1. This is the best thing ever! I can’t wait to share it with the world!
2. This whole thing is crap. I should chuck it in the bin and never write again.

And let’s face it, we usually think of the second one. We think back on everything we’ve just poured our heart and soul into and realized that nobody wants to hear our pathetic voices.

Whether you think you’re amazing or a load of bull, both of these perspectives are completely miscontrued from reality. The fact of the matter is, your manuscript is a mixture of good and bad. You just aren’t able to differentiate the two yet.

That’s why you need to step back, take a drink, and not look at your manuscript for a while.

Stepping Back

After you’ve typed “The End,” clse your document and don’t look at it for a while. How long? I recommend a month or two. If you’ve ever participating in NaNoWriMo or another form of flurried typing, you understand how tired of your manuscrpt you can be after a while. No matter how much you want to start fixing your novel, let it simmer for a bit first.

But don’t let your creative juices dry up in the meantime. Work on a new project in the interim. Whether it be starting a new novel, knitting a Dr. Who scarf, or painting a mural on your kid’s bedroom wall, get up and create something. It’ll keep the wheels greased for when you come back to your manuscript.

Stepping Up

When you’re ready to edit your manuscript, pull out the paper and set it in front of you. Or pull the file out of the folder and open in on your desktop. Crack your knuckles.  The best part is about to begin! Here’s some different ways you can approach the process.

1. You can read the entire first draft, first word to last, to reabsorb what all you’ve written. This helps you get an overall view of what works and what doesn’t. Make notes to yourself as you read about big plot points you want to change, probably in a separate document. Smaller changes, like paragraphs you want to rearrange or a conversation you don’t want your characters to have, you might want to note within the document itself. Then when you go back through the second time you can fix it so that it is seamless with the new draft.
2. You can go through the first draft and edit as you go. If you find a sentence you don’t like, rewrite it. If a paragraph strikes you as unnecessary, cut it out (and put it in a new document for later, just in case you decide you need it later!). Bigger plot changes will be harder to make this way, but it can be done. Just make sure when you get to rearranging and cutting and pasting that you have everything organized well.
3. You can do a strange mix of the previous two options. I don’t know how common this choice is, but it’s the one I prefer. You see, no matter how long I wait between drafts, I can’t stand to read my work straight through. I get anxious and start trying to edit within the original document, and that’s just bad. So after my month of respite (okay, sometimes even during),  I think back to my plot. A lot of times I look back at my original timeline. I try to figure out what is it that I didn’t like, what parts I need to add in, and what parts need to be taken out. I write it down in great detail for myself. Basically it’s like option one, only I’m noting my revisions from my memory of the text rather than actually looking at it. Then, when I come back in to start editing in a fresh document, it feels like I’m making immediate changes. But really I have a plan for myself.

Whichever route you choose to take, just remember to always take a break between drafts. Your eyes and your mind will thank you.

Your manuscript needs to be polished and perfected, written at least four times, before you hand it over to an editor. It wouldn’t hurt to have a friend or two read it for larger, more obvious mistakes, too. It should be more like a term paper that’s ready to be turned in at the end of the semester. Then your editor, like your professor, can give his little red squiggles in the margins and write a few overall remarks to you.

Editors aren’t here to hold your hand and give you encouragement with every sentence you write. I’m sorry, but that’s what your mom is for. Neither is your editor here to tell you how to construct paragraphs and scenes. That is what your English teacher is for (and the columns on Prewriting and Rewriting here on Unstressed Syllables, and other writing advice sites). Editors are here to give the final review before you put your words out there for the rest of the public to see. They can gauge what your readers are going to like and what they are going to complain about, and they are giving you one last chance to correct those unenjoyable parts before it’s too late.

The sad truth of the matter is that your editor doesn’t have time to rewrite your book for you. As much as we want to help you become a great writer, we can’t take your rough draft and reconstruct the entire thing so that it sounds amazing. Well, we could, but you would have to pay us a lot more and put our names on the cover as your co-author.

