14

Feb

What are you willing to pay?

People who don’t value their time don’t care how they spend theirs and will probably waste yours, if you let them.

With every business decision, I sit down and do the following equation: X x Y =Z where X = time I would spend to do it myself Y = my hourly rate; Z = total dollar amount it costs me. If Z is higher than what a subcontractor would charge me, I pay them to do it.

I write, publish, and consult full-time. I tutor in the evenings, have a toddler, and my wife is pregnant with our second child, which means my time is very valuable. When I started my consultation platform, I sat down and asked myself  - what should someone else pay me for my knowledge and expertise per hour? I settled on an amount and don’t make apologies for it. Either people can pay it (and will want to) or they won’t – it’s nothing personal and shouldn’t be taken that way.

With the push for self-publishing and indie publishing over legacy publishers, people believe they can do everything on their own. There are free templates, and conversion tools (like Calibe and Sigil) to help you do it.

Of course, you can do it yourself, but should you? I can sing, but I can’t sing well. I’d rather let someone else do a better job.

You may come to a tipping point with your project. You’ve finished your manuscript and need editing. Would you spend six hours of pay to have a professional do it for you, or take however long to do it yourself? If you’re being honest, you admit to missing errors because you either fall in love with your own prose or you are too familiar with the material.

Of course, you can hand it off to an English teacher or a friend. But the only English teachers I know as ruthless with a red pen as I would be don’t have time to edit a 272-page MS, especially as a free favor. And a friend may give you a pat on the back and no constructive criticism, which is not what you need.

Or, maybe it’s time to design the cover. I consider myself pretty techie, but it’s nothing I have a desire to try. Why? Because Z is higher than what my cover designer charges me. WAY higher. What’s the point?

When it’s decision time, weigh out your options. Be strategic. And don’t waste your time!

491 days ago Short URL 2 Comments

Writing and Editing

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05

Dec

Editing: The boilerplate, the bold.

A first-time author once called some of my writing advice “boilerplate” which she could find “on any writing website.”

I can find the lyrics to “A House is Not a Home” on the web, but it doesn’t mean I can sing it well.

My critique of her introduction — that ten pages is too long, even for historical fiction — caused the season of her discontent. I get it: constructive criticism of your book is like getting a call from your child’s teacher. “Little Brian is a problem child. He could use some after-school tutoring at .012 cents per word.”

I told her to cut the froth: very, quite, feel, and a few other words we authors tend to think are important but really aren’t at all. Cramming the introduction of three to five characters into one scene was too much. Imagine a party where you meet five people in the span of ten minutes. Who do you care about and why? What if they leave the party shortly after meeting you?

If you’re feeling particularly wordy, give my “rule of thirty percent” a shot. What’s the rule of thirty? Do a word count on a particular section and cut it by thirty percent. You think to yourself “Brian, I can’t do that. (Enter scene/character/dialogue) is too important to cut.”

Be bold and try it. Reword your sentences to shorten them. Tighten your dialogue to show what the characters are thinking or doing rather than telling your reader what to think. Stop explaining everything and let your characters act it out.  FYI: Your prologue shouldn’t be longer than 3-5 pages. If it is, it should be a chapter, not a prologue. Hope this helps.

Brian Thompson’s passion is motivating and encouraging others to write and to pursue Do-It-Yourself publishing. He is also author of acclaimed Christian fiction thrillers The Lost Testament, and The Revelation Gate. You can read more about Brian by visiting his author site.

561 days ago Short URL Comments

Writing and Editing

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14

Sep

Time-saving tips to edit your own writing

Editing my writing is like doing laundry: I hate to do it, but it has to be done. We might as well do it efficiently, right? Let’s go.

Write from the heart and edit with your head. Effective editing requires emotional disconnecting from the text, while good writing and rewriting needs that connection. It’s the reason why you shouldn’t edit yourself as you write.

Like most editors, freelance or not, I charge by two determining factors: word count and how much work I have to do. Substantive editing is reserved for extremely dirty copy: writing with more than just grammar, punctuation, and syntax problems.

Error-plagued copy can multiply your charge per word by up to three times. For the self-published or indie-published author, efficiency is crucial because you’re on your own dime.

One thing I always do is to read my copy backwards, sentence by sentence. This breaks up the flow of my writing, and I can see your mistakes more clearly.

Also, try this: hit “control-F” to activate your Word or Works program’s find and replace function. Enter the letters “ly” together in the “Find what” box. This will highlight your adverbs ending in “ly,” one by one.

Weak verbs need adverbs as modifiers. Try to replace the weak verb with another verb that eliminates that need for a modifier, which will simultaneously lower your word count.

Happy editing!

Brian Thompson’s passion is motivating and encouraging others to write and to pursue Do-It-Yourself publishing. He is also author of the Christian fiction thrillers The Lost Testament, and The Revelation Gate. You can read more about Brian by visiting his author site.

644 days ago Short URL 1 Comment

Writing and Editing

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