Contact Me
Email: bawriting@earthlink.netPhone: 562 628-9688
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Do you have a great plot for a novel walking around in your head? Do you
have political or philosophical ideas to share with the world? Do you want
to write the story of your life to pass on to your grandchildren? I can
help you create the best book you can produce.
Basically, here’s what you get when you hire me. You send me your book, either all at once or chapter by chapter, and I use MS Word’s Track Changes tool to make corrections in grammar, spelling, punctuation, syntax, and English usage. And I write to you right on the page, not in comments boxes, and in boldface, so you can easily see my comments and questions. I’ll add transitions and topic sentences for you. I’ll move sentences and paragraphs to clarify the logical or narrative flow of the material. If I find that you’re making the same kinds of mistakes over and over again, I’ll give you a tiny tutorial so you can learn the right way to construct a sentence with an introductory or subordinate clause or how to correctly punctuate dialogue. (The punctuation almost always goes inside the quotation marks.)
I’ll pay close attention to details so a character’s name doesn’t suddenly change in the middle of chapter 5. If you suddenly start saying B instead of A, I’ll ask you about it. Sometimes I’ll suggest that you go back and make an outline of what you’re trying to say and then rewrite following your outline. (Try it. It really works.) I’ll suggest books or other references that may be helpful to you. I’ll help you with the book’s front matter and back matter and format the footnotes, if necessary. I’ll explain (if I really have to) that foreword and forward are not the same, neither are afterword and afterward. (I once declined to review a book from a very small publisher that had a Forward and an Afterwards.)
Beginning authors sometimes seem to think their readers live inside their heads with them. Our readers don’t, though, so we need to write clear, accessible prose. Ambiguity is vital to poetry and useful in fiction, but it is less useful in nonfiction. But no matter what you’re writing, it has to make sense to people who don’t already know you.
My primary source for usage, formatting, and other editing issues is the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition. I also recommend William Strunk & E.B. White’s Elements of Style to everyone I work with. If you don’t have The Elements of Style, buy your copy now.
What is my focus when I edit? You are. I won’t write your novel or thesis or PR piece for you, but I will help you make it as good as can be. I’ll work hard so you won’t embarrass yourself in print. I will, so to speak, lend you my fresh eyes. Fresh eyes have not seen the same sentences and paragraphs umpteen times. Fresh eyes read what is really there, not what is remembered or expected. Fresh eyes catch simple, stupid finger errors that weary eyes swan right over. Fresh eyes see leaps of logic where weary eyes have blinked.
So I’ll be your fresh eyes. I’ll see the details you miss simply because you wrote it and think you know what it says, even if that’s not what it really says. Maybe your mother and everyone else you know has read your book and praised it. But they want to support you. I want to support you, too, but you’re paying me to be honest and frank. You’re paying me to find and correct mistakes.
If you’re not already familiar with Track Changes, I’ll send you a tutorial. Track Changes is pretty easy to use. Basically, if you accept a change I make, you place your cursor at the beginning of the underscore or strikethrough and click on the check box in the Track Changes toolbar. If you do not accept a change, click on the X box in the toolbar.
You also need to know what editing is not. I am not a ghost writer. I do not give free professional advice to people whose work I have not already edited. I am not a literary agent. I cannot negotiate contracts or practice law in any way. Please don’t ask.
I’ll work with you as a friend and perhaps a teacher. I’ll talk to you via email, though I’ve also had phone conversations with some of my authors. I'll recommend good books. Gossip about my cats and movies and things we discover we’re both interested in.
I hold a Ph.D. in English, which means I know a lot more than an evaluator for an on-demand press who simply likes to read. I’ll also help you format your book so when it goes to a publisher it will be easier for that publisher to work with. You’ll end up with clean copy in a consistent format, with a page header and pagination, and with your copyright notice at the foot of the title page. And if you think you want to quote any song lyrics or poetry, I’ll explain about getting permission and avoiding charges of plagiarism.
When I’m your editor, we’re a team. You get my experience and my expertise working for you.