Don’t forward emails in gmail, as chunks of text
are likely to send in purple and you are likely to look like a lame, twelve
year old girl.
Got it? Now on to the post. :P
A while ago, while naively certain I was ready to
query my MS (ha! I haven’t felt that stupid since my childhood belief that cars
plugged in and had bonnets full of retractable, vacuum-cleaner-style power
cables), I decided to try out an editing service, and today I thought I’d
outline the process for anyone considering it too.
Firstly I researched editing services and found two
companies offering free samples for your first few pages. However one company’s
homepage was so heavily plastered with pictures of hot women in office uniforms
(a hallmark for any trustworthy website) that I chose only to try out Scribendi.
The Scribendi site boasted easily accessible quotes
and a quick, simple process for submitting my work, which included an
opportunity to note any existing concerns I wanted my editor to watch for. Within
three days (not bad for a free service, and the paid version can be even
quicker), they sent back three documents. The first was a clean revision with
generic notes for both good and bad things which stood out as they were reading.
The second was a tracked-changes document, which focused on grammar and
punctuation and included the comments from the clean revision so I didn’t have
to alternate between two files. The tracked-changes document shows you what
isn’t working and includes suggestions on possible wordings to fix it, and I
was given plenty of punctuation explanations to help me learn the rules for
next time, which was particularly helpful given the difference between Australian
and American standards (apparently ‘g’day mate’ isn’t a commonly used
salutation in the US. I know, I’m surprised too. :P).
Finally, my
Scribendi editor sent a page of overall comments, with separate sections for
story/plot, characters & characterization, narrative/prose, language/grammar, dialogue, word
choice and final thoughts. Unfortunately they raved about my work so much that I
couldn’t tell whether they were being honest or just trying to win me over as a
customer. It’s no exaggeration that they were fangirling worse than a nerd in a
library full of star wars toys and at first this put me off buying a sample, however
their advice was still extremely helpful, and eventually I treated myself to a
paid edit of my first chapter. At $32.71 for 1434 words you may say it’s a
little steep, or you may say it’s worth it for a serve of editorial goodness,
but either way I have a recommendation for you. Edit like crazy yourself first,
so you get to know whether your editorial style is working, and so you don’t
end up paying to perfect something you’ll only scrap later.
I'm glad you found the service helpful, Kat. When I'm available to do more editing I'll let you know.
ReplyDeleteYeah it was awesome. Even obvious things like a head hop, which you may have looked out for a million times, can still slip through without those expert eyes. Definitely considering getting some more done. :)
ReplyDelete