of editing you need to achieve the ultimate VALUE you’re looking for?

From the responses I’ve received to date, I’ve gleaned a number of insights representing only a smattering of valued responses.  They include:  

    • To respect the author’s intentions by understanding the hearts and minds of intended readers
    • To ensure the author’s work is a delight to read and, therefore, marketable
    • To appreciate and respect the subject and intention of the book’s topic
    • To emphasize that the more professionally written the piece (book, article, blog, newsletter), the more credibility and respect (value) the author gains
    • To make the writing more engaging and use vivid words that paint a picture for the reader
    • To ask insightful questions and add considered opinions to the book’s discussion
    • To make the author’s experience easy and efficient though a high standard and fast turnaround times
    • To convey that because of the quality of the editing, the value of what’s written increases immensely; for some, it has led to more speaking engagements!

I invite you to chime in on this conversation and share your thoughts on these three questions.

Filed Under: Book Writing Tagged With: improving writing, nonfiction editing, professional editorial services, quality of editing, value of editing

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