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09-18-2011, 11:12 PM | #46 |
Wizard
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But you obviously didn't learn to read... I said "no longer" not "I didn't" so you either read what you want to see (or expect to see) or have trouble reading in general... hey, those are the things that affect editing and proofing, not so easy after all...
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09-19-2011, 12:14 AM | #47 |
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I'll join in the fracas. I just edited my brother's first ebook, and not that long ago edited my own. When I publish my next ebook, I'd greatly prefer to find someone who is willing to edit it. Editing is far more than just proofing for grammar, spelling, and punctuation, and is far more tedious than writing.
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09-19-2011, 05:32 AM | #48 | |
Wizard
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Yes, but the comment that I replied to was:
Quote:
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09-19-2011, 05:37 AM | #49 |
Wizard
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And I said "if". Any author that you would be talking about wouldn't have just finished the 4th grade, so at least at one point in their past they were expected to be able to spell. When did they lose this ability?
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09-19-2011, 06:15 AM | #50 |
Basculocolpic
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I'm not very good with titles. SO I'll omit them here. As I recall it John Grisham's first bestseller was his second or third book. That is the one I read first. The same goes for Dan Brown. Because I enjoyed them I looked for other works, I didn't know that I was getting older books.
Once reading them it was immediately obvious that these books had not gone through the same scrutinizing editors as their respective bestsellers. It wasn't spelling mistakes or grammatical oddities, it was that here were sections of "transportation" text meant to take you to the next scene that were contrived or tedious, that didn't forward the plot. Things like that a good, nah even a mediocre, editor will seize upon. You can't expect the author, unless he/she is very experienced, to find those passages on their own. |
09-19-2011, 06:19 AM | #51 |
Old Git
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Correct, in a nutshell. My husband and I often write articles and documents intended for various types of output/publication. We find it very helpful to read and criticise one another's work. Sometimes what gets picked up is simple, like wearisome repetition, but sometimes it's more structural, such as getting the points of an argument in the wrong order.
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09-19-2011, 06:21 AM | #52 |
Old Git
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When they started typing rather than writing by hand? I'm always making typing errors that I would never make when writing.
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09-19-2011, 07:27 AM | #53 |
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An interesting--and perhaps illuminating--article from the Guardian: The Lost Art of Editing.
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09-19-2011, 08:30 AM | #54 |
Wizard
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09-19-2011, 08:30 AM | #55 | |
Old Git
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Quote:
Of course, that hardly detracts from her ability to write very entertainingly -- here letters are testament to that -- but she wasn't as polished as everyone thought. Last edited by DMB; 09-19-2011 at 12:53 PM. |
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09-19-2011, 08:31 AM | #56 |
Old Git
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09-19-2011, 09:50 AM | #57 | |
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Quote:
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09-19-2011, 10:25 AM | #58 |
Zealot
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09-19-2011, 11:23 AM | #59 |
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My two cents:
I'm in the process of finishing up my first novel. I plan to do three rigorous edits on the book -- once, reading through on the computer screen and editing as I go. Twice, reading through on a paper print out with a highlighter and fixing after I finish the reading. Third time, reading out loud from a paper copy with a highlighter handy. Then I'll be sending out to a few hand-selected beta readers, gods bless their souls. And I'll fix anything THEY find. Tedious? Yes. Time-consuming? Yes. Cheaper than some of the professional editing quotes out there that are more often than not lacking in any references or guarantees? Yep. Worth it? I think so. Will every single error be caught? Probably not. But I think 99.99% of them will be. I hope, anyway. We'll see. |
09-19-2011, 11:30 AM | #60 | |
Wizard
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