Editing the Indie Novel, Part Two

Tip of the Day: If you haven't read my books, enter to win them on my website through Saturday at midnight. I'm also giving away more than 20 other ebooks too!

Today I'm going to touch on content edits. A book that ignores this step is probably doomed to failure.

First you should tackle editing content. This is where my friend Angela Carlie comes into play (as I referenced in my last blog post). Yes, she tells me if my commas are in the wrong place or if I misuse a semicolon, but the bulk of what she does is examine my style choices and plot.

Let's talk style first. Characters have their tics, just like we do. They tend to talk in ways that are indicative of their personalities, or react physically in certain ways. Bella, in Twilight (y'all have heard of that book, right?), was really, really clumsy. It was a character tic.

Where could that tic have gone wrong? If Edward was always walking into walls or Jacob stubbed his toe every time he turned into a wolf. Then it becomes an author obsession with clumsiness and not a character trait that makes Bella special. Just imagine how silly it would have been for both Bella & Edward to be in a cast at prom!

I know, I know, you think that's so obvious and no writer would ever do that. THEY DO. It happens. Sometimes it's obvious, sometimes it's subtle. That's why you need fresh eyes to read your book.

Okay, let's jump to plot. In Chapter Two the author introduces a character named Jimmy Joe. He interacts with the main character, indicates he has a piece to the mystery she's trying to solve ... then she solves the mystery on her own and Jimmy Joe never makes another appearance.

This requires editing. It's very common for a writer (especially a pantser like me) to introduce characters, get swept up in the story, and then forget they totally exist. This is another huge issue that content editing picks up on. Someone who isn't intimate with the story will notice it right away and let you know before you publish your book. Imagine if Sir Arthur Conan Doyle introduced Watson to Holmes, then never mentioned him again. Lame, right?

What else goes into content editing? Sentence structure (make sure it's varied and interesting), chapter-to-chapter flow (end with a cliffhanger, start with a bang), continuity (make sure the facts in a sequel agree with the facts from the previous novel), word repetition, etc. I could go on for ages - but there are books dealing with this topic. Read them.  (Manuscript Makeover by Lyon; Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Browne & King; The First Five Pages by Lukeman to name a few.)

Bottom line: Don't stress about punctuation until you've done a full and complete content edit of your book. Why? Trust me, when you revise those big issues, you'll flub up your punctuation again. You'll type 'first' instead of 'fist' and your 90-year-old grandpa will find it when he reads it (yes, that happened to me). Deal with the content - then deal with copy edits.

Go forth and revise! (Then do it again and again and again!)

Megg, Miss Enchanted ePubber

Perfect Young Adult Books for Valentine's Day

Tip of the Day: If you're a teen in the western suburbs of Chicago, come see me at this Valentine's Day event tonight.

It's almost that time again...Valentine's Day. Are we yay or nay? I used to be more excited about Valentine's Day but now it seems like an endless flow of kid's valentine's and filling them out and buying treats for their classmates. That's for 103 kids. Nuts right? But between my four kids...sigh. But anyway, I need some good Valentine's reads to perk me up and thought you might too.

Felicity Walker believes in true love. That's why she applies for a gig at the matchmaking company Cupid's Hollow. But when Felicity gets the job, she learns that she isn't just a matchmaker...she's a cupid! (There's more than one of them, you know.)

Armed with a hot pink, tricked-out PDA infused with the latest in cupid magic (love arrows shot through email), Felicity works to meet her quota of successful matches. But the path to love is not always a straight shot...

Find it on Indiebound, B&N, or Amazon.

When a blizzard threatens to ruin Valentine’s Day, three seventh-grade friends make and distribute fortune cookies to their lonely neighbors—and confront the secrets they’ve been keeping from one another.

Confident Kate doesn’t notice much but the latest gossip, and shy Georgia can’t say out loud what’s always on her mind. They’re joined by observant, careful Olivia, whose epic, single-minded crush on PBJ (real name: Phillip Becker-Jacobs) is starting to frustrate the other two. Using fortune cookies that mysteriously always seem to speak directly to the person who opens them, the three girls try to work together to bring some love to their building, while reminding each other why they’re such good friends to begin with.

With all the right ingredients to appeal to tween girls, this is an irresistible confection from an emerging talent.

Find it on Indiebound, B&N, or Amazon.

What if you had only one day to live? What would you do? Who would you kiss? And how far would you go to save your own life?

Samantha Kingston has it all: the world's most crush-worthy boyfriend, three amazing best friends, and first pick of everything at Thomas Jefferson High—from the best table in the cafeteria to the choicest parking spot. Friday, February 12, should be just another day in her charmed life.

Instead, it turns out to be her last.

