As you finish 2022, you may be looking into your 2023 calendar to schedule publication. If you are here, you probably have a feeling you should employ an editor. I’d like to suggest why you should choose me to edit your story or novel.
Why have an editor?
To captivate a reader and keep them moving through your story requires making the reading experience engaging and accessible. What smooths the reading journey? Not drawing attention to the fact that they are reading. This means giving them no problems in the journey, no sputtering engine, no flat tires. You want to give them no reason to do anything but look at the roadside scenery, find that plush hotel to spend the night, and arrive at their destination feeling like the journey was worth every minute.
Poor spelling, grammar, and punctuation create potholes on the story road. They force readers to slow down, to reread to figure out what you meant to say. Awkward word choices that do not fit the setting, tone, or mood, jerk a reader out of your story. They may need to reach for a dictionary if your scene doesn’t provide enough context for at least a working definition. Readers may become frustrated if all the clues in your mystery aren’t presented clearly. Obfuscation, of course, is relevant, but obtuseness is not. Writers can strive for cleverness and overshoot it into unintelligibility.
Engaging a reader into feeling they aren’t reading also means creating mental imagery and emotional response through the use of an intimate and detailed point of view. And just the right point of view. If a scene isn’t in the correct point of view, or if point of view isn’t tightly controlled through word and detail choices, it can lead to an unsatisfying read.
What about tense? Is present useful or past better? Present may not give you the opportunity for the reader to understand all the nuances of the conflict arc. Past may prove troublesome if there is a lot of flashbacks and previous events that are necessary to understand a character’s motivations (use past and then past-perfect?) Do you know the difference and the differences in impact to be able to rewrite a scene in multiple ways to see which will work better?
Your editor should have the experience and the clarity of communication to explain how to fix these issues and how different types of revisions will impact and ultimately improve the narrative. I taught writing for years, and currently host a writers workshop nearly every week so explaining these things is second nature to me.
Why choose LZ Edits?
Improvement of your manuscript does not have to come in a developmental edit. A deep copy edit still examines consistency issues, including tone, voice, and mood, along with spelling, grammar, and punctuation. If your feedback from beta readers is that your plot is sound, a copy edit is likely all you will need.
I am a hybrid author myself, both traditionally and independently publishing. I understand an author’s inner journey, the doubt, the desire, the struggle to make ends meet and still see your dreams come true, and to finally hold that book in your hand. I would not advise editing beyond what is necessary.
I specifically support independent authors, new voices, #ownvoices by offering payment plans that make it feasible to get the best quality editing without breaking the bank.
An extensive return on investment
You may choose Kindle, or you may choose IngramSpark or D2D for distribution. Of course, your marketing budget is tight. I have completed more than 100 editing projects in just the last eighteen months, and most of them are in my clients books page with buy links (a few haven’t been published yet). I blog about the books I edit. I rate them in Goodreads. I tweet and retweet (or “toot” now on Mastodon). I am expanding my presence in Instagram, and will expand to Reddit and TikTok in the coming year.
Why do I do all this for your book? Put simply, I believe in the stories I edit. About 20 percent of them were developmental edits. A few were evaluations that showed what was working and what needed improvement and the author did the revisions themselves, coming back only for a light copy edit or proofread.
These books have won awards (a coveted Ruby from RWA as well as genre readers choice awards and finalists and winners of awards in several genre writers organizations came for several books in 2022). Authors have seen their work praised in 5-star reviews. They have written reviews, testimonials, and dedications thanking me for the help in putting their best book forward. Of course I’m going to share about them and encourage new readers to find them.
Book today
Let me help you as well. My 2023 calendar is being scheduled right now. Whether you’ll need me in one month, two months, or six months, email me. We’ll have a conversation about your work, your publishing calendar, and your editing needs.
~ Lara
LZ Edits | Editing Services 