Because that’s not what editors are for. We’re not here to write your book for you. So send us a book that is complete, that is written, not that is a rough draft. When I worked at Tate, many authors were afraid to take my suggestions because they were afraid that once they did so, the book would not be theirs any more. They were afraid, essentially, that I would rewrite their book. But if you’ve properly self-edited beforehand, that shouldn’t be a problem.

Not only does self-editing help eliminate a lot of work and rewriting that your editors don’t want to do, it can give you a confidence and humility in your own work.

Confidence and humility? How does that work?

Going back to my timid Tate authors, they were afraid that if they took my suggestions, that their book would become “tainted” by my voice and suggestions. But if they’d gone over their book multiple times, rewriting their own sentences, they’d come to know their own voice more confidently. They could have taken my suggestions and put it in their own words, keeping the tone theirs. Be confident in your book.

Conversely, when some authors get their edits back, they refuse to make changes because they’ve become too attached to their words. They think they are too wonderful to be subject to criticism. “My editor says that this sentence doesn’t fit here, but I slaved over this sentence! My readers will appreciate it more than she does.” If you’ve already taken a critical eye to your work three or four or five times, you’ve (hopefully) learned that there is nothing in your book that is perfect. Every word is subject to scrutiny. You’ve humbled yourself enough to realize that you can always make changes.

So. Sorry to break it to you, but you have a long road ahead before you’re ready to select a professional editor. Fortunately, you have me and all the other contributors here at Unstressed Syllables to help you get ready for that step. Come back next week to learn about getting ready for that second (and third and fourth) draft.

Jessie Sanders is the managing editor at Consortium Books, editor of the bestselling Dragonprince trilogy, and author of the young adult fantasy novel Into the Flames. Every Friday she shares an article about editing and how to improve one’s grammar.

Find out more about Jessie Sanders at her author and editing website, and check out her novel, Into the Flames, in stores now!

Again, rules are key here, and today I’m going to tell you three rules about commas that I’ve seen misused a lot recently.

Before we begin, here are some ground rules. Excuse me if I’m being patronizing, but I want to make sure we’re all on the same page.

A clause is a phrase or set of words that all go together. For example, “I went to the store” is all one sentence, but it is also all one clause, an independent. “Without her knowledge of psychology”  is also a clause, but it’s only part of a sentence.

A complete sentence or independent clause is one that can stand on its own. Every sentence or independent clause requires a subject and verb. That’s it. “I went.” “You ate.” “That is.” These are all legitimate sentences. Unfortunately, sometimes constructing a complete sentence is harder than it sounds, as you might see below.

All right, now let’s begin.

1. Oxford Commas

A lot of people don’t appreciate Oxford commas anymore, and this makes me sad because they make so much sense to me. I like it because of its uniformity to the rest of the list. Others think it just clutters up the sentence.  Many stylebooks don’t call for Oxford commas, but Chicago Manual of Style does, so if you’re writing a novel, make sure to include them.

What are Oxford Commas?

When you have a list of three or more items, the Oxford comma is the one right before the and of the last item. For example, “I went to the store and bought grapes, juice, and soda.” The red comma is the one in question. Here’s another reason why I think Oxford commas are important. If you look at the image I linked in the previous sentence, you’ll see that without a comma, the two last items can be run together. And yes, sometimes this is necessary.

2. Independent vs. Dependent Clauses

So the rule of thumb here is that if the clause is dependent, there is no comma. If the clause is independent, add the comma. I think the easiest way to remember is that independent clauses want to have nothing to do with the first part of the sentence, because they’re so independent, so they need a comma to separate the two. I think a hundred years ago the rule was different, becuase I saw the exact opposite when I read Jane Eyre.

What is a dependent clause?

This is where it gets difficult. Let’s consider the two sentences below.

a. I went to the store, and I bought a pair of shoes.

b. I went to the store and bought a pair of shoes.

These two sentences are nearly identical except for one thing. In sentence A, the second clause, “and I bought a pair of shoes,” has its own subject, I. In sentence B, the second clause borrows the subject from the first clause (also I). Sentence A has an independent clause because of its seperate subject. Therefore, it requires a comma.