Then she gets a second chance. Seven chances, in fact. Reliving her last day during one miraculous week, she will untangle the mystery surrounding her death—and discover the true value of everything she is in danger of losing.

Find it on Indiebound, B&N, or Amazon.



Do you have any suggestions for good YA Valentine's reads?

Kristina, Miss Author in Action

Been There, Read That (or Tired and True Tropes)

Tip of the Day, Librarian Edition: February is Love Your Library Month! Ask your local librarians what you can do for them!

All of us writers trying to sell books know that it is a tough, competitive market for YA. What can we do to stand out in the slush piles? One idea I plan to implement is to work harder on coming up with unique angles to introduce characters and plot points. No more taking the easy, tried and true way!

Based on the over 100 YA novels I read in the past year, scenarios I will be avoiding are:

--a new boy at school who immediately connects with the MC and is a huge part of her destiny, paranormal or realistic. (New setting besides the school intro, please.)
--the MC starts at a new school and immediately connects with a guy there who is a huge part of her destiny, paranormal or realistc. (Twilight.)
--the MC has a dead brother/sister/boyfriend/girlfriend and connects with the deceased's living brother/sister/boyfriend/girlfriend in order to heal from the loss. (This has been done beautifully in the recent past, and I'm ready for another fresh way for the MC to heal.)
--strictly defined cliques, including the obviously popular/beautiful girls who are cruel to the MC. (If I never see this again, I will be all too grateful. Why can't the ugly girls be the cruel ones?)

In a first draft, these elements are fine. But as you revise, brainstorm new ways of showing the relationships between characters. Dig deeper. Writing is hard anyway, so work a little harder and make it all worth it.

Deena, Miss Subbing for Pubbing

Enough is enough...

Tip of the Day: I started doing something I swore I'd never in my life resort to...keeping a food journal. But I have to admit its sort of easy with this app. All I have to do is search for foods and click to add to my journal. With all the hard work technically done for me, it's been enlightening and kind of fun. So for a few short weeks (or i.e. until the fun runs out), I'm going to give "MyFitnessPal" a try.


Every writer knows that revision is a necessity.

But just as important is stopping.

Because if we don't stop revising at some point then there would be no great books on the shelves or books for us to cuddle up with and read by awesome looking fireplaces like these.

However, determining when to stop revising always seems to be the tricky part.

Sure you want to stop after:

• Changing everything you get comments on that resonate with you.
• Reading your work multiple times. Preferably out loud. And correcting anything that doesn't sound right.
  
• And then after completing a final round of edits, even after what you thought was your last round.

But how do you know you're done?

I think the best indicator is your gut. If something deep down is telling you that one aspect still isn't "quite" right, then you need another edit.

If that feeling goes away. Or you feel that there is no possible way you could make something better then you are ready to stop revising (at least temporarily until you get more comments :)) Because if all you are doing is changing things instead of improving, then chances are "enough" might very well be "enough."

Image from: http://cheezburger.com/View/3010085120

--Emily, Miss Querylicious

Secrets in YA and MG, or the Character in Ignorance

Tip of the Day: Are you following Kristina's blog? She's running a giveaway of a signed hardcover, has news about her YALSA honor, and more!

Here's a secret about me: one of my pet peeves is when people think the difference between Middle Grade and Young Adult writing boils down to sex, drugs, and rock and roll. No! There are huge thematic differences between the genres. Middle grade characters are learning who they are and what makes them unique; young adult characters are figuring out how they affect the world.

Let me illustrate this with the role of secrets in middle grade and young adult novels. Take family secrets.  Your family has skeletons in the closet. Think about how old you were when you discovered them. Were your parents really able to hide big secrets from you until you were 16? Some secrets do reach that level, if they're very taboo.  But divorces and adoptions or (as I see in manuscript submissions) secret societies and superpowers? Even the most self-absorbed teen is interested in his or her family history. It's practically part of self-absorption.

If Dad is an evil overlord with a secret lair, your typical sixteen year old will have a few clues, at least. You're probably dealing with a middle grade novel, and adding sex and drugs won't instantly morph it into a young adult novel.

Secrets you may see in young adult novels:
-- things the entire family doesn't know yet. In Sarah Dessen's DREAMLAND, the main character's parents don't know why the oldest daughter has run away, so we believe that the main character doesn't know it, either.
-- unsolved crimes. These should be plausibly unsolved by everyone, without leaving trails of forensic evidence.
-- conspiracies by the entire society. In GONE WITH THE WIND, the male characters conspire to keep from the young ladies back home how badly the Confederacy is losing the war. This conspiracy extends to newspapers, political speeches, and intimate relationships.

