Comments on: Author Edit Thyself!

By: Faith Bicknell-Brown

Faith Bicknell-Brown — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 16:01:45 +0000

Self editing is a necessary evil. I’d rather write, but that’s the easy part. The revisions are what take forever, but the manuscript will only glow when finished. Newbie writers need to buckle down and learn how to edit well. It will save them a lot of agony in the long run.

By: Jackie U

Jackie U — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 05:45:12 +0000

Well hell. Good info, but now I have to find one, lol. Thank you for the information!

By: admin

admin — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 21:44:20 +0000

I never had unpubbed critters. I wanted the best chance to make it with my first submission. And even now that I am multi-pubbed, I’m not yet with one of the bigger houses (LI, Samhain or EC) and even for an in house submission, I have other eyes check me. And since it’s only been a year since I started down this road, I’d rather err on the side of caution. Once you’re at the point of readying yourself to submit, you should have someone other than unpubbed critters looking at your work.

By: Jackie U

Jackie U — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 19:35:43 +0000

At what point do you suggest moving from crit partners who are also unpublished, to seeking out published others? Any suggestions? I’m part of a writing group where we critique each other’s work on a weekly basis, but none of us are published. A few are in the submission stage, but most of the others are still putting words to paper. Do you think there is any harm in having people at that stage looking over work that you’re thinking about submitting?

By: Shiela Stewart

Shiela Stewart — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 18:51:16 +0000

Where were you when I first started out? LOL I was a mess, had no idea what a crit partner was or self-editing. Now, whenever i meet new author that is the first thing i tell them. get a crit partner, someone who knows their stuff and not another newbie.

Excellent post and not too many errors.

By: helen

helen — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 19:29:50 +0000

don’t get much critiqueing from myspace…obviously need to get off my duff. ty

By: Lex

Lex — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 13:55:20 +0000

Mary, Karenna, and Tess – It is hard to find good people to look at your work but there are people out there. You have to keep looking around and joining different groups until you meet the people who fit you best. I joined and left a number of groups before I found the people I have. I had one advantage, my first critter I found through my blog.

I know it’s hard to find someone experienced to look at a newbie’s work. I’ve had newb’s ask me to crit for them and I hate having to tell them no, but I just don’t have time and I already crit for a couple of people. You just have to be persistent and keep asking people whom you respect. Eventually, someone will say yes!

By: Tess

Tess — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 13:31:30 +0000

Finding a critique partner is the number one thing any aspiring author can do to help ensure they are published. After that, continuing with one is paramount. Regardless of how many books you have out there, getting feedback and finding those pesky problems that you overlook in your own work is still necessary. Excellent post, Lex. I’m in full agreement.

By: Karenna Colcroft

Karenna Colcroft — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 11:49:50 +0000

It can be difficult sometimes to find a beta reader or crit partner. I’ve had experiences where I’ve asked someone to beta read, or they’ve offered, and then they haven’t read what I’ve sent them. In a couple of cases, they disappeared off the radar entirely, stopped posting on loops, and stopped answering my emails. Because of that, most of what I’ve submitted so far hasn’t been beta read or critted, and it showed. I have a few people beta-ing one of my stories now, and hopefully they’ll agree to beta future stuff for me… I tend to think things that I don’t actually type, without realizing that the reader might not understand what I meant, so I need a reader to tell me that before I submit the story. I agree with Lex, that extra set of eyes is important, both to be sure your manuscript is the best it can be and to make things easier on your editor.

By: Mary Winter

Mary Winter — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 05:47:07 +0000

Excellent advice. With the internet, there really are excellent opportunities for critiquing and editing help that weren’t available several years ago. Authors, published or not, would be silly not to avail themselves of the help.