Sentence B is dependent because it can’t stand on its own. “Bought a pair of shoes,” while perhaps an acceptable facebook status, doesn’t qualify as a complete sentence. Therefore it depends on the first part of the sentence, “I went to the store,” to sustain it by lending it its subject.

3. Introductory Phrases

Most of us have a penchant for setting off every single introductory phrase with a comma. However, most of the time this leads to unnecessary pauses when really the phrase can just flow into the sentence. The longer the introductory phrase, the more likely you are to need a comma after it. The rule I follow is that if there are four or more words in your introductory phrase, add a comma. Otherwise, leave it alone.

What is an introductory phrase?

Well, it’s basically what it sounds like. It’s a phrase that is at the beginning of  your sentence but isn’t the main clause because it doesn’t contain your sentence or verb.

Before I went to the store, I put on my shoes.

The first six words in this sentence are an introductory phrase. “I put” is the actual sentence. “Before I went to the store” just qualifies when I put. Becuase it was longer than four words, I added a comma.

After lunch I went to the store.

Again, “after lunch,” denotes the setting of the main phrase. However, since it’s so short, you don’t need to put a comma after it. Adding a comma wouldn’t change the meaning of the sentence, but if you’re going for a sparse, clean look with easy readability, I suggest leaving the comma out.

Well, I hope I haven’t overwhelmed you too much for one week. Come back next month, and I’ll have some more grammatical tips for you. Happy writing!

Now it’s time to get back to something that I love very much: the rules.

Last time I wrote here, I covered the different types of editing that an editor might be required to perform on your manuscript. One of my favorites is copyediting. That’s because I’m a stickler for rules. Things need to have rules, and they need to adhere to those rules as much as possible.

Unfortunately,  language is really bad about rules. All languages are fluid, ever-changing. Definitions of words change as we use them in different connotations (I mean, like, literally). New words crop up to describe new experiences and developments (have you Googled anything today?). And hey, that’s great. I mean, who wants to talk like Chaucer anyway? “Whan that Aprille…” Please. So five centuries ago.

And that’s not even talking about the mess of languages we call English. English was already a hodge-podge of Germanic and Romantic languages. But over the years, as the world has shrunk and we’ve all kind of mushed together in America, words from other languages have pushed their way in (tête-à-tête, anyone? Know any business tycoons?). These have made huge exceptions to whatever semblance of rules we might have had.

So, in this world where dictionaries tell us that both analyse and analyze are acceptable and where no one can decide whether or not to keep the Oxford comma, how do we choose? How can the rule-keepers keep some order among the chaos?

Style Guides Everywhere!

I first noticed that there were different style guides in college. I was in the English department, and my professors insisted I acquaint myself with MLA formatting for everything I turned in. My sister, a Family Studies/Child Development major, used APA. And in my Bible classes, my professors didn’t care what style I used as long as I was consistent (you can imagine my outrage when one of my teachers accused me of making a style up when I was clearly using MLA).

Style Guides are what keep us sane (sometimes). There are a lot of styles to choose from, and most guides are specific to different venues and purposes. For example, MLA is for literary articles, while APA is mostly used for psychology journals and the like. Turabian is used for theses and dissertations.

Imagine my shock when I discovered that the Little, Brown Handbook was neither little nor brown, but a rather robust guide for the rules in multiple styles of citation. There are so many different style guides out there that I can’t begin to cover them all. I had an editor friend where one of her authors insisted that she use the University of Alaska Fairbanks‘ style guide for editing her novel.

Chicago Manual of Style

But please don’t feel overwhelmed. If you’re writing a novel or even non-fiction book, the choice is simple. The majority of publishing houses in the United States use Chicago Manual of Style, and so should you.

CMOS (as we in the biz like to call it) covers everything from how to space the lines in your document to whether or not to add hyphens in black-and-white (hint, the answer is do add them).  When Merriam-Webster and the OED give you two different ways spell something, Chicago can make the decision of which to choose (it’s Merriam-Webster, btw).

