Editor | Ana Spoke, author

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by Ana Spoke | August 16, 2015 · 2:31 pm

Just a little progress

I’ve been sick for a few days. It’s winter here, down under, and it doesn’t help that I use public transport to get to work every day. Nothing like packing into a tram with a hundred other coughing people on a dreary gray morning, to remind me of my Soviet era childhood. Needless to say, I’m not at all nostalgic about it. I took a sick day and tried to sleep it off, but my brain is still no working so good.

Despite the general mental fog and lack of interest in anything outside the bed, I’ve managed to progress a little. First of all, I’ve made a decision on what to do about the proofread. Thank you so much to everyone who took time to read and advise me on my latest predicament. I’m going to persevere with the option #2, which is to get back to the editor and resolve what I perceive to be issues. I’m currently going through the manuscript, from the beginning, compiling a list of all the changes I don’t understand or agree with, and hope to send a complete list to her later today. In the process of doing it, I’ve realised that she’s actually done a good job overall, very thorough. I’ve also realised that I have a ready editor right next to me, in form of my fiancé. Why it has not occurred to me to ask him before, I’m not sure (refer mental fog), but it turns out his private school and uni education is worth something :-).

There has also been progress on the cover front. Due to popular demand from the focus group (thank you so much again!!) I have reverted back to the double rip, but used the more script-y font:

It’s not finished yet, but I think the future changes will be very minor, as in fiddling with font color or placement, and maybe color saturation or overlays. There will never be a perfect cover to please everybody, but I’m quite happy with the feedback so far, which suggests that it’s catchy and interesting enough. I have certainly loved the process of working on it myself.

So there you go. Not too bad for the sneezing, coughing, mess that I am at the moment. Back to bed, I guess 🙂

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Filed under Self-publishing and marketing

Tagged as advice, Book, cover, Editor, novel, proofreader, self-publishing, writing

by Ana Spoke | August 11, 2015 · 3:39 pm

What do I do??

I have a dilemma. Last week I have received my manuscript from the proof-reader. There were a lot of changes, especially in punctuation and grammar. She did say that it was more than she would have expected, so you can imagine my concern.

Anyway, I got to work reviewing and accepting changes. Then, at about a half-way mark, I finally had to admit that “something ain’t right”. Specifically, the following two types of changes appeared over and over:

1. Adding a comma before “and” in a simple sentence, such as “Blah, blah,” he said, and offered his hand.
2. Past perfect everywhere, such as “I had never even heard of it before”.

I have googled the bejesus out of these two points and found that:

1. No comma. The only way a comma would be appropriate, if it was an independent clause, such as:”Blah, blah,” he said, and then he offered his hand. Note that there are two subjects, “he” and then “he” again.
2. It should be “have”, because while she’s never heard of it before, she’s heard of it now, as in “I’ve never even heard of it before”.

Still, I was not sure. After all, I’m Russian and the proofreader is educated and may I mention, being paid for this. I have emailed the proofreader. No answer. I finally got her on the phone. After I finished describing the point 1, I asked what rule dictates the comma. The answer? “No rule”.

“Then why is it there?” I asked.
“There’s a pause there, so it felt natural to add a comma,” she said.

I was flabbergasted. I am not paying for an opinion, I’m paying for expertise.

“The manuscript seems overpunctuated,” I said.
“You don’t have to use it,” she said, cool as a cucumber.

I was so shocked that I forgot to bring up point #2 and got off the phone. I feel like a deflated baloon, not even sure if there are other changes she’s suggested based on how it feels, rather than the grammar rules. I’m not sure what I should do. The way I see it, I have two options:

1. Pay her and forget about it, instead starting from the beginning and going through the manuscript and suggested changes myself, researching each questionable point. Pros: one hell of an English lesson I’ll never forget. Cons: hella pissed off about paying someone to confuse me.
2. Send it back to her and tell her to re-do using English rules and not opinions, if she wants me to pay the full price, or negotiate a discounted price to finish it myself.

My sweet and kind partner thinks I should not fight her. My feisty sister’s advice is “it’s on!”. What do you think?