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Find Carolyn's Individual Books and Audios Here:
“Good editing is like honest business accounting: If you don’t have it, you end up with a mess. The Frugal Editor is a must for the novice writer who needs to make that ideal first impression and the writer with a tenth book hitting the shelves who has become complacent about his brilliant prose.” ~ Kristin Johnson, author and writing consultant
"Wow, what a great book, what an eye opener! I loved it . . ." ~Billie Williams, listmom at Word_Mage. You will find at least one promotion, writing or tech tip on every page on this site. Happy browsing and collecting!
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Anyone Who's Read The Frugal Book Promoter Knows The Frugal Editor Will Be an Essential Desk Companion Click here to see excerpts of the Frugal Editor. Click here for the author's biography and contents of the Frugal Editor. Click here for Carolyn's first person essay, "Beating Time at Its Own Game."
RECOMMENDATION Blog from J. D. Vine Publications November 6, 2007 I'm encroaching on Sarah's blog today. As you know, J. D. Vine Publications is dedicated to helping writers achieve. This is why we post writing tips in our blogs. Today I have a book recommendation that can help writers like you get published.
After
the announcements were made of the writers chosen for publication in
the first book of the Creative Writer series, a contestant wrote me
to ask how he could be on the next list of writers to be published.
I reviewed writing samples he provide Being a small publication company, J. D. Vine Publications is much more forgiving than most when it comes to copy. However, when two stories are being considered for the last slot in a publication, the decision often boils down to which is going to take less time in the editing process. Likewise, the smallest typo in one story or the proper use of an arcane rule of grammar in another can be the tie-breaker, deciding which story wins its author $150.00 and the title of Featured Author. The Frugal Editor will help you give your copy the edge it needs to be chosen over the competition. This book won't just help your submissions to J. D. Vine Publications, but to any publication you send your work to. For more information about this book and others Carolyn Howard-Johnson has written to help writers succeed, visit http://www.HowToDoItFrugally.com. I'm reminded of one of my professors from when I was studying for my Bachelor's Degree in English: Creative Writing. He always said, "The world only wants your best." Give it to them. As Sarah would say, that's it from the Grape-Vine. Thanks for stopping by. ~~~ REVIEW Reviewed by Mindy Laurence Phillips for CelebrityCafe.com
THOUGHTS ON READING THE FRUGAL EDITOR From the moment that humans learned to write, scribes have fussed, fumed and fought with the written word. In The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success, Carolyn Howard-Johnson deals with these frustrations in a humorous but professional manner in her new book from Red Engine Press. I took the tome for a test-drive over coffee this morning and found myself laughing more than I had since I read Bill Walsh’s “Comma Sutra” chapter from Lapsing into a Comma (McGraw-Hill, 2000). I laughed with a purpose. This book is REALLY GOOD! Carolyn begins by letting even the best and brightest who aced English know why they need her book, as well they do. It keeps people with doctorates in education from writing things like “I r smart” and embarrassing themselves permanently. The Frugal Editor discusses types of editing, how to organize your writing environment, what goes on in the mind of the literary agent and the details of the editing process. A section of the book handles the tools available on your computer – be it WORD’s Tracking Mode or the Internet – to help you create a near-perfect submission. She has also included appendices on editing at a glance, common errors, recommended reading and listening, a listing of contributing literary agents, sample cover and query letters and other writing aides. If you want to write and act like a professional writer, this book clearly says not to go it alone. Be frugal, but be willing to pay someone that knows what they are doing when the time comes. If you do find an editor for your work, listen to them. This is an excellent and lively resource for ALL writers. It’s a training manual to make you think like Sherlock Holmes as you go through your writing so you will leave no adverb at peace and no dangling modifier dangling. ------ ADVANCE REVIEW Reviewed by Mayra Calvani for Midwest, Voice in the Dark and others
----- ADVANCE REVIEW The following review is a prepublished review by Cheryl Wright, editor of Writer2Writer.com, author and freelance writer. © 2006 – All rights reserved The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success
Second in the How
to Do It Frugally series
Many writers wrongly believe an editor (or publisher) will overlook their editing errors if the story is suitable. They couldn’t be further from the truth. Having your book edited by a professional is by far the best option, but the cost is generally out of reach for most writers. Carolyn Howard-Johnson’s The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward To Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success teaches writers how to self-edit; something I believe all writers should know how to do. Howard-Johnson discusses ways to eliminate passive writing (one of my pet hates), and gives practical tips for using hyphens, prefixes, and apostrophes. She also shares her expertise on the correct usage of find and replace, as well as many other little-known techniques used in professional editing. In the vein of The Frugal Book Promoter, Howard-Johnson’s The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward To Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success will become a well-used reference for writers around the world.