The size of this tome may intimidate you, but it makes me feel safe. Each page is chock full of rules for me to follow!

CMOS actually gives you a lot of places where you, the author, can use “your best judgement,” as long as you are consistent with your usage. It also has an online forum where you can ask questions that are answered by the editors.

If you don’t have the money to splurge on a new footrest *cough* I mean, very useful guide book that you will use every day *cough*, or decide to go with a different guide book, that’s fine with me. I’ll never know the difference. But this is the most important rule, and you must follow it at all costs:

Be consistent.

No matter what, always be consistent with the rules that you set for yourself. If you don’t, you look sloppy and like you don’t care about your work. Consistency shows that you have meticulously read through your work for errors, that you understand what you are doing, and that you have enough discipline to follow through. Consistency is key!

But really, just use CMOS. It’s the best.

The most important thing to remember is that this relationship is a give and take. Just as you are creative in the writing of your book, so is the editor in helping you to refine it. Depending on the level of your own experience, an editor will gauge how much guidance they feel you need from them. Just as every writer works differently, so does every editor.

Let’s say, for the sake of this exercise, you’ve found a few editors with whom you think you can work. How do you know which one to choose? Which one will work best with you and for you?

That is relatively simple. I told you in my last post that most editors will request a sample of your writing. Just as an editor wants to evaluate you before they accept you as a client, you should evaluate them before you hire them. Remember that you are the employer and you have every right to ask a potential employee for a sample of their work, just as, in a traditional workplace, you might request a resumé.

By reading an editor’s website, you should be able to find out more about their individual approach to their work. You’ll probably also get a feel for the way they write, since most indies write their own copy for their websites/blogs. Don’t be afraid to read samples of the books they’ve edited. This will give you insight as to the quality of the work they produce, or let out of the gate.

But the easiest, most important thing an editor can do to show you how they will handle your individual work is to actually show you. THAT is where your sample works for you. You’ve sent your potential editor(s) a sample of your work. Ask them to edit it and send it back to you.

If you’re trying to decide between two or more editors, comparing their markups of your work and how much you agree is the best way to decide which one will be the better choice for you. Notice I said, “for you.”

I’d like to repeat here that editors are a diverse group, and choosing between them is not always a black and white, “Who has the better resume?” or, “Who has the more impressive body of work?” Make sure you choose one with whom you know you can work, with whom you agree to a point. Consider how much they point out to improve, or to leave alone, and how that impacts what you wish to accomplish with your work.

Do not become defensive about your work; accept that evaluation as that one person’s constructive criticism and let it be your guide to hiring a person who could very well be your editor for years to come. I know authors with whom I’ve worked once or twice and a decision has been made, either by me, by them, or both of us that maybe we don’t mesh as well as we thought we did. Then there are those for whom I’ve done everything from their blogs, to their promotional materials, to every piece in their bibliography.

You may not feel that click immediately, but you will be able to make a more educated decision by looking at their work as it pertains to your work. I really can’t get much more detailed than that except to tell you to trust your instincts and don’t be afraid to tell a potential editor you’ve decided to go with a different editor.

You are embarking on a long-term working relationship. You’re at the start of a great journey. Now get out there and find yourself an editor.

Laurie Laliberte is a freelance fiction editor who specializes in working with independent authors who are new to self-publishing. Further details about her work can be found on her website and you will find much of her bibliography here.

Email: KindleAllStars@gmail.com

Twitter: @LaliberteLaurie

Yes, editors are everywhere, but let’s assume you’re not one of them. Let’s assume you’re a first time author publishing independently. Where should you begin? The quick and easy answer: wherever you feel most comfortable.

Chances are you’re regularly active on some form of social media. You’re on Twitter or Facebook, or Google+ or even Kindleboards. You’re already where you need to be. Chances are you’re in touch with at least one writer online, whether you’re aware of it or not. Even if that writer has never worked with an editor, they may know one or more. They can probably put you in touch with other writers who can put you in touch with other editors.

