I’ve edited a section of Bob Brantner’s sci fi novel so he can decide if we wants me to continue. Fingers crossed ’cause it’s a good’un!

 

I always edit an hour’s worth of a client’s copy or content and send it to them to make sure they’re happy and in accord with the way I’m doing it so they can decide to go in another direction if they aren’t.  I’m waiting to hear back…

 

So far in my writing/editing career. no one has ever said “no” to having me continue, but there can always be a first time! I hope this isn’t that time, because I look forward to seeing how this novel proceeds.

 

And if Bob does have me go ahead, he’s aware that it’s gonna cost thousands of dollars to edit/enhance a 186,000-word novel. That’s quite a chunk of change.  The novel also needs to be separated into two books, as it’s far too long for a single novel.

 

He has another manuscript (not sci fi) to edit, too.

 

I edited 4.8 pages in the hour I worked on this manuscript. (In the publishing industry, one page is 250 words.) That’s a good rate of progress.

 

Bob has many followers and has sold a slew of  600 Feet Above Alaska, so I’m not overly concerned that he will decide not to proceed.  I’m giving him a discount off my usual rate, so he won’t get the same deal from anyone else who’s reputable. But it’s still gonna be a big bill. It would certainly take my breath away!   I’m estimating 155 hours (given that it took me an hour to edit/enhance a little over 1200 words) to do the whole 186,000 words.  The way I’m editing, the word count will be lowered by thousands of words, but that’s still a lot of words to massage.

 

He is a terrific storyteller.  The only hiccup is that he tends to write as if he’s addressing a professional conference. He uses “however” to distraction (instead of “but”) and other words that remove readers from viscerally experiencing the story. This is a common error of  newbie writers. Most writers have immense vocabularies, so it’s all too easy to use words in writing that we would never use in conversation. And a novel is a conversation (of sorts) with a reader.

 

There are other common errors, as well.  My job with this one is to shorten and enhance explanations/narratives to their essences to make each sentence more succinct and powerful. This is an error that I find in most manuscripts and other pieces.  (Even mine! So, I review everything I write multiple times to truncate and/or eliminate everything that doesn’t advance the piece.)

 

Becoming a copywriter truly boosted my editing chops to a new level

 

Sales copy has to be immensely engaging, succinct and powerful. It has to rivet eyeballs and minds in place and carry them from the first word to the last, and then to a sale or some other type of conversion. Learning how to do that enhanced my ability to do the same while editing and enhancing non-sales pieces and manuscripts.

 

Every reader of a novel wants to be captivated.  To do that, the author has to know how to keep them engaged with every sentence. If a sentence doesn’t achieve that, needs to come out or to be made more compelling.

 

That is a good editor’s greatest claim to fame, IMO!