James D Macdonald
Re: James, I agree
There are a couple of issues here.
One of them is that the writer needs to sit down and improve his craft. This is work, I'll admit. There's no substitute, and there's no shortcut. You have to learn how to write.
The second is the philosophical question of how to go about finishing a book before sending it to a publisher for consideration.
Some people may hire a professional editor to do this, and you can find legitimate professional editors who may agree to edit your book for a fee. I know some. Heck, I've even done it myself.
The legitmate ones won't promise that you'll be published. The legitmate ones aren't cheap.
Some people (I fall in this category myself) have a small circle of trusted beta readers. After the book's as good as we can make it, we send it out to our friends, who rip it apart.
Yet others have workshops they belong to, who fill the same function.
Still others can edit their books themselves with stunning results.
The goal is to send out the best book you can; how you do it is a matter of personal preference and skill.
The warning about "professional editing" is two-fold. First, as in other areas of publishing there are a goodly number of scammers and incompetents offering their services (for a fee). As a rule of thumb, anyone who advertises in Writer's Digest doesn't belong on your list. Anyone who tells you that a manuscript must be professionally edited before it's submitted, and that this is a standard publishing practice, is fibbing to you.
Second, having your manuscript professionally edited doesn't guarantee that it will be made publishable.
In practical terms, what you do is your own business, but for most slush all that professional editing will give you is slightly less unpublishable slush.
The labor theory of value does not hold with entertainment. Fiction is part of the entertainment industry.
There are a couple of issues here.
One of them is that the writer needs to sit down and improve his craft. This is work, I'll admit. There's no substitute, and there's no shortcut. You have to learn how to write.
The second is the philosophical question of how to go about finishing a book before sending it to a publisher for consideration.
Some people may hire a professional editor to do this, and you can find legitimate professional editors who may agree to edit your book for a fee. I know some. Heck, I've even done it myself.
The legitmate ones won't promise that you'll be published. The legitmate ones aren't cheap.
Some people (I fall in this category myself) have a small circle of trusted beta readers. After the book's as good as we can make it, we send it out to our friends, who rip it apart.
Yet others have workshops they belong to, who fill the same function.
Still others can edit their books themselves with stunning results.
The goal is to send out the best book you can; how you do it is a matter of personal preference and skill.
The warning about "professional editing" is two-fold. First, as in other areas of publishing there are a goodly number of scammers and incompetents offering their services (for a fee). As a rule of thumb, anyone who advertises in Writer's Digest doesn't belong on your list. Anyone who tells you that a manuscript must be professionally edited before it's submitted, and that this is a standard publishing practice, is fibbing to you.
Second, having your manuscript professionally edited doesn't guarantee that it will be made publishable.
In practical terms, what you do is your own business, but for most slush all that professional editing will give you is slightly less unpublishable slush.
The labor theory of value does not hold with entertainment. Fiction is part of the entertainment industry.