Off to the Editor
I sent the manuscript off to an editor last week. He’ll take over 100 hours to go through it. It’s a very particular skill set and the author is definitely not the one to edit their own work. I’m sure I’ll need a hug and words of encouragement after I go through his edits, but that’s what editors are supposed to do, find the holes, the misused words, the plot kinks, awkward dialogue and expose them. It’s my job to suck it up, so to speak, and fix them. You, the reader, get a better story, which I hope everyone will appreciate.
All successful writers have editors whether traditional or self published, so why shouldn’t I? Jason’s Tale was beta read by thoughtful friends and self edited by me dozens of times. That process took a long time. A professional editor can shorten the time to publish, getting to the heart of a story’s issues. By investing in an editor, I think I’ll save months to publication. I want to get this sequel out this fall as promised all summer. That said, I think beta readers are still a good step for me to take before sending my work off to an editor.
Will I have a long term relationship with this editor? Who knows? Some writers do. Like any relationship, one has to take time to see how it develops. Does the editor like reading my work? That’s important; if they don’t like the story lines or writing style, it’s harder for them to edit. Will I like the changes he imposes/suggests? Sometimes an editor may want the author to go in a different direction than the writer wants to go, or to not take “license” with the rules of grammar where the writer thinks they are justified for the effect…think The Road, by Cormac McCarthy.
Publish date?
My editor will take three passes at the story, after each of my rewrites. We’re looking at about a month to complete it all, so I’m shooting for mid-November. Of course when I get his markup back, I’ll be “head down” and hard working to get the manuscript turned around and back to him. He said the first pass would take over 100 hours, as I said above, the second pass, maybe 30 hours and the third pass less than 10. Hopefully all will go as expected.
New Thriller Novel
I’m still going to try to fit this in and publish it before year’s end. It sets up a protagonist, Daniel (Dan) Stone, who becomes a black ops assassin for the CIA. This first novel, tentatively titled Retribution, tells the story of how Dan loses everything and winds up with the CIA. Most of the action takes place in Brooklyn, with some pretty colorful characters. I like it and I think you will as well.
Audio Book
The audio book of After the Fall: Jason’s Tale is on schedule for mid-November as well. Gabriel Zacchai has completed the narration and now he has to do the editing. Check out his website; he lives in Maine, is a folk singer, tattoo artist, story teller and dad along with being a narrator; a very interesting guy.
