Frugal Editor Excerpt

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson

"In this invaluable (and yes, accessible and engaging, too!) resource, Carolyn Howard-Johnson masterfully elevates an oft-misunderstood practice into the critical component of writing that it is. Don’t turn in anything until you turn to this book.”~ Peter Bowerman, author, The Well-Fed Writer series

"Frugal Editor is right on, engaging, and full of great information and resources."  ~ Patti Kokinos, author Angel Park: A Novel.

 

 

 

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The Frugal Editor Is Available as a Kindle Book. What a Great Start! Order Yours with the Widget Below:

 

 

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You will find at least one promotion, writing or tech tip on every page on this site. Sometimes you'll find, two or three! Happy browsing and collecting!

 

And here's the Frugal Editor's companion, Ta Da!

From Index to Sidebars, You'll Want to Read Every Bit of the Frugal Editor

Click Here to see Frugal Editor reviews.

Click here to see the Frugal Editor's contents and author biography.

      Click here for Carolyn's first person essay, "Beating Time at Its Own Game."

 

Excerpt

Have you ever run across a gremlin?

From the Introduction of The Frugal Editor. I chose this so that readers could see that, though this book is full of nitty-gritty essentials on everything from choosing and editor to grammar horrors frequently seen by agents and editors, it's light and entertaining reading.

(c) Copyright 2007

Teachers interested in reproducing portions of this book at no cost need only contact me. 

If he were only the guy in the Lamisil ad with purple warts on his head I wouldn't worry about him. You know, the one who causes toenails to yellow, the one you try to eradicate at the risk of executing your liver. According to the commercials, that gremlin is easy to avoid. Simply ask your doctor for Lamisil.

 If you imagine the gremlin as the guy you had nightmares about when you were a kid, the one who hid under your bed and cleverly disappeared when your parents peeked under to search for him, well, he hasn't reappeared in decades. If he is the chap who showed up in fairytales so we wouldn't get bored, we authors might welcome him as inspiration for a short story.

 But no. He is the dirty, lowdown creep who will make the passive tense  reappear in your manuscript after you've edited it twice, maybe three times. And he has relatives. Enough of them to plague every writer in existence. You won't be able to see them, won't know where they come from, but you'll know they have been at work when your book appears in print. Telltale signs will crop up in typos, grammar errors, widows , and other ugly formatting problems, and so I worry about them a lot. You should, too.

 I can't tell you how to eliminate these gremlins. After all, there are homicide laws. But I can tell you how to make their lives harder. You recognize they exist and then purge any inclination you might have to let someone else bring them to justice. For as real as these gremlins are--regardless of how often we're told they're "only imaginary"--there is a myth that's passed on to us as honest-to-goodness truth. That's the story authors believe about editors and publishers.

 We writers believe the stories because it's convenient to think that magical personages hired by publishers make books come off the press in immaculate form. Perfect. Pristine. That can happen, but I've come upon an occasional typo in books that are published by revered names in our industry. Worse, a few exist in my own books--more in some than in others. Some showed up before I knew I had to take charge of my own books' destinies. Some showed up after I knew that, but didn't know much about my part in editing . So, you can trust my hard-won experience when I tell you it behooves an author to do the very best she can--on her own--to eradicate the gremlins' work. If these guys get one up on Random House and Farrar, Straus & Giroux, other publishers and authors are easy touches.

So, how to do what seems to elude the best and brightest of word warriors? That's what I'm here for. I can't possibly cover all the possible tracks that gremlins leave, but I can pass along antidotes for what I see most frequently in the critique groups I facilitate and the classes I teach.

 Some of this information will seem pretty basic, but you need to know the gremlin's secret. His motto is, "When authors and editors are looking for the big stuff, I'll diddle with the puny mistakes they're not likely to see." Of course, this guy is devious. He's not above going after more humiliating errors like using apostrophes  in plurals. He knows your weak moments, your tired moments.

This book isn't only about what to watch for. It's also about how to make the editing  process easier. You’ll find lots of information; some that you will refer to time and again is in the sidebars. The sidebars are not listed in the Contents. Mark them by creasing your page corners (you can tell I believe in making a book your own) or use your index.

 You'll also learn both manual and electronic techniques for digging errors out of your copy and keeping them out.

The most important part of the process is getting over the idea that someone else will do this for you or that it doesn't matter. It matters big. When you submit queries to agents. When you submit proposals to publishers. When your publisher submits a galley for you to examine and authorize. So bear with me. Make the guidelines in this book part of your working habits. You'll need several tricks up your own sleeve to keep all the gremlins at bay.

The Frugal Editor is complete with a helpful index and appendixes.

 

 

 Find at least one tip on writing, promotion or tech on every page of this website. 

 

Tip from a Frugal Editor Sidebar

Your Essential Desk References XE "Your Essential Desk References: Sidebar"

 

  • The Chicago Manual of Style.
  • Associated Press Stylebook.
  • Elements of Style  by Strunk, White and Angell. (Don't use one from 1950!)
  • Your favorite thesaurus.
  • A good dictionary (Microsoft's Word language functions are not a substitute).
  • Special vocabulary dictionaries for dialect, jargon, scientific or tech terms.
  • Rhyming dictionary.
  • The Describer's Dictionary.
  • Need a guide to help you style computer terms? Go to: http://www.geocities.com/ikind_babel/babel/babel.html.

 

Those who are computer savvy will want to put important references for their work into their computer's My Favorites and add to it as they proceed with different tasks.

 

 

 

Purchase THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER as a thick, full-size e-book priced to accommodate the budgets of starving students and authors at Star Publish.

Purchase THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER and THE FRUGAL EDITOR in trade paperback at Amazon. The Amazon Short, THE GREAT FIRST IMPRESSION BOOK PROPOSAL, too!

Purchase THIS IS THE PLACE, HARKENING and TRACINGS at Amazon.

Purchase CHERISHED PULSE at the Compulsive Reader.

Purchase and find all the audios for writers at Double Dragon Publishing.

 

Authors' Coalition http://authorscoalitionandredenginepress.com"Careers that are not fed die as readily as any living organism given no sustenance." ~ Carolyn Howard-Johnson

 

 

 

This author is founder and a proud member of Authors' Coalition.    

(Directors: Joyce Faulkner and Pat Avery)

This site is powered by Dianna Faulkner, carmelfaulkner@aol.com

Studio photography by Uriah Carr

Logo by Lloyd King

 

   Future Plans for How To Do It Frugally Series: 

  • The Frugal Amazon  Promoter

  • The Frugal Retailer Promotes

  • The Frugal Author Builds an Agent-Friendly Package   

 

Important Resources

Book Proposal Help

Former book acquisitions editor Terry Whalin says, "editors and publishers don't read manuscripts. They read book proposals. In Book Proposals That Sell: 21 Secrets to Speed Your Success, you learn the inside scoop to achieve your dreams." I highly recommend it.


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Promotion Services

You'll find direction in the Frugal Book Promoter for building your own media kit; if you choose not to build your own, the information there will make you a better partner for a publicist you might hire to help you. I recommend PressKit 24/7, the brainchild of publicists with over forty years' experience. We know the speed at which you need to work, and we know what it takes to get the media's attention. It was critical for us to be able to create professional online press kits for our own clients. So we understand what you need for yours.

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Learn more about the classes offered by UCLA Extension Writers' Program, You'll find Carolyn Howard-Johnson's instructor page there, too.

 

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