Carolyn Howard-Johnson and her husband Lance G. Johnson, author of Everything Asians Need to Know About Americans A to Z, editing his book at home.
ADVANCE REVIEW Reviewed by Suzie Housley for MyShelf.
The Frugal Editor: Put your best book forward to avoid humiliation and ensure success Carolyn Howard-Johnson Red Engine Press ISBN-10: 0978515870 ISBN-13: 978-0978515874 Non-Fiction/Self Help Paperback Oct 1, 2007 Buy at Amazon.com
Reviewed by Suzie Housley for MyShelf.com
We are the products of editing, rather than of authorship. ~George Wald
The time has come when you as an author take that final step to write the last word that brings your book to closure. For many a sigh of relief is felt but it is short lived. The hard part comes when it is time to edit the finished product to make it publication worthy. Whether you are an experienced author or new to the craft it is essential to realize that all finished work requires a highly skilled editor.
Millions of books are published each year. In order for anyone’s book to have a fighting chance against all of the stiff competition it must be free of any glaring grammar errors. It is crucial that every author has the knowledge and skill that is required to recognize good editing services.
Carolyn Howard-Johnson’s The Frugal Editor: Put your best book forward to avoid humiliation and ensure success is the vital ingredient needed for any author to experience publication success. In this one book you will find all the knowledge it takes to educate yourself on how to tell if an editor is a professional, or just someone who is able to recognize a typo.
By far ever author who wishes to become published should definitely add this title as a must have to their book collection. With Carolyn Howard-Johnson being your guide to learning the ins and outs of editing you are assured to gain the knowledge needed to make publishing an easy task. Very highly recommended. ----
ADVANCE REVIEW Reviewed by Lucille Robinson for Alternative Read Permission given by reviewer to reprint with credits. Title: The
Frugal Book Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward To Avoid Humiliation and
Ensure Success
--------- ADVANCE REVIEW by Charlene Austin, Editor of Writers and Readers Network and Writing Road
www.writersandreadersnetwork.com
Review of:
The
Frugal Editor Carolyn
Howard-Johnson, author of "The Frugal Book Promoter: How With simple words and
easy step-by-step sidebar instruction boxes Every writer, no
matter their skill level dreads that four letter word: Edit. Charlene Austin, www.writersandreadersnetwork.com, writes fiction under the pen name Carrie Lynn Lyons. She is the author of several short stories and her novel, book one of the Carnival Soul Trilogy: Dream Pictures is available from Mundania Press. --------- ADVANCE REVIEW by Billie Williams, listmom for Word_mage@yahoogroups.com
The Frugal Editor
By Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Red Engine Press
publisher@redenginepress.com
Branson, Missouri
Copyright 2007
ISBN: 978-0-9785158-7-4
Paperback, 208 pages, $18.95
Reviewed by Billie A Williams How to Get a Leg Up on Six Million Other Authors In this day an age, when according to some studies, over 81 percent of Americans feel they should write a book and more than six million of them actually have at least written the manuscripts. What are your chances of getting published when that is just over two percent of the population? Most of these manuscripts however, are doomed to failure because they don’t understand the intricacies of polishing (read that as editing) their manuscripts before sending them out, and/or hiring an editor to give it the final tweak before they send them off. According to a recent article by Robert McCrum in The Observer and I quote, “…according to the New York Times, there's a new book published in the United States every half an hour, and - wait for it - that's just fiction. RR Bowker, the company that compiles the Books in Print database in the USA, has calculated that no fewer than 175,000 new titles were published in 2003. That's one book roughly every 20 seconds.” And as you can imagine that trend has only increased since then. As McCrum says, the new books have the shelf life of yogurt, but that quality will always stand above the rest and will persevere. So how do you bring that quality to your own work? The Frugal Editor by Carolyn Howard-Johnson is like having an editor in a box, or more correctly, between two covers of