We don’t call the Internet a “web” for nothing. Pull the right strings and you can find anything, or anyone, you need. So begin by letting your Internet friends know you’re in the market for an editor. Put out a tweet, a Facebook post, or a Google+ convo and see where it gets you.

Don’t be discouraged when an online buddy says, “I don’t think they’re taking new clients, but….” Contact them anyway. The worst that can happen is that the editor in question will refer you to a colleague. And make sure while you’re searching that you find more than one. Why? Because sometimes things just don’t work out. You want to find the right editor for you. I’ll dig a bit deeper into that one in another post.

When you do make contact, there are a few things that you must have ready, because you will likely be asked for them:

First, make sure your manuscript is ready to be seen by an editor. It needs to be complete and polished to the best of your ability. I, for one, do not read queries. If you send me a synopsis of your story and say, “What do you think?” I’m going to ask, “What do you think?” It’s not my job to write or rewrite your book. It’s yours. If you send me a first draft and you honestly expect me to essentially ghost write it or rewrite it for you so that it goes from your first draft to my novel, I will turn you away so fast you won’t know what hit you. Make sure your work is done.

Second, you want to have a rough idea of when you intend to publish or whether you are willing to work on your editor’s timeframe. If you come to me in the middle of February and tell me you’d like to have your manuscript finished and ready for Amazon by the middle of March, I need to know. Honestly, my schedule right now is such that I can’t promise that, and I will let you know. I’d rather lose a client by being honest than have one dissatisfied by being so late that I mess up their plans. I’ve heard horror stories from clients who waited months to get work back from their editors. If an editor is that busy, they should let you know up front.

Third, you want to know how flexible you are willing to be with your work and what you expect of your editor. Along the same line, you need to have a thick skin. I am not a kind and gentle, hand-holding type. I will give you an honest opinion, and you are not necessarily going to like it. Most editors care enough about their clients to shred a manuscript that is not working and tell the writer to go back to the drawing board. They will be brutally honest, because their ultimate goal is the same as yours–to turn out a quality piece of work that will sell, that is worth reading, that is worth paying for.

Finally, know how much you are willing to spend. Editing is not cheap. You are hiring an employee who expects to earn a living wage from their work with you. You can expect to be charged anywhere from $8 to $15, or even more, for every thousand words. I determine my fee based on word count and the condition of the initial sample I receive. Those two things give me an idea of how many hours, it will take me to finish the job.

If and when you approach me, I am going to ask you to send me:

• Your word count–this is the biggest factor in determining my fee and giving you an estimate, but it’s not the only one.
• A sample of your manuscript–about ten pages, or one chapter, from the ‘script we’ll be working on.
• Your game plan–timeframe for publication, your goals for the piece (will it be going to publishers, or are you publishing independently, or entering in a contest of some sort).

It really is that simple, but simple doesn’t always mean easy. In my next post, I will give you some more information about actually choosing the editor who is right for you as well as reasons why they may or may not take you on as a client.

Laurie Laliberte is a freelance editor who specializes in working with writers who publish independently. She has published several books of her own in addition to editing numerous books for other authors. You are welcome to visit her website, Tales and Yarns, to learn more about her editorial process. Find Laurie’s books on Amazon.

If you’re confused about what an editor actually does, that might be because we do so many different things.

Technically, everything we do is editing, but there’s a lot that goes in that. I mean, the role itself varies in different arenas. I often feel the need to say, “I’m a book editor” because otherwise I’m afraid people will think I edit for a newspaper or magazine. So what do your book editors really do? The names for the different functions sometimes vary depending on who you’re working for, but the general terms are as follows:

Copy Editor

Copyediting is all about the rules.  Primarily, the rules of grammar and formatting.  This is the job for someone who can’t stand to see even the tiniest comma used improperly in a sentence. You have to know where those suckers go and not let a single one of them step out of line.  Just like language is always changing, so is the grammar that shapes it. We have dictionaries to give us rules for language, and style books to give us rules for grammar. Most publishing companies use the Chicago Manual of Style.