Secrets you may see in middle grade novels:
-- family skeletons in the closet that have been hidden from the main character by the adults in the family.
-- secret societies or groups of people, such as witches and wizards in Hogwarts. "You have magic powers but your family didn't tell you" is very much a middle grade trope.
-- neighborhood secrets that some people know about, but not all. Haunted houses, secret places in the woods, urban ruins ripe for exploration, teachers or neighbors with double lives.

In other words, the young adult character should reasonably know just as much as the adult characters, even if she is as self-absorbed as Scarlett O'Hara. Or at least that's my opinion. Do you agree?

-- Kate, Miss Perfecting the Pages

Editing the Indie Novel, Part One

Tip of the Day: Going indie doesn't mean you should go it alone. Surround yourself with a tribe of talented writers.

Okay, I wasn't going to do this right away, but it feels like a discussion of editing should be the next step. The reason I hesitate to tackle this topic is because nothing in e-publishing leads to more anger and arguments than editing.

Self-published novels have a bad rep for being poorly edited. In some cases, it's deserved. As epubbing has evolved over the last couple years, editing has taken on a whole different face. I wouldn't recommend anyone ever epublish without extensive editing.

Just. Don't. Do. It.

Today I'm going to tell you a bit about my editing practices

Here's my process:

1. I write the whole novel
2. I edit & rewrite
3. I edit & rewrite again
4. Then I send it out to Angela Carlie, who is the ying to my editing yang. She has a deep understanding of all of my writing foibles and she's not afraid to tell me when I've royally screwed up. She points out every zit, every freckle, and every stoopid mistake in my manuscript. Getting back any less would be a disservice to me. I WANT to be aware of every problem. Otherwise, what's the point of editing? (note: I just wish I could learn not to repeat the same mistakes over and over - I'm trying)
5. I cry, debate quitting writing, and eat a lot of chocolate
6. Then I edit & rewrite
7. I send the manuscript out to several more readers
8. I edit & rewrite
9. Then I start my proofreading chain - I send the first third of the book to one person who proofreads it. Any mistakes s/he finds, I correct. Then I send that segment to another reader while sending the first reader the second third of the book. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. I run my proofreading through at least three readers in this fashion so by the time the last person gets the book, it's hopefully squeaky clean.

Oh - each one of these readers is different. I never ask the same person to read the same manuscript twice. It's so easy to become comfortable with a book. I want my editors & proofreaders to come at my work with 100% fresh eyes. (My love & thanks to Karly, GP, Magan, Kim, Margaret, Tim, Marcia, Mark, Kate, Cherie, Teresa, David, Eugene, and OMG I know I'm forgetting people - if I forgot you, please email me and tell me and I'll add you in!)

Do I claim to be perfect? No. Do I think everyone will 'get' my style? No. I've been trashed by some readers for editing - while other readers praise the exact same style choices. Again, it leads back to the idea of subjectivity and enjoyment when a reader reads.

I think sometimes the casual reader with little experience in editing doesn't understand the difference between style choices and poor editing. When I edit other people's work, I am heavy into editing of punctuation and grammar. I don't often touch on style unless it's something that's glaring, like an author's tic versus a character's tic (which is something Angela taught me to find). Then I will say something. I usually try to let the author's style shine through because I feel that's what makes indie novels so special.

Okay, I could go on for years on this topic. Check out me & Ang below. The longer you're around me, you'll learn I have a slight obsession with FaceinHole.com. Ang & I haven't met in real life, but we've been internet friends for years now. :D

(Pssst....my first novel, Anathema, is free right now on the iBookstore - go download it if you're interested)

Tweet Your Favorite Author Day!!

Tip of the Day: There is still time to enter my contest for a signed hard cover of Just Your Average Princess. It's easy! Go to my blog to follow me and comment here to let me know.

I've been having a very good e-mail/facebook/twitter week. By this I mean I've been getting super nice notes from fans, parents, and librarians and it's awesome-- many smiles this week. And it made me think that we don't tell authors enough how much we like their work. Sure there are reviews posted on Amazon and Goodreads but outside of dedicated bloggers, a lot of people don't take the time to post a review after they've finished a book. I know I don't do it nearly enough. #Guilty

So, by the power invested in me by, well myself, I hereby declare today,

TWEET YOUR FAVORITE AUTHOR DAY!!

Let's spread some author love. All you have to do is go on twitter and send out a tweet to your favorite author(s), telling them that you love one of their books. Here's an example:

@megcabot, your Airhead series is amazing! Love it!

Need to find YA author's twitter names? Here's some great lists: Mitali's, Mashable, and Reader's Ink. Or just google search your author's name and twitter.

If you want to include a hashtag- #TYFAD.

Go forth and tweet!

Kristina, Miss Author in Action