cj Sez: When I posted on Facebook that I wasn’t having a lot of
trouble with social distancing or some quarantine requirements because (as a
writer) I’ve been practicing that for years, son replied…”Spread the word, not
the germ.” Seems like a motto to me.
///
cj Sez: I've posted about editing before, but the topic is important enough for authors getting ready to publish their masterpiece that I think it bears repeating.
Did you ever
open a book, read a few chapters and then put it down because of errata, i.e.;
those typos, misspellings, and factual errors that drive a pedantic like me crazy.
One or two will make me shake my head and pause; a lot of them will stop me in
my tracks. That story needed a professional edit, which it did not get before
publication.
Speaking from experience, self-edits and beta readers do
not, will not, and cannot catch everything that a professional copy editor
will. When I was gainfully employed, one of my report/column-writing rules was
to get as many people as possible to read the document…the more eyes on it the
better the end product. That wasn’t easy to do because I was on deadline, and
my work wasn’t on the top of someone else’s to-do list. But the effort was so
worth it.
And so it is for an author’s manuscript. I want my
manuscript to be the best I can make it. I read the document on the computer
screen, and because the text looks different when it’s printed, I print a few
pages. I’ll find missing commas, periods, or quotation marks that were missed
on numerous computer-screen read-throughs.
Sometimes, I make a copy of the printed page.
Copying changes the size of the font again, and I will (too often) find
something else to correct.
But the end-all for me is to read the pages out loud.
You’d be surprised at what you find. Not just spelling or punctuation problems,
but whole paragraphs and dialogues that absolutely need editing in order to be
coherent.
My advice: Don’t presume that because you’ve typed “The
End,” your manuscript is finished. It needs fresh eyes. Yes, it’s a personal
and financial consideration for each author, but please consider hiring a copy
editor if you can afford it.
Caveat: Expect that if your manuscript is accepted by a
publisher, their punctuation rules for how they want their publication to look
may differ from your copy editor’s input, and there could be more changes to be
made.
///
Public Service Announcements
Good news during the crisis: The Internal Revenue
Service announced that the federal income tax filing due date is automatically
extended from April 15, 2020, to July 15, 2020.
This deferment applies to all
taxpayers, including individuals, trusts and estates, corporations and other
non-corporate tax filers. However, second quarter
estimated tax payments are still due by June 15.
The Alabama Department of Revenue also
announced that the income tax filing due date is extended…Read more here: https://revenue.alabama.gov/individual-corporate/due-dates/
Not in Alabama? Check with your state’s
Department of Revenue.
Reminder: The 2020 U.S. Census is ongoing. Your anonymous, honest
response matters. The results enable communities to apply for federal funding
for health clinics, fire departments, schools, and even roads, highways, and
bridges.
The census results also
determine how many seats in Congress each state gets. In Alabama, the sluggish return threatens the loss of two Congressional seats, according to news media reports. (You can take a look at the
actions of our current elected officials and know how important that is. Took me all of ten minutes to complete mine.)
Read more here: Importance of the Data and
the Impact in Your
Community
///
There's a little Lagniappe (something extra) in your future . . .
The
authors of the upcoming release, BIENVENUE to the CHATEAU ROUGE, have
joined together to give you a little Lagniappe
(a little something extra).
This collection of
novellas and short stories gives you a sneak peek at the writers who have stories
included in the May release of BIENVENUE to the CHATEAU ROUGE --- it's available for pre-order now.
Read the teasers here
https://bit.ly/2WNYDtu
///
That’s it for this week’s post. You-all guys keep on keeping
on and I’ll try to do the same.
cj
Autographed print
copies of my novels CHOOSING CARTER and DEADLY STAR are available at The
Haunted Book Shop. Anthologies in which I have stories, including THE POSSE,
the Bienvenue Press Christmas charity series, and the Mobile Writers Guild
PIECES series are also available there.
If the book shop doesn't happen to have a copy of any book(s), by any author that you want, they’ll
place an order for you.
TO ORDER (and
support an indie bookstore) contact The Haunted Bookshop here: The Haunted Bookshop Angela Trigg, the awesome owner and an
award-winning author in her own right (writing as Angela Quarles) will be happy
to ship you the book(s) of your choice. If you’re in Mobile area, do stop in at
the book store; it’s a neat place to browse.
➜ Follow me . . .
➜ on Facebook
at: cjpetterson/author/facebook
➜ on
BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/cj-petterson
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