Copyeditors also have to know the difference between all those homonyms and know if this idiom is, in fact, an idiom. Attention to detail is a must when checking for an extra space between a tab and the beginning of the sentence and ensuring that parenthetical statement has a closing parentheses.

Lastly, copyeditors check for consistency in formatting. If they don’t, it could cause major problems down the line for the layout person.

So do copyeditors just sit and read all day?  Yes, they do. To you it may seem tedious, but to the copyeditor there is always the reward at the end of the day knowing that he has fought for the side of the English language and won. If Strunk and White were still alive, they would applaud us.

Editor (or Conceptual Editor)

Conceptual editing includes working on big picture issues like narrative voice, plot holes, character development, and story flow. It’s more difficult than copyediting becuase the rules aren’t as defined. Rather than just pointing to a section of CMOS, editors have to convince their authors that what they are saying is right.

Editors usually point to other works and to big name editors like Sol Stein and William Zissner as the basis of their opinions. Editors need to always be on the lookout for what works and what doesn’t. What makes this plot implausible? How can the reader become more sympathetic toward your MC?

Conceptual editing takes a lot of dialogue between the author and the editor. Both parties have to be willing to listen to each other and sometimes compromise for the sake of the story. The important thing to remember is that your editor really does want what is best for your MS. Your editor is working based on the experience of thousands of editors before him.It may seem like slashing your MS to bits, but the editor knows that an MS that goes through adversity is more beautiful on the other side.

On Tuesdays here at Unstressed Syllbables, Thomas Beard is going to be talking about the Rewriting aspects of your novel. Most of that is going to be learning how to conceptually edit yourself so that you will be all ship-shape and ready to go when you send your manuscript in to your freelance editor.

Line Editor

Often the role of line editor is lumped together with editor, but we differentiate at the Consortium. That’s because while the editor focuses on the general story and overarching ideas, the line editor focuses on how each individual sentence (or paragraph) reads. If the author has a recurring problem, like misplacing modifiers, then line editing can turn into dealing with larger issues, which is why it’s usually put together with conceptual editing. When I line edit, I look for things like confusing word choice, ambiguous statements, overly lengthy monologues, etc. No matter how good a writer you are, you’re always going to have a few confusing issues like that line editors help clarify.

Proofreader

The proof reader is looking for any last minute errors in grammar, spacing, and punctuation. This comes after the MS has been sent to layout, because sometimes the conversion process creates errors as well. It’s at once both a very light and very thorough job. It has to be light, focusing on the minor issues, because the book is essentially done. It has to be thorough, because each error that your readers find lowers their opinion of you, even if just microscopically. Readers are your harshest critics, and even a misplaced comma means a lot to them, especially if you’re self-published.

As I tried to convey last week, editing is a big deal. I highly recommend you find someone else, someone professional  to edit your work for you before you either submit it to a publisher or publish it yourself. Next week my friend Laurie Laliberte will give you some advice on how to go about hiring a professional editor.

But even before you hire that editor, there’s a lot of work that needs to be done on your manuscript to make it neat and tidy. That’s what I’m here for. I’ll be here every Friday to give you tips on the copyediting portion of your manuscript. Don’t know how to use a comma? I can tell you. When do you use those pesky hyphens? I’ve got some tricks to help you remember.

Jessie Sanders is the managing editor at Consortium Books, editor of the bestselling Dragonprince trilogy, and author of the young adult fantasy novel, Into the Flames. Every Friday she shares an article about editing and how to improve one’s grammar.

Find out more about Jessie Sanders at her author website, and check out her novel, Into the Flames, in stores now!

Unless you’re publishing your book to hold it in your hands, hug it, and then put in on a shelf to never let anyone see it ever again, an editor is crucial to the publishing process.

For starters, just letting people know that your book has been looked over by someone other than yourself or your friends lends a huge amount of respect to your work. The ability to hand over your work to another person shows that you have a lot of courage. It’s not easy to let go of your baby like that.

