Editing Secrets of Best-Selling Authors

Editing Secrets of Best-Selling Authors Kathy Ide

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PRAISE FOR EDITING SECRETS OF

I wish everyone who had submitted a manuscript to me as an

The content in Editing Secrets

—Margot Starbuck Writing Query Letters that Shine

Editing Secrets of Best-Selling Authors

—Linda Nathan

i

the

—Tom Siebert Editing Secrets of Best-Selling Authors

The Story Peddler

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

presenting them.

to quote them in this book.

iii

FOREWORD

get the story that was inside me onto the written page in a way that

paper with the same power it had when I imagined it. That takes Editing Secrets of Best-Selling Authors

writing.

v

TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ..................................................................................... 1 .......................................................................5 ...................................................................9 Chapter 3: Content Edit ................................................................. 17 ......................................................25 Chapter 5: Copyedit ........................................................................33 Chapter 6: Scissors Edit .................................................................43 .......................................................53 ...............................................................63 Chapter 9: Editing Memoir ...........................................................73 Chapter 10: Editing Fiction—Introduction ....................................85 ............................................89 Chapter 12: Editing Fiction—Characters .......................................99 .................................109 .........121 ........................... 125 ...................................131 ......................................... 139 Chapter 18: Fine-Tune Edit ..........................................................151 ...................................................... 157 vii

viii ............................................... 167 Chapter 21: Take this Job and Love It ..........................................171 ...................................... 173 Appendix B: Contributing Author Bios ........................................ 175

INTRODUCTION

manuscript.

Editing Secrets of Best-Selling Authors

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character or plot,

: Best-selling author Julie-Allyson Ieron says: Does edit evoke images of a mad doctor opening his satchel of leeches above your fresh page of healthy prose with the intent of bleeding out its life?

It isn’t as bad as all that. A good edit eliminates distracting words, wasted space, rabbit trails, careless errors, and fluff that try a reader’s patience because they’re packed with what my Weight Watchers instructor would call empty calories.

I am a tougher editor on my own work than any publisher’s editor has ever been. I don’t settle for anything less than vibrant writing where every word carries its weight, where not one could I eliminate

3 without doing damage to the reader’s experience. Most of my best work I write a third to a half longer than my target word count. Then I force out every sentence, word, space, or comma that isn’t crucial.

Finally I find myself right at word count, with a tighter, clearer chapter or article.

Tight writing, sharp writing, fresh writing isn’t about the writing at all. It’s about getting the writing out of the way so, like the silver bullet of a passenger train, the message shimmers as it zips along a smooth track to the reader’s heart.

:

WHY EDIT?

sparks an idea, and you tap into your creative nature to

: Best-selling author Cindy Woodsmall says: The concept of writing is so simple, really—connect sentences in such a way that they tell a story that entertains and changes the reader. Despite the simplicity of the action, writing takes focused effort. Writers must use the nontangible assets of mind, heart, and will to create a tangible product.

Whether stories bubble up inside us, begging to be written, or we are digging deep so we can cup our hands and come up with a bit of water, a good writer does what it takes to write the best possible story.

:

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typesetting, interior design, and cover, then putting your book out

Two Sides of the Brain

hard time getting past them—or staying quiet about them.

7 critiques are right-brainers. Those who do copyediting or

they start writing so they know where the book is headed. They create

home.

way.

The Writing and Editing Dance writing something new, you need to access your right brain, the creative side, to come up with ideas to write about.

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it.

Clear Communication

more women who buy books than there are women who buy men.

Edit Everything

that what you wrote comes across the way you intended.