Let’s start off by getting the exciting news out of the way. Ready?
I finished editing my book!
So that’s, ya know, pretty good.
Just kidding. I’m ridiculously excited to be finished. No more late night editing sessions. No more second-guessing myself about what I should cut and what I should keep. No more rousing arguments with my mother over the whimsicality of the word “whirled”. Ahhhhhh …
I’m pretty psyched, not going to lie. So, what next?
I’ve sent the newly revised and shortened manuscript of Imminent Danger and How to Fly Straight into It out to my quickest reader friends. They’ll devour it over the course of a week, and give me back their impressions. Now, hypothetically the book should be flawless, so really what I’m looking for is a confirmation that the book isn’t too fast-paced now that it’s much shorter. I don’t think it is, but again, that’s what the readers are for.
Once they finish reviewing the manuscript, I’ll sent it back to my Editorial Consultant at iUniverse. I was on the phone with her today, and she’s advised me that I should get a Return Evaluation. The Return Evaluation costs $249, although she mentioned that she will be able to underwrite the cost for me, so that’s great. Remember my post about getting my Editorial Evaluation back? A “Return Evaluation” is basically the same thing. It’s even done by the same editor.
Now, here’s where things get tricky. So when I got my first Editorial Evaluation back, they advised, A) shortening the manuscript, and B) getting a copy-edit. A Return Evaluation gives the editor another chance to advise me about how to improve the book. The shortening thing is taken care of, and assuming he/she doesn’t find any new, glaring flaws, I should be good, content-wise.
That leaves the copy-edit recommendation. You see, I now have a second chance to convince this editor that my book doesn’t need an expensive copy-edit. How do I do that? By visiting The Chicago Manual of Style Online website, and signing up for their free 30 day trial, I can access their full style guide for a month. That means I can try to bring my manuscript up to the American Publisher’s Standard before re-submitting it to the editors at iUniverse, all without spending a dime.
The edits shouldn’t be extensive. I figure it will be mostly along the lines of capitalizing certain words, sticking punctuation outside of quotation marks, etc. So the plan is to spend a few days trying to copy-edit on my own (a difficult task, since as the author I’m already way too close to the material). But I’ll give it my best shot, because $2000 for a copy-edit is a lot of money, and I don’t want to spend it unless I have to.
I wish I had enough money to do this …
Source: http://gerbeny.blogspot.ca/2012/03/irish-roman-bathhouse-sorry-no-nude.html
Some of you might be wondering at this point, why pay for a copy-edit at all? Why are you even using iUniverse? Why not self-publish independently through Smashwords?
Here’s my reasoning. I already paid for the iUniverse publishing package waaaaay back in May. It’s a done deal, so no point second-guessing. Therefore, I’ve decided that, for this book, and this book alone, I’m going to go the full iUniverse publishing route. That means doing the Return Evaluation if they say so, getting a Copy-Edit if they say so, etc. Everyone I’ve talked to at iUniverse has been really great so far, and they seem very enthusiastic about helping me, so I’m 67.8% confident they’ll do right by me.
When I get the finished product in my hands, I’ll look back and judge if paying whatever the total amount comes out to was worth it or not. If it was worth it, then I’ll probably work with iUniverse again. If not, then I’ll scrap iUniverse and self-publish everything myself from now on. Call it me being foolhardy, naive, and gullible. Call it a learning experience. Whatever you want to call it, that’s my plan, and I’m sticking to it!
Adorable image of the day:
Source: http://imgur.com/HgJlH
Michelle Proulx - Author 
Congrats, I’m really excited for you. I’m almost done my manuscript and I can’t wait until I’m at the editing stage.
Thanks 🙂 And trust me, you *want* to wait until the editing stage. It’s awful. Yeuch, editing.
LOL! I bet.
Yay!!! Can’t wait to see the finished product!
I’m right there with you, lol.
Congrats! Can’t wait to read it! 🙂
Thanks 😀
Way to go with getting your editing done, Michelle!
I can sure understand your commitment to iUniverse (since you already paid for a publishing package). $2000 does sound like a lot of money for a copy-edit, unless your manuscript is about 225,000 words long. I have been working with a great freelance editor that I contacted through the Editorial Freelancers Association website at http://www.the-efa.org/. Under Resources, there is also a great editorial rate chart to use as a guideline for evaluating editorial services proposals.
Professional editing and proofreading services aren’t cheap, but as a self-published author who wanted my first novel to be indistinguishable from a traditionally published work, those services were a great investment.
I haven’t seen, or even thought of Scrooge McDuck in years. Thanks for the memories!
Thanks 😀 And yes, I know it’s a lot of money, but like I said, I’m just going to follow the iUniverse game plan this time and see what happens. But thank you thank you for that awesome link! I have lots of other novels I’m going to self-publish in the future, and I definitely won’t be doing them all through iUniverse, so I will undoubtedly make use of that editorial service. I’ve actually been looking for a legitimate editorial service (not some random person freelancing from their basement), and the EFA looks great.
That’s awesome, Michelle. I’m so happy for you. I wish you much success with your book.
Thanks!!
Congratulations, Michelle! It’s a good plan to stick to. 🙂 You’ll have to do more vlogs of you and your mother celebrating at each stage of the process. Love Day 33!
Ha, I’ll see if I can talk her into the vlog thing. She seems more amenable to it now that she knows people actually enjoy them.
Good Luck in your process. I hope all goes well for you!
Thank you!
So far, so good!
Lol.
Congratulations on finishing the developmental edit process. But whatever you do, don’t shortchange the line edit process. It’s just as important to clean up as many of those “little” errors as possible, to wind up with a professional-looking product.
Oh, definitely. That’s why the iUniverse editor will be looking through the manuscript again. If he/she finds errors, he/she will tell me to get the copy-edit. Best case scenario, he/she won’t find any errors, but we all know how likely that is, lol.
Good luck with the copy-editing! Sounds like you might need more than a few cups of coffee.
Ack, yes. I actually can’t drink coffee — kills my stomach — but there will definitely be hot chocolate involved!
Good luck with that. I’ve heard good and bad things about iUniverse, so take everything with a grain of salt. Editing is killer, so congrats on finishing that!
Looking forward to your release date. =)
I keep my salt shaker handy every time I talk to them, no worries. And thanks 😀
“I keep my salt shaker handy…”
Nice. I may steal that and quote you.
Go for it. As you may or may not know, my ultimate goal with this whole social networking thing is COMPLETE AND UTTER DOMINATION OF THE INTERNET. So, steal and quote away 🙂
I can help with that. Start here: http://www.endoftheinternet.com/
😀
Fun! I’ve never seen that before. I should probably read XKCD more. My brother keeps getting on my case about it, but there’s so much to do …
Good luck. I hope your edit goes well.
Thanks 🙂
Wow, congratulations! That’s pretty exciting! Well, I can tell you right now that when your book hits the shelves, I’ll be right there! 😀
That’s awesome to hear 🙂 And thanks!