As both an author and an editor, I feel you. But you’ve taken the first step: you’re not afraid to receive criticism. And trust me, no matter how hard you try to please everybody, you will inevitably receive criticism. So it’s best to start now, with someone who is trying to help you.

What this action says to the rest of the world is that you’re humble enough to know that you’re not perfect. The more people learn, the more they realize that they don’t know. The converse of this is true, that a person who doesn’t know very much thinks he knows a lot. So a person who willingly turns his manuscript over for more feedback proves that he has learned just enough to know that he doesn’t know everything–even with regard to his own work.

In a practical sense, an editor provides a new set of eyes for your manuscript. You may have gone  over your manuscript with a fine-tooth comb a dozen times and have the best grammatical knowledge in three counties, but trust me when I say that surged can still look like shrugged to you. The the fact of the matter is that your eyes skip over those redundant articles.

Not to mention that there are some things that you don’t realize need help because you’re too close to your work. I’ll admit that there were a few sentences in my own novel that slightly bugged me, but every time I saw them I just pushed that half-formed thought out of my mind and pressed on. It wasn’t until one of my editors pointed it out to me that I forced myself to really analyze and fix the problem.

And there may be some rules you don’t know, such as everyday only being a closed word when used as an adjective, or how when using words as words within a sentence, like everyday, they should be italicized.  An editor gives you a fresh review for checking just these issues.

Ultimately, and most importantly, your editor gives you unbiased feedback. Your mom may have told you that she loved your book. And she probably did. I know that my mom loves everything that I write. That’s what moms are programmed to do. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that your book is ready for the rest of the world.

I am unabashedly the queen of harsh criticism. If I have a problem with a plot point in your manuscript, I will not hesitate to point it out. And if you ask author Aaron Pogue, he will tell you how mean I am about it, too.

But he can’t deny the fact that I’m right. When I edited his bestselling fantasy Taming Fire, I finished out the book with the comments, “Daven blacks out way too much, and it looks dumb for Isabella just to pop in at the end of the book.” I’m sure I made my arguments a little more persuasive, explaining that Daven looked like a weak MC (main character) and we had no character motivation for Isabella’s actions, but you get the idea.

A clue that I was going to grow up to be an editor.

Aaron listened to me. He took out some of Daven’s unconscious moments, and he mentioned Isabella earlier in the story for backstory.  When he published his novel, some of his readers had the same feedback I did, wondering at Daven’s character and the romantic “arc” at the end of the book (If you haven’t read Aaron’s books yet, I’m sorry. You should probably stop reading this post and read them first. Not because I am spoiling anything, but because they are good books). They’re just minor criticisms, and I’m glad to know that I helped diminish them. If Aaron hadn’t taken my advice, his ending would have been less plausible, leading to fewer people wanting to finish his novel and pick up his next one.

You may not have noticed, but every book that the Consortium has published has come to me with countless errors. People often comment on a mistake they notice here or there, but what they don’t see is all the flaws that have already been noticed and corrected.

Our authors are awesome storytellers, and they know how to wield the English language into some powerful prose. But they still needed help, and so do you. And that’s why we editors are unsung heroes. We make you, the author, look good, and all we ask for in return is for you to listen to us.

*Disclaimer: if you find any errors in this blog post, it’s because I don’t have an editor.

Jessie Sanders is the managing editor at Consortium Books, editor of the bestselling Dragonprince trilogy, and author of the young adult fantasy novel, Into the Flames. Every Friday she shares an article about editing and how to improve one’s grammar.

Find out more about Jessie Sanders at her author website, and check out her novel, Into the Flames, in stores now!

Now, there’s a lot of stuff out there on the Internet regarding the decline of grammar over the decades. Here are the top three grammar mistakes that many “Grammar Nazis” bemoan:

1.  Confusing the possessive with the contraction, such as in their/there/they’re and your/you’re.
2. Misspelling things that kind of sound the same but mean completely different things, like hanger/hangar, loose/lose, wether/weather.
3. Misusing words that are similar but have different forms and functions, such as effect/affect and then/than.