a book. Concise down-to-earth advice about how to edit your manuscript before you even begin to think about sending it out into the red pencil world of publishers, where their editors get the first chance to evaluate your hard work. Frugal Editor is a veritable thesaurus of how to spot the gremlins that can mess up your prose. If edits and editors paralyze you with fear, take heart. Carolyn Howard-Johnson makes the whole process palatable. She intersperses her directives with light hearted humor making the whole process nearly enjoyable. If there is an error your manuscript could contain, you’ll find the method for search and eradication in this delightful book. You’ll want to read it cover to cover, but then you will keep it by your side as you write, rewrite and edit so you can be frugal when you do decided to hire that editor to give it one last polish before you submit it anywhere. As Howard-Johnson says; “The lesson here for all of us is that attention to detail and craft counts, and that even experienced writers can flub an opportunity if they don’t pay attention to the last great step toward publishing, a good edit.” Howard-Johnson explains the difference between and editor and a typo hunter. She also cautions that “…no matter how skilled an editor is, the author needs to know a lot about the process too. The cleaner the copy you hand over to your editor, the more accurate she can be and her edit may cost you less in time and money.” When Howard-Johnson says frugal in her book titles she means it and she goes to great lengths to insure the reader gets her/his money worth by providing resources with links, examples of the often scary Query letter construction, and more. She doesn’t leave the reader high and dry at any point. Further advice or learning is a matter of using the comprehensive index to find the detail you need and then following the advice, link or resource mentioned to guide you in your search for excellence. The twenty plus pages of appendices is not mere fluff or padding of book length or word count, it is more than a bibliography of recommended reading (though it also contains that). You will find samples and links such as the query letters mentioned above, helpful groups to investigate, grammar helps and books. It’s hard to believe more could be contained in any book on your shelf. Spare no gremlin—search and destroy, polish and perfect before you send out your hard work. This book is the tool to help you do that. I highly recommend this power house of methods and means that will not only enhance your chances of publication, it will help you make any publishing house sit up and take notice – perhaps even pushing your book to the coveted best-seller lists faster than you ever imagined. ------ ADVANCE REVIEW Reviewed by Christy Tillery French for Midwest Review and others The Frugal Editor As the literary market continues to tighten its proverbial belt, today’s writer must assume more of the responsibilities surrounding book publishing than ever before. No longer can a writer depend on a publisher or agent to accept a manuscript in need of editing, and submitting a manuscript that isn’t as near perfect as possible will, in all probability, result in rejection. To the rescue comes acclaimed author Carolyn Howard-Johnson with The Frugal Editor, the latest in her How to Do It Frugally series. This little gem is a must-have for any writer, published or not, bestselling or unknown. Filled with valuable tips, The Frugal Editor touches on all aspects of self-editing, such as how to spot common grammatical errors, from superfluous adverbs to confusing dangling participles, as well as how to organize the workspace, format the manuscript, and use Word’s tools to the fullest. Also included are sample query and cover letters, and pointers on correcting intrusive taglines, when to use an ellipsis, and correct spacing, to name a few. The book takes the reader step-by-step through the editing process, from rough draft to galley. No questions are left unanswered, no topics left uncovered. This generous writer goes so far as to recommend resources through other books and websites, with plenty of advice from agents and editors. The Frugal Editor is one of those reference books every writer should have by their computer for constant use and study. Highly recommended. -----
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Copyright ©2006 Carolyn Howard-Johnson
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