In a previous blog I wrote about the costly mistakes I made when I self-published my first book. In that article I wrote about my lack of attention to detail, poor research and my impatience. This article I will concentrate on the five things I learn while having the wrong Copyeditor and what it is to be having the copyeditor that works best with you.
In the case of the Copyeditor, their function is basically to review your manuscript and correct it for readability, fitness for its purpose, accuracy, free vocabulary, some inconsistencies of names and numbers, fact finding, and repetitions of sentences. Having said this I’ll go into the five things I learn when I went from having a Copyeditor that did not work well with me and another that did.
The things I leaned were, some of my characters lacked a unique Voice, I lacked a steady pace, I lost my readers, head hopping, and I didn’t listen. So, I will go one by one and I will tell you what happened and I will assume all my responsibility for my own actions. I am a big girl, retired Army Officer. I know how to be accountable.
Unique Voice
So, I wrote my story and I was proud of my first-born novel. And like every parent, you can’t see when the kid is ugly as a kick at midnight. If you read my first blog you will see I had two copyeditors one was okay the other is great. The okay editor did not tell me that my novel needed the literary version of orthodontic braces. My characters although they were not flat, some needed to have a unique voice. I have made the mistake of writing a multitude of characters and because I needed to do some heavy worldbuilding in the story I sacrificed adding that special something to some of the characters. I didn’t even notice until my second editor pointed out when she read the story as a beta reader even before she took on the book as a line-copyeditor.
Steady Pace
I lacked a Steady pace throughout the story. This is something that a developmental editor will let you know. However, the developmental editor I hired did not point it out but my line-copyeditor did mention and I had to make adjustments. My story was poorly divided. It had a crazy partition of events and I did not follow the 3 act structure in storytelling, because of that the story was broken in pieces and the pace wasn’t sequential. Either people love the story or hate the story, and many times the people that hate the story is because are not used to the jumping from one sequence of events to another, I wish people would give it a try and continue reading to the second book, that is where things start to blend. But that story is already published and now is too late to make a first impression.
I Lost My Readers
I lost my readers and I blame myself. They got lost in the multitude of side plots that make the whole of the story. My Copyeditor pointed out that I managed very eloquently to lose my reader in the development of this very large story. I wasn’t successful in presenting a story that had a multiple character living thing at the same time that in the end were relevant to end in this final event.
So, in my impetus I came short. In reality, the intent was to tell a story as if it was a group of friends telling a story or showing a story and all have a unique perspective of what happened. But I failed in a megalithic way. This is the reason why you need to find the right editor to work with you and your manuscript.
Head Hopping
This is a cardinal sin. I did not know I was head hopping until it was pointed out to me by my copyeditor. Again, this is something a Developmental Editor will pick up and mention, but it went unmentioned. Now there are many copies of my book with this issue. As much as I want to go back and fix the head hopping or going from the point of view of one character to the point of view of another within the same section, I can’t go back and do this. Maybe in the future, I’ll create a third edition of the book and I correct these errors. However, all I can do now is move forward and learn from my mistakes. I made this mistake because I did not do my research and study the art of writing and thought writing a book was as easy as a walk in the park.
I did not Listen
The worst mistake I made was that I did not listen to good advice. I know I should have waited and polished my manuscript until it was in a better shape to be published. However, I was full of myself, stubborn and did not listen when I was told to wait. Many times, we just want to see our work in print and we cut corners. Some of us think because we are English teachers or took many English courses in college we can write well and don’t need an editor. For some of us writers we are in a budget and affording an editor is an expense. But I will tell you, that it is an expense that will pay off if you find one that work well with you.
Final words
I learned many other things in the process of publishing my first book. And I have many pet peeves and one of them is when I hear people say oh this happen to you but it is not your fault. Well, if you read this and decided to make the same mistakes I did, then it will be all your fault. In the end, the way you can go about to avoid these mistakes is by educating yourself. Do your homework. Read books on creative writing and style, revise your work, find a beta reader and most importantly find the Editor that works with you and is willing to listen to you and you are ready to listen to him or her.
In the next I’ll write about what I do when I get writers block.
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