The Author-izer

Posts Tagged ‘Editing’

Here’s what I’ve tagged for April 19th through April 27th:

• The iPad, the Kindle, and the future of books : The New Yorker –
• Scribd Partners with Blurb and Others to Offer Print on Demand – 2010-04-14 13:31:26 | Publishers Weekly –
• In His Private Books, Signs of Mark Twain as Critic – NYTimes.com –

Here’s what I’ve tagged for February 15th through February 19th:

• Add professional copy-editing to your writing process – Wordy –
• Author One Stop (Randy Peyser) –
• All The Many Ways Amazon So Very Failed the Weekend « Whatever –

Here’s what I’ve tagged for January 31st through February 4th:

• Ten Tips for Proofreading Marketing and Advertising Copy –
• Hey, John Sargent, CEO of Macmillan Books, Screw You! –
• In Defense of Ghostblogging: Social Media Ethical Dilemmas –

Here’s what I’ve tagged for January 8th through January 17th:

• The Difference Between Ghostwriting and Developmental Editing | BLOG.POLISHEDPUBLISHINGGROUP.COM –
• 13 basic design concepts every copywriter should know –
• The Ghostwriter Agreement –
• Vervante – On Demand Publishing –

It’s a busy day in the writing world:

• The Copy Editor’s Lament: The Layoff Video – mediabistro.com: FishbowlLA –
• The Nation’s CEO Has a Ghost-Tweeter « Communication at Work –
• President Obama Admits That He’s Never Used Twitter, But Thinks The Chinese Should Be Able To –

Here’s what I’ve tagged for November 11th through November 13th:

• How to Craft an Effective Corporate White Paper Strategy | White Paper Pundit –
• Copyediting : Podcasts –
• Why You Need A Copy Editor [PIC] –

Here’s what I’ve tagged for November 6th through November 9th:

• copyeditor Salaries in San Francisco, CA – Free Salary Search | Indeed.com –
• Your Website’s Missing Ingredient : MarketingProfs –
• 5 Grammar Rules that Ruin Your Copy –
• Your Copy Sucks: You Don’t Even Know What “Edit” Means RBreakfastClub –

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Mitch Joel is a social media rock star who runs an extremely successful digital marketing business in Beautiful Montreal. I’ve been listening to his Six Pixels of Separation podcast since he started it. Since he’s just come out with a book by the same name, everyone is interviewing him about his social media insights.

I, on the other hand, wanted to talk to Mitch about publishing. He’s said too many interesting things on Media Hacks recently. (Two of the other contributors to Media Hacks, Chris Brogan and Julien Smith, have just published a best-selling book together, and another one, Hugh McGuire, runs a book start-up.)

In this interview, Mitch talks about:

• His previous experience with the publishing industry
• The importance of having a platform
• The difference between writing a book and writing a collection of blog posts
• The powerful mystique that publishing a book retains even (or especially) in the age of social media
• The value of a good editor
• Why his publisher made his book more blog-like
• Distribution and business models in publishing
• What makes a book a book

Mitch is an incredibly articulate one-take podcaster. I’m not. I’ve edited this interview slightly for fluency. In particular, I’ve rearranged the beginning, because Mitch and I started our conversation before his introduction.

A big thanks to Mitch for such a fabulous interview.

Since they can’t keep Six Pixels of Separation: Everyone Is Connected. Connect Your Business to Everyone in the stores, I’d recommend you all buy it on Amazon (and give me a few cents in commission while you’re at it).

These are my links for June 14th through July 2nd:

• How to Write Like You Talk — SkaareWorks –
• Top Ten Things to Think About Before You Go With Print on Demand –
• First Draft Secrets: Five Simple Steps –
• EFA: Resources: Booklets –
• Is Amazon Taking Over the Book Business? – TIME –

That question comes from Jacob Bear on LinkedIn:

What’s the hardest part about editing and rewriting content?

As a copywriter, I get asked a lot to rewrite web pages, press releases, direct mail and other content. I try to avoid doing this (creating original copy is a lot more fun and more lucrative), so I’d like to post a series of online video tutorials to walk people through the process.

I’m trying to get a sense of the biggest writing challenges, so I can address them in the videos.

Actually, the thing that’s really hardest for me is writing what copyeditors call “queries” rather than just fixing problems. But that wasn’t the kind of editing Jacob was talking about, so I said this instead:

Editing other people’s content is actually fairly easy; the challenge is to preserve their “voice” if the writing is informal/personal. Editing your own material is harder because you’re close to it. It’s best to take a break from it, wait a few days, do something to get it out of your head so that you can look at it with fresh eyes. You could ask a friend or family member to read it and tell you whether there’s anything confusing.

One successful author I know recommends doing all your editing on hard copy: print it out, take it and your red pen away from the computer, sit down, and write in the edits and comments, without changing anything yet. Then go back and make the changes at the computer.

Or, of course, you could just refer clients who want editing rather than original work to someone who’s happy doing rewrites.

And, incidentally, I charge the same amount whether I’m writing new content or editing. You may find that raising your rates for editing a) makes you more willing to do it and b) reduces the frequency with which you get asked to do it.

There were a lot of good answers posted. It’s worth going over to LinkedIn and reading all of them.