How to be your own best editor: Part III
This is the third and final post in a series of posts about what I did to ensure that the historical mystery I just published, Maids of Misfortune, was professionally edited. Part I detailed how I worked to develop the skills to be my own best editor. (A necessity for an indie author, but as discussed in numerous blogs, increasingly a necessity for traditionally published authors as well.) Part Two described the actual process I went through as my own developmental editor. This third post enumerates what steps I followed to substitute for the copy editing that traditional publishing houses provide. Again, I want to thank Alan Rinzler for his definitions that distinguished between the job of developmental editors and copy editors, “who take a manuscript that has already been developed and correct the spelling, grammar, punctuation, and in some Read more…
How to be your own best editor: Part II
This is the second post about how I prepared my manuscript, Maids of Misfortune, for self-publication. In the first post I outlined the steps I took to develop the skills necessary to be my own best editor. As I look back at this previous post I feel it is only fair to mention that those editing skills were already fairly well developed–as a result of getting a doctorate in history that required numerous rewritings of a 400 page dissertation and over thirty years of correcting student’s essays. This post will look at the steps I took next to replace the editorial input I would have gotten if my manuscript had been accepted by a traditional publishing house. See earlier posts on Why I Decided to Self-Publish for why I didn’t submit the manuscript to an agent or the editor of Read more…
How to be your own best editor: Part I
I made the decision that I was going to self-publish my historical mystery, Maids of Misfortune, in the spring of 2009. Having discovered and become a faithful reader of the website, Publetariat, I was well aware that I had several tasks in front of me if I wanted to be a successful indie author. I had to decide where to publish, design a cover, set up a website, learn how to format the manuscript for different publishing mediums, and set up a marketing plan. But most importantly, I needed to make sure that my manuscript was completely ready for publication. Over the years, through at least 3 rewritings of my manuscript, I had gotten excellent advice from my writers group. However, with each rewrite, I had always assumed that any lingering problems with the manuscript would somehow be taken care Read more…
Why I decided to self-publish: Part Three: Taken for a Ride
This is the third post in a series about why, after twenty years, I decided to self publish my new historical mystery, Maids of Misfortune. By 2001, I had been through the standard route–get an agent, rewrite along lines suggested by agent, submit to publishing houses, collect rejections, start on new book. Unpublished members of my writers group were doing the same thing-with no success. Those members of the group who had published in the 1990s were experiencing the disappointing fate of a growing number of midlist authors–failing to get contracts for their latest books, and in some cases parting ways with their agents. See an excellent blog posting on this experience written in 2006 by Holly Lisle. Here are the lessons I had learned so far: 1) I needed to work on making my writing more compelling 2) getting Read more…
Why I decided to self-publish: Part Two: Deadends down the Traditional Route
My decision to concentrate on my career as a history professor was the main reason it took so long for me to publish Maids of Misfortune, my historical mystery set in late Victorian San Francisco. However, my experiences with the traditional publishing model played a major role, and informed my subsequent decision to self-publish. This post will describe some of those experiences. At the start, my relationship with the world of traditional publishing seemed quite promising. In 1989, the first draft of Maids completed, I joined a newly formed writers critique group. All of the members were women who were writing mysteries, three of whom had already obtained agents and were on their way to getting their first contracts. The group’s advice proved invaluable. As suggested, I bought a copy of Publishers Weekly, researched agents who seemed to specialize in Read more…
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