Due to this overabundance of material already out there, I don’t feel my need to add my own voice to the melee. If you are in a bind because you can’t decide whether or not to use you’re or your, Google it.

Some things that I’ve found many people don’t understand are how to use commas properly, which is understandable since there are so many ways to use them, and lots of exceptions. Another is when to spell out numbers and when to use digits. I’ll even be covering things such as proper use of capitalization, italics, and underlining. These types of errors may be less egregious to the general populace of the Interwebz, but they are no less important when writing and publishing a novel. Remember that every error you make diminishes your readers’ respect for you, even if only an infinitesimally small amount.

Some rules are different among different circles or in different parts of the world (like the difference between catsup and ketchup in the UK and US). In those instances, I will be relying on American spelling and the Chicago Manual of Style. The Chicago Manual of Style, informally called CMOS by those who are [too] well acquainted with it, is the stylebook used by most traditional publishing houses.

Here’s a bonus error that I won’t bother explaining to you:

“Jessie <3’s Sean!”

I love’s you too, Love’s.

Jessie Sanders is the managing editor at Consortium Books, editor of the bestselling Dragonprince trilogy, and author of the young adult fantasy novel, Into the Flames. Every Friday she shares an article about editing and how to improve one’s grammar.

Find out more about Jessie Sanders at her author website, and check out her novel, Into the Flames, in stores now!

Good morning, readers and writers! I’m Jessie Sanders. You may have heard of me. No? Well, that’s probably becuase I’m the editor.

I’ve been editing my own work since I was a teenager. I come from a family of perfectionists and English majors, so I would often craft a few pages of a story only to go back a month or so later and rewrite the entire thing. I love making things as good as they can possibly be.

In college I learned about attention to detail and making lists. Most importantly, I learned that knowing the rules of grammar was a dying art, and I was one of the few (or it seemed few) survivors. I decided to become one of the few, the proud, the editors.

I worked for Tate Publishing for two years before becoming a full-time editor for the Consortium. In my time there I worked with hundreds of authors, each one on a different level of writing skill, each one with a different story to tell and a different way to tell it. The experience I got there was invaluable, and I appreciate every moment that I spent there.

Now I’m the managing editor for Consortium Books. I worked on every book that we’ve published, some in a story-restructuring mode, most in a line-by-line analysis, and all for hard-core grammatical errors. I love working in all of these capacities, because I’m working with others to make some really well-crafted novels.

Editors are the unsung heroes of book editing. In movies such as Stranger than Fiction and Alex and Emma, editors are mentioned as those ambiguous, mean people who withhold paychecks from the poor, underfed authors until they receive “The Manuscript.” They come across as the people who want to put deadlines on the creatives who just don’t know how to adhere to these kinds of boundaries. And as we all know, creativity must be allowed free reign to express itself!

It’s true that editors can enforce rules on authors and even be mean sometimes, but it’s not because we want to squash your creativity. It’s because we want to make you the best authors you can possibly be. And if we have to give a little constructive criticism and withhold the candy for a bit to get it accomplished, we do it. We’re like parents in that regard. Someday you will thank us. Until then, we sit in the background and remind ourselves that we’re doing what’s best for you.

With the rise of self-publishing, a number of authors are seeing a way to bypass the editor stage of publishing. Traditional publishers accept only near-perfect manuscripts to begin with, and then each manuscript goes through a rigorous round or two of editing before it goes to the printing presses. But through CreateSpace and other self-publishing arenas, an author can simply upload a Word document directly from his computer. An author may think, “I’ve read this mansucript through a hundred times, and my grammar is pretty good. I’ve had all of my family members read through it, and they love the story. Why should I pay an editor to do what I and they have already done?”

That’s a great question. I will tell you the answer next week.

Jessie Sanders is the managing editor at Consortium Books, editor of the bestselling Dragonprince trilogy, and author of the young adult fantasy novel, Into the Flames. Every Friday she shares an article about editing and how to improve one’s grammar.

Find out more about Jessie Sanders at her author website, and check out her novel, Into the Flames, in stores now!