We’re talking about the four questions I get asked most frequently. I’ve answered: 1. Must you write to a preset wordcount, classify your novel in a predetermined genre, ‘dumb down’ your novel?
So let’s talk about the second of these four most Frequently Asked Questions:
2. How do you know which freelance independent editors are good and which ones are shysters?
First things first: everyone who has ever asked me this question was asking. . .a freelance independent editor. So right there I’ve got hand gestures on my side [holds up big sign GOOD EDITOR, points to self].
But, also, I understand you guys don’t come here only for editing, you also come here for reliable, trustworthy advice on the writing industry, so I will give you a bulleted reference list just in case tomorrow I go out and get hit by a bus, leaving you all alone in this world of excellent editors and terrible shysters.
The answer lies in one word:
Research.
If you happen to live in a town where editors hang out their shingles on real street addresses, all I can say is you live in one FABULOUS town. But if you don’t, you’re probably shopping for an editor here in the blogosphere. So do your due diligence!
Look them up.
Good editors have a vested interest in demonstrating the difference between themselves and shysters, especially at this particular moment in publishing history. Not only that, but their online presence should make that demonstration really easy to locate. Check out their sites—do they share their knowledge of the craft?
All of this by way of a good faith demonstration of “who this freelance independent editor is and what she knows,” so those of you shopping for an editor have the chance to make up your own minds about my qualifications before you ever even think about contacting me. It requires a sizable commitment of energy and dedication from me every week, but I want you to make an educated decision.
I don’t have any use for empty salesmanship, and you shouldn’t either. An editor’s very best marketing technique lies in revealing the full extent of their knowledge and experience and trusting the rest to their clients’ intelligence.
Stay tuned for:
3. What is this Line Editing thing of which I speak, and why do I keep speaking of it?
4. What’s the inside scoop on the state of publishing these days i.e. POD, ebooks, self-publishing, multimedia, et cetera? I mean, what’s really going on out there?
The Art and Craft of Fiction:
A Practitioner’s Manual
by Victoria Mixon
“The freshest and most relevant advice you’ll find.”—Helen Gallagher, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
“Wonderfully useful, bracing and humorous. . .demystifies essential aspects of craft while paying homage to the art.”—Millicent Dillon, five time O. Henry Award winner and PEN/Faulkner nominee
“Teeming with gold. . .makes you love being a writer because you belong to the special club that gets to read this book.”—KM Weiland, author of Outlining Your Novel
The Art and Craft of Story: 2nd Practitioner’s Manual
by Victoria Mixon
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“I wish I’d had The Art & Craft of Story when I began work on my first novel.”—Lucia Orth, author of the critically-acclaimed Baby Jesus Pawn Shop
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